DearSingapore Blog Launched
December 2nd, 2007We launched DearSingapore.sg blog last Sunday, 25 November 2007, in tandem with the launch of the “Letters From Grandma and Grandpa” book.
The site showcases letters written by grandparents to their grandchildren in Singapore. Over time, we hope that the site will become a literary collection of works by seniors in Singapore.
It was one of those crazy projects with super tight timelines. We had less than a week to get it all together. We had to:
- set up web hosting
- set up DNS
- design the website
- collate and compile all the letters
- copywrite the blurbs and headlines
- install the WordPress engine
- customise the WordPress template
- install and configure add-on plugins
- upload all the web content
- audit the site to make sure it’s perfect!
Project Challenges
One real challenge was working with the multi-lingual content. The letters were in Chinese, English, Malay and Tamil! Thank goodness we have Elaine and Sam who were great with their hanyu pinyin. And Kuch, who speaks and writes in Tamil.
We also had to make sure that the design of the site was usable from a seniors perspective. We used bigger fonts and also ensured that the navigation was flat and simple. We also added the ability for users to resize the fonts easily.
The greatest challenge was the timeline. After the design was approved, we had less than 3 working days to put everything together. So you can imagine what it was like! But we pulled it off (thankfully and with a great amount of team effort).
About the Blog
The blog is inspired by “Letters From Grandma and Grandpa” a programme which motivated Singapore grandparents to pen down stories from their past, hopes for the future, love from their hearts, and values for the soul in the form of letters to their grandchildren.
This programme is a collaborative effort led by the National Library Board (NLB) and supported by the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS), the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts (MICA), and the Council for Third Age.
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