18 Nov Introducing the New UB Website

We’ve got a new flagship United Brethren website. The totally redesigned UB.org is now live. Check it out!

The previous site was designed in 2005, with continual tweaks and upgrades along the way. However, it was time for several significant changes:

• A whole new design.
• Adopt a Content Management System (in our case, WordPress).
• Move the site into the “cloud,” rather than host it on a computer at the national office.

So that’s what we did.

We didn’t go all-out with fancy bells and whistles. But we did want to improve the appearance and usefulness–not only for UB people, but for the thousands of other people from numerous countries who, for whatever reason, find themselves on our website.

Related Sites

We also wanted to tie together four sites:

• UB.org. Our official, flagship site.
• UBGlobal.org. Our Global Ministries site.
• UBCentral.org. Our news site.
• UBChurches.org. Our online church directory.

UBGlobal has its own distinctive look. However, the other three sites now share a common look in the heading.

That heading includes a “Related Sites” dropdown on each site’s homepage, which enables you to easily go to any of those sites.

Printing

Each page includes a “Print” feature. It puts the page in a print-friendly format without all of the graphics. You can then print the page, or export it as a PDF document. This will be especially helpful if you want to print a chapter from the Discipline or other official documents.

Use the Search Field
A search field is very prominent on the homepage of UB.org. You’ll also find the search field on every other page, in the left-hand sidebar. The search field is the fastest way to find something specific. For example, if you want information on setting the pastor’s salary, type in “pastor salary.” Keep it simple.

HOWEVER….The search function uses Google. Until Google indexes the new site and deletes the obsolete links to the previous site, you may find yourself on a “Page Not Found” page. So give it some time to catch up.

Look Around

We welcome your suggestions for improving the site. And if you find any errors–bad spellings, broken links, etc.–we want to know about it. We even provided a special form you can use to report errors.

We hope you enjoy the new site. And we always welcome your feedback and suggestions for making it better.

Below are a number of screenshots–mostly from UB.org, but a few from the other sites as well.