July Site Update
It's been a good start to the summer with a lot of progress on the site. I've made a number of technical improvements as well as added new features and new content. I also managed to do quite a few trips to new lakes. I've added hundreds of photos, lots of new lake attractions, and tons of new content to the site.
I'll be continuing to add new features throughout the summer and hopefully be adding a lot of new content as well. If you have a lake that you think I should be checking out or any content that would be useful on the site please let me know!
Site updates
Lake pages
The lake pages have been improved, and interactive maps and additional content has been added. Lots more work needs to be done on these pages but they are starting to come together.
Quick search
I've also added a new quick search to the home page and the navigation bar. This should make it really quick to get to a specific lake page from anywhere on the site.
Lake of the day
I've launched a new feature called lake of the day which I'm using to highlight different lakes around the province. The goal is to post one every day but we'll see how that goes. I'm planing to have a short write up about the lake, as well as photos, and details that I'll post to the SaskLakes.ca social media accounts and on the Lake of the Day page.
Technical improvements
These aren't as noticable but I've been making some significant changes to the site to improve my ability to update/add new attractions as well as to improve performance and consistency on the site. This has slowed down my ability to add new content, but should be worth it in the long run.
Research trips
I've been able to visit quite a few different lakes this summer. At last count it was almost 60 lakes I haven't been to before. Some of my favourites so far have been:
But there have been so many great lakes, it's hard to pick favourites. Here are a few of my favourite photos from the summer so far:
Upcoming features
There are a million things I want to work on for the site but summer is also the perfect time for visiting as many lakes as I can. I'll continue to push out as many improvements as I can while still getting out to see new lakes.
Here are a few things I'm working on:
Search improvements`
I'm working on a complete rewrite of the explorer search tool which should be out in the next few weeks which will improve the search experience even more. Initially it will have an improved interactive map and filtering tools, and in a future update I'm hoping to add searching by campgrounds, boat launches, etc.
Contest/User generated content
There are just way to many lakes for me to be familiar with all of them. I want to work harder at getting more user generated content onto the site; comments, user uploaded photos, attractions, etc. I'm hoping to launch a contest in the next few weeks to encourage people to submit content to the site.