ASSIDUOUS visitors will have noticed that we missed our usual first of the month changeover this month. Our apologies to anyone who arrived on the site in the first couple of days expecting to find a new lead interview, but the delay was to allow us to finish the initial nips and tucks on a new look for the website.

You will notice many changes to the HI-Arts family of websites, including improvements to design, navigation and functionality. I am now about to put my feet up, sip that rapidly cooling coffee, and allow our web guru, Marcus Wilson, to explain the changes:

“Firstly, the design layout of the site has been widened to allow more content to be shown on today’s higher-resolution monitors. We’ve removed the old “tabbing” layout, and combined the Journal and Guide sections of the site into a more user-friendly one-stop guide to arts and culture in the Highlands and Islands. HI-Arts Services and our new and improved Artform sections still remain as distinct areas of the site, aimed at the cultural sector.

“Alongside the design changes, there is also plenty of new functionality. For instance, on the front page of the site we now have a handy “Widget” which features all the latest updates to NORTHINGS, including Reviews and Features. This widget can easily be embedded into any website or social networking page, and we encourage you to make use of this within your own sites.

“There are now thousands of pages of content on the HI-Arts website, and we have tried to showcase some of this rich resource in the new page layouts. For instance, if you are reading a Feature on the website, you will now see any articles related to that Feature in the right hand column of the site. We hope that this will make it easier to find the content that you’re interested in.

“As for searching the site, that’s much easier now too. Instead of having multiple searches for events, venues, directory entries and features spread out across the site, all HI-Arts content is now searchable from one quick and easy integrated search tool, to be found in the graphical banner on every page of the website. Events can now be searched by name, venue, town, artform, region or calendar.

“Whilst the most obvious changes to the site have been to the design and navigation, a lot of the changes have been “under the bonnet”. Much of the coding for the website has been totally re-written to reflect latest best practices – making the site more accessible to all users and more compatible across the widest range of modern Internet browsers.”

In addition to these changes, we are also taking the opportunity to use the familiar banner at the head of the page as an outlet for artwork. We plan to commission artists based in the Highlands & Islands to produce a suitable piece of work for the space, and hope to rotate them every few months. If you have any suggestions for artists whose work might fit (literally as well as figuratively), then e-mail us at audiences@hi-arts.co.uk  

We have been looking forward for some time to these changes, and are confident that they will provide a more stylish and user-friendly access to the rapidly expanding amount of material held not only on NORTHINGS, but across the increasingly interlinked HI-Arts sites.

We hope you will explore and get to know the new features. Doubtless we will be making additional tweaks and improvements in the coming months.

Lest we forget the content in all this focus on the look, our lead interview this month is with Laurie Piper, the Marketing Manager at Eden Court Theatre in Inverness. We live in a world in which many regard marketing as king, and Laurie has some interesting things to say about the importance of his department in the development and running of the Highland’s flagship theatre.

Once the new look and functionality has settled down, we will be introducing some new features in NORTHINGS over the coming months. Meanwhile, we will continue to bring you our customary round of regularly updated news, reviews and features.

Enjoy the new site.

Kenny Mathieson
Commissioning Editor, Northings

Kenny Mathieson lives and works in Boat of Garten, Strathspey. He studied American and English Literature at the University of East Anglia, graduating with a BA (First Class) in 1978, and a PhD in 1983. He has been a freelance writer on various arts-related subjects since 1982, and contributes to the Inverness Courier, The Scotsman, The Herald, The List, and other publications. He has contributed to numerous reference books, and has written books on jazz and Celtic music.