Our New Website: Quietly Launched, Prayerfully Designed

If you've happened upon the CBWC website in the last couple of months, you may have been pleasantly surprised. Working under the radar, Lydia Webber and a team of others have expertly revamped the look and functionality, leaving us with an excellent new resource and platform. Gratitude!!  

I asked Lydia, our webmaster who lives with her young family in Saskatchewan, a few questions – seeking to let us all in on what happened behind the scenes and also some guidance as to what is available for us now.  

HH – When did the new website officially launch? 

LW - We started the process of switching to the new website on April 14 but, as is typical, there were a few kinks to work out. I'd say we were up and running by the next day. 

HH – I'm sure the changes were in the works for a long time. Give us some insight into this timeline.  

LW - The communications team has known that the CBWC was due for a new website for a number of years and eventually I just said, "How about I build it?" I work on a freelance basis, so I devoted some of my regular CBWC hours to building the website, bit by bit. It was a slow process at first, with a lot of brainstorming and discussions back and forth. Other projects often took my time instead, and of course, the month of Christmas slows everything down! I would say the bulk of the project happened over 5 months. 

HH - Thank you! I definitely don't take it for granted that someone will step in when they see a need! What wasn't working with the old website and what are some of the main positive changes? 

LW - The old website had some confusing navigation and organization. The Search function wasn't helpful either so, generally, resources and information weren't always intuitive to find. Cailey Morgan and I spent a good amount of time (over email and Zoom) collaborating on how to organize resources in an intuitive way. Cailey also helped with updating written content while aiming to keep things concise. A few other major improvements besides the Search function and organization are the news/blog section, which contains all the stories we publish for Making Connections, and the functionality of every page on mobile devices.  

HH - What do you think folks should know in order to use the new CBWC website to its full potential? 

LW - We update the website frequently with event information, career postings, and stories from the denomination. I'd encourage people to use it for timely information! 

HH – Thank you Lydia. I know you and your team put so much time and effort into this, and we want to say thank you! Were there any particular challenges that stood out in making the changeover, and who else can we thank for any troubleshooting or brainstorming along the way?   

LW - The task of building the website didn't have many bumps for me—I enjoyed the thought process, even the days where all I did was click my mouse ten thousand times. But the day we switched to the new website was a tech-team effort between myself, my husband, Victor Ku, and Jerry Wang. It would have been painful without their help!  

HH – Well, I'm so thankful for all that you and your team did, and I truly hope everyone enjoys the new site and finds it intuitive and useful. Thanks for answering my questions!