Indigenous Watchdog has gone through a transformation in how it organizes and presents its content. The over-all design and structure remains the same. However, how you access and navigate the content is dramatically easier, faster and more efficient.
What’s different? See specific examples after the following table:
| Category | New Feature | Benefit |
|---|---|---|
| 30 Theme Landing Pages i.e. Child Welfare | Current Problems section now only shows “Explore by Themes” | “Explore by Stakeholders” can now be accessed by clicking on any one of the “Explore by Themes”. Streamlines content into a more logical format. |
| 94 Call to Action (C2A) Landing Pages | Actions and Commitments now only shows “Explore by Stakeholder” | “Explore by Theme” can now be accessed by clicking on any one of the “Explore by Stakeholder”. Streamlines content into a more logical format. |
| Individual post page | Now has a dedicated page for each post | Eliminates all those long web pages that aggregated content from multiple posts |
| Individual post pages | Now has multiple filters for each post | Quickly navigate through related content. Explore each post by Theme, Stakeholder or Indigenous Group |
| Truncated posts | Now each post has a linked headline and truncated content | Allows quick scan of relevant posts related to a specific theme to access the full content of the individual post |
| # of posts | # count of posts for each Theme, Group, Stakeholder | Quickly Identify which themes and stakeholders are generating the most content |
| Government Commitments to Truth & Reconciliation | Moved to Navigation Bar at top of Home Page | Gives this section a more prominent, visible access to political macro-level commitments vs the “reality” evidenced by the C2As and “Current Problem” sections |
| Government Commitments to Truth & Reconciliation | Added “Government Commitments” section | Allows quicker access to positive macro-level commitments by each level of of government (federal, provincial, territory) to each Indigenous group: First Nations, Métis, Inuit |
| Government Commitments to Truth & Reconciliation | Added “Themes” to “Current Problems” section | Sorts the previous long web pages into themes that make the content more quickly accessible, searchable and relevant |
| Other Issues | Added Government Commitment section | Identifies specific positive actions and/or commitments that each government has made to each of the “Other Issues” themes |
The two biggest changes have to do with how you “Explore by Stakeholder” and “Explore by Theme” on each of the landing pages throughout Indigenous Watchdog. The following screen shots from “Child Welfare” demonstrate how the content has been re-structured.
On the Theme landing page the “Current Problems” section has been simplified and condensed:
Screen Shot # 1
Notice the “Explore by Stakeholders” that previously preceded “Explore by Theme” is no longer visible. Now, you immediately see exactly “what” the problems are! Click on any one of the Themes, in this case Jordan’s Principle, and the subsequent web page lists all the content for that theme with multiple ways of viewing the content.
First, the heading tells you which theme – “Jordan’s Principle” – and which section – “Child Welfare (1-5)” – you are currently viewing:
Screen Shot # 2
What’s on the page:
- Date of ALL posts sorted by most recent
- Headline of each post followed by truncated content. Click on the link to view the complete post.
- “Filter This “Page”: has multiple filters to view the content
- By Indigenous Group: First Nations, Métis, Inuit
- By Stakeholder: post sorted by relevant jurisdiction and/or stakeholder
- By “Other Themes”: explore any one of the other Child Welfare Current Problem themes
- Each category has a count of the total number of posts
The dedicated post page is now focused exclusively on that particular post
When you click on a post: i.e “Backlog at federal Indigenous children’s program…” the following web page delivers the full post:
Screen Shot # 3
What do you see:
- Each post is now on its own dedicated page and not embedded within a long web page of all the aggregated posts
- Link to return to the previous page
- “Continue Reading”: links to other relevant Child Welfare posts
These changes apply to each of the other 29 Themes that Indigenous Watchdog tracks and reports on.
Each of the “Actions and Commitments” sections on the Call to Action pages have been simplified and condensed by focusing attention on “Explore by Stakeholder” as follows:
Screen Shot # 4
Notice that the “Explore by Theme” that previously followed “Explore by Stakeholder” is no longer visible. Now, you see immediately all the stakeholders and/or jurisdictions who are accountable for this specific Call to Action. Click on any one of the stakeholders (i.e Canada) and the subsequent web page will list all the content for that theme with multiple ways of viewing the content.
Screen Shot # 5
First, the heading tells you which stakeholder – Government of Canada – and which Call to Action – Call to Action # 1 – you are currently viewing.
What’s on the page?
- Date of ALL posts sorted by most recent
- Headline of each post followed by truncated content. Click on the link to view the complete post.
- “Filter This “Page”: has multiple filters to view the content
- By “Indigenous Group” sorted by Indigenous group: First Nations, Métis, Inuit
- By “Themes”: explore any one of the other themes for this specific Call to Action
- By Stakeholder: post sorted by relevant jurisdiction and/or stakeholder
- Each post category has a count of the total number of posts
The dedicated post page is now focused exclusively on that particular post
When you click on a specific post to read (i.e Revised settlement agreement of $23B reached…” the subsequent web page will deliver the full post:
- Each post is now on its own dedicated page and not embedded within a long web page of all the aggregated posts
- Link to return to the previous page
- “Continue Reading”: links to other posts relevant to that Call to Action
The Government Commitment section has now been moved to the top navigation bar on the Home Page:
Screen Shot # 6
The Government Commitments landing page is focused on macro-level commitments to Truth and Reconciliation made by federal, provincial and territory governments to each Indigenous group: First Nations, Métis and Inuit. These are the positive steps that each level of government has committed to over time.
Screen Shot # 7
On the same landing page is the “Current Problems” section that identifies specific actions taken by various government stakeholders that have a negative impact on reconciliation. All actions have been sorted into easily identifiable sub-themes to deliver quicker access to relevant content.
Screen Shot # 8
Clicking on any theme will deliver the same web page structure identified above:
- Date of ALL posts sorted by most recent
- Headline of each post followed by truncated content. Click on the link to view the complete post.
- “Filter This Page”: has multiple filters to view the content
- By “Indigenous Group” sorted by Indigenous group: First Nations, Métis, Inuit
- By “Themes”: explore any one of the other themes for this specific Call to Action
- By Stakeholder: post sorted by relevant jurisdiction and/or stakeholder
- Each post category has a count of the total number of posts
- Each dedicated post page is now focused exclusively on that particular post
Added “Government Commitments” to “Other Issues” landing page
Highlights positive actions and commitments that federal, provincial and territory governments are making to advance reconciliation for each of the “Other Issues”:
- Food Insecurity
- Drinking Water Advisories
- Suicide Prevention
- Housing
- Urban Commitments to Reconciliation
- Environment
- Treaties and Land Claims
The actions are sorted into relevant “sub-themes” to allow quicker access to relevant content. The following example is from the “Environment” section under “Other Issues”.
Screen Shot # 9
Clicking on either “Explore by Theme” under Government Commitments (positive actions) or “Explore by Theme” under Current Problems (negative actions) will take you to a landing page that delivers the following content (taken from Current Problems: Climate Change)
Screen Shot # 10
- Date of ALL posts sorted by most recent
- Headline of each post followed by truncated content. Click on the link to view the complete post.
- “Filter This “Page”: has multiple filters to view the content
- By “Indigenous Group” sorted by Indigenous group: First Nations, Métis, Inuit
- By “Themes”: explore any one of the other themes for this specific Call to Action
- By Stakeholder: post sorted by relevant jurisdiction and/or stakeholder
- Each post category has a count of the total number of posts
- Each dedicated post page is now focused exclusively on that particular post
Link text is expanded and alphabetically sorted for easier visual locating
Screen Shot # 11
There are other cosmetic changes to the site as well.
FEEDBACK
Your feedback is always appreciated. Please let me know what you think about the revisions to the Indigenous Watching site and the impact – if any – on your user experience.
Thank-you for your continued support of Indigenous Watchdog.
Douglas Sinclair, Publisher