We are thrilled to introduce you to one of our West 104th St. block residents: Noreen Whysel. Noreen and a team of fellow students at Pratt Institute’s School of Library and Information Science have graciously agreed to revise our website to make it more user-friendly and suited to your needs.
Noreen has been a resident of 895 West End Ave since 2006 along with her husband Brett and their two girls. Noreen and her family have lived in many areas of the city prior to moving to our west side community and comparatively she rates our neighborhood as the best she has lived in so far and particularly appreciates our focus on the residents and community interests.
Noreen graduated in 1990 from Columbia University with a degree in Psychology. As an employee of Price Waterhouse in the early 1990s, she developed and maintained many websites and has worked as a consultant for Information Architecture Institute and other website development and technology management projects.
Noreen obtained her Master of Science in Library Information Science in February of this year. As we know, the libraries are moving towards technology as their means of operation – no more Dewey Decimal System! As a result, her advanced degree included study on website development and maintenance using the most advanced technological means available today. She worked on a number of local history and cultural heritage projects, including a timeline visualization of Gil Tauber’s architectural history, which will be featured on the new site. Currently, our website is hopelessly outdated and perhaps the reason why many of you rated the website low on our recent survey. Noreen and her team have agreed to update our website so that it will be easier to navigate, find information, and include electronic payment of your dues through PayPal. In order to ensure your needs are met, Noreen’s team conducted an informal survey on what elements people would like to see on a block association website. You may have met some of them at the Block Party in September. They interviewed all types of people which included seniors, young singles, and couples with children. They compiled the results which Noreen presented to the Board on January 14, 2014.
The respondents to the survey requested that the website be reorganized to find information more easily with an emphasis on portraying a “neighborhood feel”. They would like a legible font and quick searches. Our seniors would like to have clear, legible information on services available to them in our neighborhood and our families requested a School Page on which school alerts could be posted and also perhaps an on-line forum. All respondents requested more information on community activity and building safety.
Noreen targets June 2014 as our “go-live” date for our new website and will include the many features you have requested plus:
- Access to the website via devices such as iPads and mobile phones
- School Page
- Community Interest Page
- PayPal for dues payment
- Quick searches – easy navigation
- Legible font
- The ability to send newsletters electronically
These features are just a few of the enhancements to our website. Most importantly, all Board members will have the ability to change, add, or delete sections of the website so it will always be current and informative.
We are very lucky to have an information architect on our block to develop our “new and improved” website that will be informative for all our residents. On behalf of you, our block residents, I thank Noreen and her fellow classmates for their efforts in creating the new website.
Mary Koval