Monday, May 12, 2008
Why are good district websites necessary?
Busy sites can hurt the understanding of parents, or others, of the resources available at a given school, or in a district as a whole. One who visits frequently may take the time to find what they are looking for, but a "need to find something" visitor could easily get lost, frustrated, and alienated.
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After viewing a considerable amount of various websites, I have found that my frustration level increases proportionately with the lack of availability of useful information.
What do I consider useful information? A way to contact a person or office connected to the web site, a phone number to speak to a real live person, or some other form of person-to-person contact.
I am a sceptic and hardly ever believe what I read. I need the "personal factor" in most communication. I listen to the timber and inflection in voices and I watch mannerisms and gestures when speaking to someone in person, so I need that personal input. I have often be upset by dealing where I have no personal input, and hardly ever get upset when those dealing have that input.
So before I deal with a business or web site, I make sure that they have a working contact. If I do have a problem with their service or product, I want to be able to contact them. Feedback is the best way to improve.
If we take this thought and apply it to school district or just school websites, it makes sense. A school is a very personal thing, not just a "dot com". There should be a very prominent and easily visible means to contact them in person - we already know that the people are there. When that contact number is buried deep enough that you feel like a detective just looking for it, it does not bode well for the district. At the very least, it sends the impression that the district/school is unapproachable, or worse yet, doesn't care about you and what you feel.
Most of us live life successfully by using impressions and inferences. A website can give all of the wrong impressions and inferences if they aren't set up in a user-friendly manner. Here are a few guidelines that I would use:
* don't bury anything deep - keep it up front.
* make it logical or intuitive - you can have links to anything you want, but don't make the people guess. Spell it out.
* KISS - keep it simple, sonny. Make the most important information available at first glance. Then allow links for further information.
I guess everyone will have different ideas about what is best. That is why there are so many different formats for web pages out there. But one of my favorite truisms is this: Just because you can doesn't mean you should.
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