About this concept
An unsolicited concept by JnP Studio. What was found on the live site, what this build does about it, and everything it refused to invent.
What this is, and what it is not
This is a design concept for the Village of Daajing Giids, an incorporated municipality in the North Coast Regional District, British Columbia, formerly the Village of Queen Charlotte. It is not affiliated with, commissioned by, or endorsed by the Village, and nothing on it is an official notice.
The Village is a municipal government. It is not the Skidegate Band Council and not the Council of the Haida Nation. Those are Haida Nation governments; they are not represented here, and nothing in this concept speaks for them. The Village's own site records that it sits on the unceded territory of the Haida Nation — that is a land acknowledgement made by the Village, and its wording belongs to the Village and the Haida Nation. This concept reserves a space for it and writes none of it.
Every fact used in this build comes from material the Village publishes itself. Where the Village has not published something, the page shows a dashed, labelled empty slot naming what belongs there and who has to supply it. There are no invented bylaws, fees, meeting dates, tax rates, population figures or election dates.
What the live site is doing to residents
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The governance page ships live placeholders
Three headings under the Village section read, verbatim, "Mayor & Council — Coming soon.", "ADvocacy — Coming soon." and "committees — Coming soon." The Village's logo asset is dated October 2022, so those placeholders may have stood since the renaming. A resident cannot find out who represents them.
A built-out Mayor & Council page with one addressable seat per row, plus real committee and advocacy sections.
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The news feed stopped thirteen months ago
The newest item on the communications page is the June 2025 Village Voice. A feed that has not moved in a year teaches residents to stop checking it.
A notices system built around three fields and one button, with the date visible before anyone clicks, and the gap since June 2025 named rather than papered over.
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The old domain was abandoned, not redirected
queencharlotte.ca still resolves in DNS, but the host refuses connections — there is no redirect to daajinggiids.ca. Four years after the renaming, anyone following an old link, an old bookmark or an old search result arrives at nothing at all.
A permanent redirect from every path on the old domain to its counterpart on the new one. This is a configuration change, not a design change, and it is the cheapest item on this list.
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The homepage is counting down to its own expiry
The homepage still reads "2022 - 2026 Council began their term at the regular meeting at 7:00pm on November 7th." That term ends at the October 2026 general local election, which the Village's own navigation already advertises.
An election section in the top-level navigation for the whole of 2026, with every unanswered question named on the page.
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No copyright line, no skip link, statutory content locked in PDFs
The live footer carries no copyright statement at all. There is no skip link. Bylaws, minutes, agendas and financial plans exist only as PDFs behind an external portal, and the same ambiguous "More Info" link text is used three times over.
A footer that says who owns the site and what year it is current to, a skip link on every page, link text that names its destination, and HTML alongside every PDF.
Accessibility
British Columbia's Accessible BC Act applies to the Village, and the Village is listed on the province's Accessibility HUB. That is a public commitment. The live site does not currently meet it: there is no skip link, the same ambiguous "More Info" link text is used three times, and statutory content is available only as PDFs.
This build is not a compliance audit and does not claim conformance. It is a demonstration that the basics cost nothing to get right:
- A skip link is the first focusable element on every page and becomes visible when it receives focus.
- Exactly one h1 per page, and headings descend in order with nothing skipped.
- Every foreground and background pair in the palette was measured. The lowest ratio used anywhere is 4.85:1 against normal-size text; most sit above 7:1.
- A single high-contrast focus ring, three pixels wide with an offset, on every interactive element — never removed.
- Link text names its destination. There is no "More Info", "Read more" or "Click here" anywhere in the build.
- Both photographs carry descriptive alt text and a visible "Stock photo" chip, so nobody mistakes a placeholder for the Village.
- Nothing is signalled by colour alone. The office open/closed state is words plus a glyph; notice categories are words, not swatches.
- The mobile menu is a real button with aria-expanded kept in step, operable by keyboard alone.
- Text reflows without horizontal scrolling from 320px upward. The one wide table scrolls inside its own frame; the page never does.
- The site works with scripting disabled — the posted office hours, the navigation and every link remain usable.
- Motion respects prefers-reduced-motion, and there is no autoplay, carousel or parallax to respect in the first place.
- Fonts are self-hosted, so the page renders its own name without a request to a third party.
Open questions
Everything this concept could not verify. Each one appears on the site as a marked empty slot rather than as content.
- The wording of the Village's territorial acknowledgement — the Village's and the Haida Nation's to set, reproduced verbatim, never drafted here.
- The names, portraits, contact preferences and committee appointments of the Mayor and councillors.
- The number of councillor seats, confirmed against the Village's letters patent and records.
- The regular council meeting schedule: which night, which weeks, and where the public sits.
- The exact CivicWeb portal address, pasted verbatim.
- Every election date and the nomination package details.
- Statutory holiday and seasonal office closures.
- Which office handles which service, for a "who to call for what" directory.
- Whether the Chief Administrative Officer seat is currently filled — one secondary source suggested it may be vacant, contradicting the Village's live contact page.
- Every notice and Village Voice issue published since June 2025.