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17th November

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I've been spending a lot of time recently on the direction and design for next year's website.

A number of factors have become clear over the last 2 years:

A substantial database of Donegal's diverse (and under-recorded) wildlife has been amassed.

This database needs to be made more accessible. Currently, images can only be accessed chronologically, on a daily basis. (There is a search facility, but that is not quite accurate enough for specific species to be referenced). It is clear that records also need to be accessed from a species list.

I have a wide range of site visitors from casual wildlife observers through to experts.

I need to be able to satisfy the requirements of all current site users, so a single species list will not do. Some people will prefer 'English or Common names', and others will require formal taxonomic names.

(In any case, many species do not have common names, so that alone would not do.)

I've decided to provide (at least):

Taxonomic lists to all identified species, with a species per page showing all available images for that species from the database.

Common name lists for a relevant subset of those species, most notably flowering plants, trees, birds, butterflies, moths and animals.

 

A page showing the latest images. This will provide continuity with the current site. New images will be added to the relevant part of the database.

The Calendar Facility will no longer be as relevant, and will be discontinued.

Since I now need to start serious design work for next year's site, I would welcome feedback on my intentions as set out above. I will be uploading sample taxonomic lists, common name lists and species pages in the near future for illustration.

Let me know what you think via the feedback facility:  Feedback

Continuous heavy rain, so I wrote this section instead of taking pictures.