When we started this project we wanted to survey four graveyards in West Waterford. Eight years later, in cooperation with hundreds of rural communities we have surveyed over 500 graveyards and have published epitaphs listing almost 200,000 people.
I drew the design for the website on a number of index cards and Maurizio built the website in Drupal 6 (a digital content management system). That original website has served us all well but in recent years we have been aware of performance issues and digital legacy issues (in particular mobile optimisation) which we would soon have to address.
This year, thanks to the 2018 Heritage Council Grant system we will have the opportunity to upgrade the website.
And we need your help.
The priority for the project is to upgrade from Drupal 6 to Drupal 7 but besides that we would like to ask for help in working out other elements we can add to the Web platform either during this upgrade or in the future.
We have identified stories, communities, GIS, care and conservation, and fundraising as themes to follow as we plan the rebuild.
We ask that people answer a number of questions at this online form.
https://goo.gl/forms/OIGWINRy4gekY5lu1
The form establishes in what manner you may have worked with us, or used the website, but it does not require you to identify yourself so feel free to be candid in your response.
We will also take to a number of our users throughout the Summer and seek their input into design questions.
Feel free to email me john(at)historigraves.com if interested in participating in the redesign.
This project is kindly supported by the Heritage Council and this year all of our field surveys are part of European Year of Cultural Heritage #makeaconnection #EuropeforCulture
