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Site map & index of businesses, articles & discussions
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How to use this website
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Comments link below.... Over 3,000 web-pages containing thousands more contacts, ideas, downloads & discussions have been planned so far, and is likely to increase. The home page will let you know how many of these have been uploaded to date. Despite being so big, we've tried to make it as simple as possible while still providing specific sections, categories and sub-categories covering as many areas of parenting as possible, yet hopefully easy to identify.
Children's Guide is more than just a list of services. It combines useful information and contact details of businesses and services where parents can get more information, with downloadable checklists and activities for kids. Parents are able to interact will all sections and categories of Children's Guide, make suggestions for topics of discussion, review many of the businesses and receive special offers and announcements via our social media pages.
Putting together the first Children’s Guide book enabled us, businesses and parents, to identify which sections and information are useful and referred to regularly and what additional information parents wanted to see.
So we listened, revised, fine-tuned and updated the design to be as user friendly as possible.
Sections of Children’s Guide
The top of every single page throughout this site contains buttons for the Home page, About, Privacy, Disclaimer, Contact and a link to the site map and index. The bottom of every page states that "Information throughout this site may not be current, and should not be use in place of professional advice" with a link to the full Disclaimer.
There are 4 main portals to access information across this site. Each of these four entry points is colour coded and accessible via a left hand column which appears on every single page on this site. When clicked the sections are expanded.
Families - This section is divided into the following sub-sections: Our community - expanded category menus, with each expanding into sub-category menus. Safe - expanded category menus, with each expanding into sub-category menus. Healthy - expanded category menus, with each expanding into sub-category menus. Nurtured - expanded category menus, with each expanding into sub-category menus. Happy - expanded category menus, with each expanding into sub-category menus. Special offers - links to social media, where registered businesses can make special offers.
Calendar - When clicked, expands the following categories: Add your event - Online form or downloadable PDF Search by local area - Daily & weekly calendars, library & holiday programs by local areas. Search by event type - Expos, festivals, fairs, fetes, Seminars, forums, theatre & lives shows. State & national dates - Annual and charity events, school & public holidays, & other dates.
News - When clicked, expands the following categories: News, updates & statistics - New info & discussions this week, archives, website & visitor statistics In the news - Media releases, media stories, archives Social media - How we use social media, rules for posting and joining in discussions.
Business - When clicked, expands the following categories: Registration buttons - Located at the top of all Business section pages. Free and paid registrations - Summary of costs and different levels of registration explained. Marketing - What we're doing to promote Children's Guide. Sections and layout - List of the business sections and samples of different registration levels. Submitting artwork - How to provide logos, graphics & PDFs if required for selected registrations.
The Children’s Guide Home page briefly explains each of these sections and when clicked, takes you to the landing pages which have additional descriptions of the categories.
All the sections, sub-sections and categories are always listed in the left-hand column. When you click on one of the section or sub-section buttons, a category menu is expanded. The section and category that you select is always highlighted in the left-hand column so that you can quickly see where you are in Children's Guide. Every page also has a heading telling you the section, category and if a community area has been selected.
When you select a category, the landing page is divided into three simple columns with clear headings - the left column will have a list of all the community areas where you can find businesses in that category, the middle column has a list of businesses that can be reviewed and discussed, and the right column has discussions that you can join in relating to that category plus any downloads and checklists. When you select a community area list or a discussion, there is always a link to take you back to the category landing page. Find out more about our social media and discussions.
Order and layout of businesses For the most part, we have tried to organise menus, lists and businesses alphabetically. Some menus we've organised in what we thought were more logical or chronological progressions. Businesses registrations are available at 4 different levels which are then listed alphabetically in their community areas first by "Flying", then by "Dancing", then by "Clapping", then "Smiling", and finally public information details of other great businesses which other parents have let us know about or that we've come across. We then invite these businesses to provide additional information for your benefit.
No traditional website advertising We also listened to parents who expressed their desire for a simple to use site, with no traditional website advertising, no animation or movement, distracting pop-ups or pop-overs, scrolling messages, pay-per-click links, or general bombardment of information distracting you from what you're trying to read. If you decide to leave the Children’s Guide website by following a link of one of the businesses, it is completely your choice.
We'd love to hear what you think and any constructive suggestions you may have. Thanks! :-)
Is this explanation of the Children's Guide website clear enough? Should we add graphics? Is Children's Guide so obvious and easy to use that this explanation is not necessary? Is there any way we can improve the way that Children's Guide is set out to make it easier to use?
Comment, like. Tweet or share this page via our blog....
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There are
a lot of businesses, services and products which address a very
large range of issues that face children, their families and
communities. We've tried to simplify the sections so that readers
don't have to look too far for what they're after and can see where
they are in the website from any page.