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yfch.org: how we built it, mistakes includedyfch.org: kako smo je napravili, s greškama

26 September 202626. septembar 2026.

Youth for Change is a youth organisation in Bitola. Since 2022 they have been sending young people from North Macedonia on Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps exchanges, fourteen projects in four countries by their own count. In August their old website listed two of them. Their Linktree listed twelve. The rest you had to find on Instagram. Now there is yfch.org.Youth for Change je omladinska organizacija iz Bitole. Od 2022. šalju mlade iz Sjeverne Makedonije na Erasmus+ i European Solidarity Corps razmjene, kako oni broje, četrnaest projekata u četiri zemlje. U augustu je njihova stara stranica navodila dva. Linktree ih je navodio dvanaest. Ostalo ste morali tražiti po Instagramu. Sad postoji yfch.org.

What they asked forŠta su tražili

Their coordinator did not want a brochure. He wanted a page where a young person, or a parent, can check two things without writing to anyone: what the organisation does and where it has actually been. And then the one thing parents ask: how a call works when one opens. He also did not want his phone number on the site. The first draft had it. It came off the same day.Njihov koordinator nije htio brošuru. Htio je stranicu na kojoj mladi, ili roditelj, mogu provjeriti dvije stvari a da nikome ne pišu: čime se organizacija bavi i gdje je stvarno bila. I onda ono što roditelji pitaju: kako izgleda poziv kad se otvori. Nije htio ni svoj broj telefona na stranici, a prva verzija ga je imala, pa smo ga skinuli isti dan.

Six homepages on one pageŠest naslovnica na jednoj stranici

We do not send a client one design and ask whether they like it. On 25 August we put six homepage directions on a single page, each filled with their real text and photos, and asked them to pick. They picked the second one, a light page with big type and their own pictures. Four pages came out of that the same day: home, projects, about, contact.Dvadeset petog augusta poslali smo im šest smjerova naslovnice na jednoj stranici, svaki s njihovim pravim tekstom i fotografijama, i pitali koju hoće. Jedan dizajn pa "sviđa li vam se" ne radimo, jer se iz jednog ne vidi šta ne valja. Izabrali su drugu, svijetlu, s krupnim slovima i njihovim slikama, i iz nje su isti dan izašle četiri stranice: naslovna, projekti, o nama i kontakt.

What is on the site nowŠta je sad na stranici

When they announced it, the four pages had grown to seven, plus a blog.Kad su je oni objavili, od četiri stranice bilo je već sedam, plus blog.

• A project list with a map of where they have been. Every project has its dates and the town it was held in.Popis projekata s kartom gdje su sve bili. Svaki projekat ima datum i grad u kojem je održan.
• A documents page. They decided to publish their financial reports for 2022 to 2025 and their Partner Identification Form. Their reason, in their words: "If we ask young people, parents and partners to trust us, they should be able to see how we work."Stranica s dokumentima. Odlučili su objaviti finansijske izvještaje za 2022. do 2025. i svoj Partner Identification Form. Razlog, njihovim riječima: "If we ask young people, parents and partners to trust us, they should be able to see how we work."
• A partners page for organisations abroad that need a Macedonian partner, written from that same form, so the numbers on the page are the numbers on the document.Stranica za partnere, za organizacije vani kojima treba partner iz Makedonije, napisana iz tog istog obrasca, pa su brojke na stranici iste kao brojke u dokumentu.
• A page that explains how to join an Erasmus+ project: what a youth exchange is, what a training course is, who can apply.Stranica koja objašnjava kako se uključiti u Erasmus+ projekat: šta je omladinska razmjena, šta je trening, ko se može prijaviti.
• Open calls that come from the system they use to run applications. When nothing is open, the page says so, instead of showing last spring's call. When a call opens there, it is on the site.Otvoreni pozivi koji dolaze iz sistema u kojem vode prijave. Kad nema ničeg otvorenog, stranica to i kaže umjesto da pokazuje prošlogodišnji poziv, a kad se poziv otvori tamo, odmah je i na stranici.
• A blog. It already has thirteen posts, most of them one per project they have been on.Blog. Već ima trinaest objava, većinom jedna po projektu na kojem su bili.

What we got wrongŠta smo pogriješili

The map had Sofia on it. Nobody from Youth for Change has been to Sofia on a project. It came from a list we had not checked line by line. When we went through every project against their own form, Sofia came off. It had been live for about forty minutes.Na karti je bila Sofija. Niko iz Youth for Change nije bio u Sofiji ni na jednom projektu. Došla je s liste koju nismo provjerili red po red. Kad smo prošli svaki projekat kroz njihov obrazac, Sofija je otišla, poslije nekih četrdeset minuta online.

The site went live on 9 September with a grey box where the homepage photo should be, marked "photo coming". The photo came the next day. We could have waited that one day and gone live with it.Stranica je otišla online 9. septembra sa sivim kvadratom tamo gdje treba biti fotografija na naslovnoj, s natpisom "photo coming". Fotografija je stigla sutradan. Mogli smo sačekati taj jedan dan i pustiti stranicu s njom.

The map scrolled sideways on a phone for seventeen days after launch. The page did not, but the map inside it was wider than the screen, so you dragged it left and right to reach the east. Fixed on 26 September: on a phone the map now fits the width and the place names sit under it as buttons.Karta se na telefonu sedamnaest dana poslije objave pomicala lijevo-desno. Stranica ne, ali karta u njoj je bila šira od ekrana, pa ste je vukli da dođete do istoka. Popravljeno 26. septembra: na telefonu karta sad stane u širinu, a imena mjesta stoje ispod nje kao dugmad.

How long it tookKoliko je trajalo

First drafts on 25 August. Live on 9 September, fifteen days later, but hidden from Google until their coordinator had read every page. He did, and the site went into Google the same day. They announced it themselves on 24 September, a couple of weeks before the organisation turns four.Prve verzije 25. augusta. Online 9. septembra, petnaest dana kasnije, s tim da je nismo pustili u Google dok koordinator nije pročitao svaku stranicu. Pročitao je, i stranica je isti dan puštena u pretragu. Sami su je objavili 24. septembra, par sedmica prije nego što će proslaviti četiri godine rada.

Their wordsNjihove riječi

From their own post about the launch: "Thank you also to pelmo.digital for designing and building the new yfch.org, and for turning a lot of scattered information into something simple to use."Iz njihove objave o novoj stranici: "Thank you also to pelmo.digital for designing and building the new yfch.org, and for turning a lot of scattered information into something simple to use."

yfch.org/blog/our-new-website-is-live-and-we-turn-four-in-october