Week notes #3
[These weeknotes started in late 2021 in the lead up to the release of WikiHouse Skylark, as a weekly update for our WikiHouse Slack community. Follow the link to find out more about the community and how to join.]
Hello all - here are some things we have been working on this week…
Forms! People contact us from all over the world every day with different requests. We want to make it really easy for anyone to give us feedback, suggest improvements and get in touch, so we have been working on designing easy to use contact forms for the new website. We are using Typeform and so far it has been a joy to build with, of course we will need to test them in real life before launch! It may sound like a minor thing, but we are a very small team and want to be able to respond to people quickly.
The new website! I will write more in the next few weeks (with screenshots to show you) but for now: our current website is old and not very intuitive; users tell us often that it is hard to navigate. We have been busy completely redesigning a new site in Webflow. One of the reasons we chose Webflow as a platform is because of its strong accessibility credentials, including built-in auditing tools and clean, semantic code.
Our new website will be easier to use, with Skylark files that are straightforward to download and share, and with pages dedicated to individual Skylark building blocks. This means that for example, a wall block page will contain an illustration of that particular block, a list of all the parts that comprise the block, materials and details (including typical cost/weight/carbon) and an easy way to download cutting files, assembly guide, simple/detailed 3D model. Each page will also allow users to report any issues or suggest improvements.
Each block’s files will also have their own GitHub repo but for ease of access website visitors will not have to leave the site in order to download them (as is currently the case).We are building these block pages (and more) at the moment and will show you some of these elements later this month. Hopefully this gives you an idea of the amount of work going on behind the scenes. We want the website to be easy to navigate for users, with clear information and easily downloadable files. We are also writing a new FAQ section, contact pages, gallery of projects and more.
On testing news…
As I mentioned las week we're collaborating with the University of Edinburgh as part of an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council project to develop further small tests on Skylark blocks over the next two months. The first tests will a bending test on a new 5.4m internal span beam, and vertical load tests on 1.2m and 2.4m wide openings in walls. This will give structural engineers a much better picture of the behaviour of these elements and more design flexibility for architects and self-builders.
Have a good weekend!