Our first draft of 'the Google' map is live

We have a draft of the 2006 cleanup map. We're still addressing the issues noted earlier, but at least this gives us a great visual of previous cleanup efforts. Very cool.

Our primary audience is indeed the organizers, but we also want to attract prospective volunteers by having them search a cleanup in their state. This will be a second map and will allow prospective volunteers to find a cleanup going on near them as well as who to contact.

We just had a larger team meeting with fresh eyes and the feedback was great. The whole website redesign process is like peeling back an onion, corny but true. Basically, we're trying to peel back each layer, one at a time, careful to not jump ahead of ourselves.

I'm finding the trick is staying true to your layer, for example, addressing text while we're finalizing navigation is less than idea, but sometimes inevitable too. And, like many people, I find it hard to focus on one aspect when reviewing a new site, but this is important. I'm thinking I need to enter these conversations with more specific outcomes desired.

This means setting boundaries early on in regards to what we want to accomplish. Just an fyi to myself (can you do that?), but I've always found it hard to determine the best time during a redesign to solicit feedback. And I guess, as this blog hopefully attests to, earlier is probably better than later.