Get Involved

Takeover Day

Friday 7th November 2008 was "11 Million Takeover Day" - a national event where young people had the opportunity to take over services or make a positive contribution to services normally just run by adults.

The Information Team (part of Children & Young People's Services, at Suffolk County Council) held an event for the whole day, where young people were invited to tell the team exactly what makes a good website, test different ideas out, and give the team a clear idea about how the current website, www.thesource.me.uk, could be improved in future!

What makes a good website?

In the morning, the first discussion was all about what makes a good website. The young people involved showed the team the websites they liked, and explained why.

These were sites such as:

  • www.mininova.org
  • www.facebook.com
  • www.ultimate-guitar.com
  • www.bbc.co.uk/news
  • www.wikipedia.org
  • www.msn.com

And in general anything about current affairs, free stuff, music, videos, and browsing for random or bizarre things!!

The team then showed the young people what they thought were good sites, and then everyone make their comments - saying if they agreed or not.

These were sites such as:

  • www.bbc.co.uk
  • www.plus.net
  • www.natwest.com

So... based on what we found out, what makes a good website?

  • Function – it can do what you want
  • Appearance – it looks good
  • Interaction – it allows you to take part

In more detail, a good website was thought to be:

  • Basic/simple, and well organised (like Google and ITunes)
  • Accessible to most people (not blocked too much, by schools etc)
  • Easy to navigate and get around
  • Able to be changed - options for customising appearance, like with themes and avatars
  • Controllable - like with I-Google and Bebo
  • Set to give you the ability to upload moderated content
  • Easy to navigate - the content becomes the navigation to a certain extent (Natwest-style), but don’t change it too often otherwise it might be confusing

Also mentioned was that:

  • E-safety should be featured on all relevant pages
  • Don’t divide the audience of the website by age

What goes where?

A2-size boards were used, with a printed background of a blank webpage, and cards which showed all the different elements on a webpage (like news, events, videos, navigation) were placed on the board by the young people in good positions, and then we all talked about the content on each page and why each element was placed where it was.

What we learned from this exercise was that our website should feature:

  • I Google-style customisation
  • Video, audio and pod cast information
  • Newsletter opt-in
  • Localised content based on logging in
  • RSS

It should also have sections on:

  • Useful web links
  • Advice
  • Safety including internet safety
  • Community
  • Have your say
  • Recent events
  • Education options and careers
  • News
  • Health
  • Citizenship
  • Finances / budgeting
  • Sexual health
  • Independence/how to stand up for yourself

Having a look around!

At lunchtime, the young people were given a quick tour of Suffolk County Council's building, Endeavour House, which included the top floor (observation area), part of the third floor (where the Information Team is based!), the Council Chamber (second floor) and the Atrium (where events normally take place and where the library has a branch too!).

What interests you?

In the afternoon, we looked at what topics were of personal interest to the young people - what exactly they would like to see on a website if it was made just for them and no-one else. This was interesting because it gave the team an idea of the profile of a typical young person.

This is what was mentioned:

  • Music / Show of hands (folk music) / UltimateGuitar.com / SGR / YouTube / jazz music / rock
  • Links to (or feeds from) BBC News / ITV News, MSN, Facebook, Mininova.org, Absoluteradio.co.uk, EBay, Amazon and Wikipedia
  • Free stuff (to download or attend)
  • Technology / podcasts
  • Easy to use/ simple / accessible / bypasses filters
  • Sports / results / where to play / Leeds United!
  • Local content / local events accessible via map?
  • Information
  • Funny and bizarre videos
  • Colourful

In conclusion!

Finally, we looked back over the whole day and summarised everything, and the young people gave us great ideas for how to have more discussions in future. The main thing that was thought to be useful was face to face meetings, in schools or youth clubs.

So, what did we all learn from the day?

The young people learned more about thesource website, how Connexions works and who with, and it was also good to see the Council building, and they want to be more involved in the future.

The Information team learned a lot too - like getting a lot of useful feedback and ideas about how to make the website www.thesource.me.uk much better.

A very big THANK YOU to everyone who took part in the day, and we look forward to working with you again in future!

Got a question?

Want to get in touch, to ask a question about the day, ask what's coming next, or simply make a comment?

Email youthandconnexions@suffolk.gov.uk

You can also telephone Lewis Jones on 01473 260180

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