Webupon

It’s nice to relax and unwind and what better way than a day out in Britain’s glorious countryside.  Trouble is, there’s so much countryside out there – how do you decide where to go?

An obvious call is Countryside Access which, you hope, will tell you where you can go in England and what you can do when you get there.  (Note that Wales and Scotland have their own sites at CCW Gov and SNH

This site, run by the British government, presents as a pleasant and inviting website in a mixture of pastel shades with small white text which I found hard to read without highlighting with the mouse.  The images, however, are excellent. 

The content, too, looks promising with sections on where to go, what to do when you get there and where to walk freely without having to stick to established paths, along with the promise of photographs of the countryside and a countryside directory.

Away from the pleasant and relaxing front page, I headed through the ‘Things to Do’ page and then through the ‘Open Access’ section looking for the maps of areas that I could use to choose a weekend walk.  After a long trek through various pages and a lot of form filling, I found the maps but was disappointed to see that they were old-fashioned, hard to see and harder to navigate.  The problem is that they are not ‘mouse-draggable’  and ‘zoomable’ in the way of the latest Yahoo, Google and Microsoft maps and there was no Satellite overlay which is a shame for it made finding a walk something of a struggle.

Changing tack, I selected ‘Walks in Your Region’ from the ‘Things to Do’ page but was disappointed again since, for my region, few walks had been gathered.  Thinking that this might simply be that my region was not popular I looked further afield and, to be fair, some regions faired better than others but in reality few walks were on offer.

Feeling a little frustrated, I tried ‘Countryside Code’ from the first page and found that this contains a lot of educational resources, some of which seemed very useful.

Back to the front page again and a trip to ‘The Countryside Directory’ revealed a well constructed series of links to other sites dealing with just about every aspect of the countryside.  This was an area of the site that both looked good and contained some worthwhile information and which seemed to fulfil the promise of the website.

Heartened somewhat, I made the mistake of choosing the ‘Outdoor Gallery’ link from the front page to find that it contained but a few pleasant, though not outstanding, pictures along with a request for photographic contributions from the public. 

Moving on, the ‘Things To Do’ section revealed some useful links but I could not help feeling that there must be more to countryside life that was presented here.

The best link on the front page, ‘Nature’s Calendar’ reveals, after much clicking and downloading, a delightful factfile for the various seasons which was informative and well done, although obviously designed for school use

The ‘Fun Zone’ is worth a visit, if only for the ‘Ardman type’ wallpapers from the countryside television adverts and the well produced ‘Fun Sheets’ which are ideal for children to take into the countryside with them.

Overall, this is a pleasant and skilfully produced site that just lacks content.  Had I designed it, I would have been more than pleased with the way my design works but a little saddened by the lack of useable material.

The ‘Outdoor Gallery’ would benefit greatly from some more photos and if you visit this site and are from the UK then it would seem beneficial to round up some photos and submit them.

Aside from this, I was left with the impression that I was not sure if this was a website for schools or for the general public.  However, as a directory it works well, but as a provider of ideas for a looming warm Spring weekend it provided me with little and I had to look elsewhere.