www.claregalway.info

I began the www.claregalway.info project with the intention to engage new residents of Claregalway (my home town in Galway) with the community and history surrounding them. It came about following a series of conversations with locals of various ages and residencies, each of whom expressed concern that there was no cohesive, easily accessible method of finding out about matters of local interest. This was quite a problem for the growing village.

My solution was to build a website which provides an engaging, community-curated platform for locals to share news and events happening in the area, as well as providing a captivating local history section. All of the content in this history section was sourced from local, rare publications and edited by myself. All photos (excluding historical scans) are also primary. Both the history and news sections are very comprehensive, and document happenings in the village from the past 800 years.

A colourful, optimistic identity was developed for the website, using visual cues from the local vernacular—stone walls and vibrant signage from the village core were combined to make a logo and accompanying custom font. The project has been very well received locally.

The logomark for the website is based on stone walls—a common feature of the local landscape. The colour palette is derived from signage in the village core.

I drew up a local townlands map, which features all of the townlands in Claregalway parish. Online, the map is interactive and displays historical information about each townland.

I designed a custom font—Cló Chláir—based on stone walls and vibrant colours, with the intention that it be used sparingly within environmental graphics.

Though the site is rich in textual content, the navigation is uncluttered and simple to follow.

The homepage engages users with a simple tag cloud which can be added to by any user, whether they are members or not. Inputs are monitored and need to be approved by an administrator before appearing in the cloud.

Large background images accompany historical features, all of which were snapped by yours truly. Sidenotes also appear to explain colloquial or local terms.

Imagery in the history section provides an alternative reading experience, as users can skim through images and their captions, or reference the images in relation to the main text.

Another key feature of the enhanced reading experience on site is a sticky table of contents which can be used to navigate through text-heavy articles.

An interactive map provides historical and social information on the various townlands of Claregalway, as well as documenting popular local walking routes and local businesses.

A local photo gallery collates images from local groups on facebook, which users can add to by uploading their own and tagging Nuacht Chláir on facebook.

Check out the website at www.claregalway.info.