Resident Surfers Help To Improve Housing Association Web Site

5 June 2008

Surfing got a whole lot easier when a local housing association called on its tenants to help redesign its web site. The Bournville Village Trust web site is now much more user friendly.

The entry page was particularly influenced by residents. There are now three prominent graphical links which say ‘I’m a Resident’, ‘I need a Home’ and ‘Tell me More’.

Enter the tenant section and acess over thirty pages of easy to read information.

There is a new ‘Calendar of Events’ section which gives a guide to everything that is going on in Bournville, repairs are easily reported in a new section and there are even facilities to pay rent online.

Whether the query is about planned maintenance, rent arrears or housing benefit, with tenant’s suggestions, each subject is much easier to find. More unusually, because parts of Bournville are in a conservation area, there is a section on the rules and regulations for the location of satellite dishes.

There is a range of application forms to download and print and a list of current job vacancies at the Trust. New links have been formed with BVT’s services in Shropshire, the Timebank community initiative and the pilot Eco home which even includes a video of the environmentally friendly project in Selly Oak Road.

Alastair Flint, Director of Corporate Services at Bournville Village Trust said: "We held several meetings with residents to discuss the web site and their input has been extremely useful. The site now has a fresh look, is much easier to negotiate and residents can quickly find the sections that they use the most."