The school board has set improving communication as a goal this year. Our job is to look at school websites in the state of South Dakota and post a comment to this blog on the website you looked at, what you liked, what you didn't like, what could be added to ours to increase it as tool for parents to use.
http://members.k12.sd.us
Go here, scroll on the left and you will see a K-12 schools, click and see list of all K-12 schools in South Dakota. (If you choose to look out of state, that is fine, too!)
Click on some links for the website and if you find something you like, please come to this blog, pick comment. When the box comes up, pick anonymous, but the first line should have your first name.
Thanks! We will have a little time at our September in-service to work on this. By doing this, we won't have too prepare a report--the board can just look here for our comments about our website or others!
The 10 Commandments of Web Design
1. Thou shalt not use frames unless there is a need: Frames are websites that link two or three HTML pages into a single view. Why is this bad? Try saving a page from a frames site in your bookmarks. It's hard to do. Frames are also not accessible in some browsers, whatsoever, and frames don't work at all in text based browsers.
2. Thou shalt not use the scrolling Marquee that everyone else uses: Ever been to a site and see a piece of text scrolling across the web page like a stock ticker? That's because of the marquee tag. It is distracting and takes away from your content.
3. Thou shalt look up the word 'consistency' in Webster's Dictionary before the layout of all your site pages. The user should not be confused with a different page design every time they click to a new page: This means that if your homepage has a certain look and navigation structure to it, your child pages should have that same look. Take a look at good web design. Notice how the header and footer are the same for every page? Notice how every article page has the same sidebar? That's consistency.
4. Thou shalt not use horizontal rules that are rainbow animations unless you are hawaiian.: These were cool 7 years ago. They aren't now.
5. Thou shalt not use brightly colored patterned backgrounds that make the content impossible to read unless thou want to induce vomiting for someone that has ingested poison: I don't think this commandment would fit on a tablet, but it's an important one. Bright backgrounds make the text hard to read and hurt my eyes. Imagine a novel that had black text on a bright yellow and orange background. Do you want to read that for an extended period of time?
6. Thou shalt not apply for web-design jobs after a single community College class on using FrontPage: Analogy: Just because you took a course in carpentry does not mean you can build a well designed and constructed home. FrontPage is Microsoft's tool to develop web pages without using markup code.
7. Thou shalt not use a visible counter on a business page: Counters can be manipulated easily (hit the refresh button often). Another reason to avoid them is if you have an unpopular site. If a potential customer comes to your site and sees you have only have a few hundred visitors, they may be wary of purchasing anything from you. Use server logs instead.
8. Thou 'shalt not use "Best Viewed with Internet Explorer" or "best viewed at 800 x 600 resolution": Imagine renting a DVD and popping it into your DVD player only to be greeted by a screen that says "This DVD is not compatible with your TV and will, therefore, not play. You need a high definition TV with 1080i resolution."
9. Thou shalt not use animated gif files unless Moses himself appears in a burning pile of copier paper in your office and insists you should: How's that for a visual? Animated GIFs are cliche, tacky, and usually poorly designed.
10. Thou shalt be clear about what thou art presenting to the user: Think like a user of your website. Will they understand how you have laid out your links? Will they realize they are supposed to click something to go somewhere else? Even if something looks good, that is only half the battle. It needs to be functional as well.
After creation came evolution. The web is a constantly evolving delivery medium. The biggest push these days on the web has been standards compliant websites. Web standards in a nutshell is separating your content from your design. This involves creating a clean, structured web page and keeping all of your styling and layout information the same. (Not sure where I got this, but LOVED it!)
:)
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32 comments:
I have been doing various versions of the website since 1999. We used to do this as a class activity. I feel we have moved to a different type of website. Parents want the information quickly, easily and throughly available with a few clicks. They want it to load fast. I have spent a lot of time looking at sites and feel some things to look for are: all links work, theme throughout, not guady, flashy, loads fast, no pictures to slow it down for the dial up users. I also look for ways to make the website load in all browsers. Pick main colors, not peach, etc. Pick fonts that have no serifs.
http://www.garretson.k12.sd.us
Here is a site to go to to see archived copies of the school site:
http://www.archive.org/index.php
Click in the center, take me back. This is interesting to see some sites. Some were on previous servers and aren't there. Just a cached frontpage is there!
http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/jun2008/id20080623_750025.htm?chan=innovation_special+report+--+web+design+2008_web+design
This site is GREAT!
10 Commandments of Web Design
I looked at the following school sites: Highmore-Harrold, Wall, and Stanley County. I couldn't get some things to work at the Wall page. Found both Highmore-Harrold and Stanley County easy to navigate. I like less busy pages. I want to get to business and get distracted by too much "stuff". I find our site easy to use and most appreciate the quick tabs at the top.
Julie Mueller
I have been satisfied with out webpage. I think that it provides easy access to information and contacts.
Looking at other websites (Aberdeen, Canton), I found several features that I like. I think the monthly/weekly events in a more prominent box is a nice feature. This would require frequent updating but would make it more visible. I also like the "new news or check-it-out" features which highlight current topics of interest. The congratulatory comments on student/staff achievements are also nice features but would require a webmaster who can go in at least weekly to make additions.
Ruth
I had not noticed the staff and k12 e mail links on the top menu before. This will be helpful since we have a rather extensive list of links along the left side and as a result takes longer to find the two sites we use the most. I did not find "easy to find" links similar to this on any of the sites I visited.
Ed
I have visited many different school websites looking for various things. I think that ours is very easy to navigate on. One thing that I like on some of the school websites is that they have a link for their local paper.
Jason Bohl
Jeremy
I like how the Brandon site has the drop downs of the links for the different people who are visisting the site. It makes for less scrolling.
Elkton has a lot of animation and it takes a long time to load.
Miller's site I couldn't even load and it froze up the site and I couldn't access any more sites.
Most of the sites I visited were pretty and followed the basics of the commandments.
I like having a more simple webpages but I also think that it needs to be graphic to add interest for the viewers. When looking through the various webpages for South Dakota schools I saw a lot that needed improvement with their graphics but there were also a lot that have really great webpages.
Lynsay
I've only viewed a small number of websites, but thought Avon High school hasd a nice combination of structure and information.
I visited several school websites and really like the looks of Brandon Valley's. It is striking and in the center have a "Congratulations" link that takes you to special activities that deserve community attention. It also has only a few tabs on the left and appears organized and less busy.
I also like the Webster site that has a link to their hometown "city" website.
I also like our site with our school's pic at the top.
Kari
Adam
I looked at the Irene-Wakonda, Lead-Deadwood, Elk Point-Jefferson, and Tri-Valley websites. Looking at all the different sites there were somethings that I really liked and others that could have worked a bit better. I really liked the look of the Lead site exept that the side bar had too much information and was far too small. I had to increase the screen zoom to be able to read some of the links. I loved the Tri-Valley site. When you open the site you are greeted with current pictures and a random photo spot. Activities and such were listed right up on the top and easy to get to.
One aspect that I look for in a school website is ease of contacting teachers or visiting their page, something that our page does very well. I do not like the long link box on the sidebar on some pages that makes you sift through a lot of information.
I think our school has a functional website. But, it has somethings I do not particularly like. Such as the long list of links on the left hand side. The font is small and close together. I would like to see them under a section tab. I would like to see more pictures or section of athletics. Where each sport is represented. I like the way Duel school district did theirs. Each coach would be responsible for keeping or giving information to Liz.
John
I think that the Garretson website is very easy to use/navigate. All the links that staff, parents, and students need are organized on the left hand side. The quick links at the top are helpful. I think that it would be great if we could add some tabs to the website: academics, activites, and athletics which could include specific information, updated pictures, and what's new with each tab. I would like to see some pictures on our home page besides the picture of the school. For example, we could have pictures of homecoming week, or pictures of students, or events that are happening currently at Garretson.
Annie
I have seen some schools post their class composites on their webpages. Rutland (home of Jackie Liester) is one example found. Could that be a possibility? I also think a few pictures of school activities would be nice to show a few of the things that have happended at the school.
Jay
Liz,
I think that our website is functional. I do like how other websites include an update to what is going on for the week or 2 weeks (ie Harrisburg and Chester). Also, a few more pictures would be great. Keep up the good work.
Jeff
I like that our site actually works with pertinant info. It's a plus that you can send information free; you don't need to write it down, buy stamps, & mail it like they do in Rutland Avon.
I think our website contains all of the information we need in a manner that is fairly easy to use. I do find that it takes some time to scroll down to find the links that I need so if there was a way to make the left hand links more compact I think that would be helpful.
Jess
I think we have a great website. Could we add more pictures so the community could see what our kids are doing? Maybe we can't post pictures? I appreciate that the staff pictures aren't posted! :)
Ang
I think that our website is easily navigated.However, I don't care for the long list on the left--too small and too many choices to scroll through. Maybe some more quick links like we have across the top for some of those choices.
Karla
I think it would be beneficial if our website would have everything visible at once on the screen. That way people don't have to scroll down to find what they are looking for. Everything would be right there for them to access. I liked the layout of the Ipswich homepage.
First of all, Rutland has a WONDERFUL website!!!!!
Our website is user friendly. I understand the issue of confidentiality, but I like the photos that are included in sites like Sioux Falls Christian.
Jacki
I really like our school website. It looks very professional. I love how it is so user-friendly.
Sally
I know that websites are alot of work and very time consuming. Our web site looks great! I was impressed with Baltic's posting of their school song - words plus the music.
I always check the number of world-wide hits we have on our website. It is amazing that people around the world log on to us here in little Garretson, SD!
I think the website is great for all of the hard work that is put into it. If everything was visible so you didn't have to scroll down as far, that would be nice.
THANKS FOR THE HARD WORK!
Or school has many very nice features, especially the picture of our building, the google search bar, weather map, and the complete listing of Garretson School's programs, activities.
Would like to have less scrolling to find links,though--would it be possible to have links on both sides of the pictures or utilize drop-down menu links?
Dorothy W.
I think Liz does a great job on our web site. A lot of the stuff on the left side could be put into a section tab. One thing that would maybe help draw people to our school and community is to say something about being a distinguished school, etc... and have something about being a city of Parks.
I wanted to comment about the style of the blogs and wikkis. Everything is going scroll down. I think something the school board should look at is a video about our town/school similar to what Parker does. This might be a nice way to promote moving to our fine city! LB
I have spent some time looking at web sites this weekend. I really like http://www.dsu.edu/
This is a technology school, that puts out web design programmers. I like the looks of this website. The do not use the drop downs, they do scroll down. Check out Kelo, argusleader, yahoo--they scroll. I think DSU is one of the nicest. I also looked at sioux falls school district, and noticed the theme of lighter colors. Dell Rapids school district is another site I really liked. They have a web designer on staff--dsu web design product.
I really like the new website. I enjoy the drop down tabs that allow less scrolling of the page. I love the calendar of events on the front page, but wonder if there is a way to make them more appealing to the eye. Keep up the good work.
Suggest to add picture of sports team on website. Also, homecoming events picture on website and senior class. Other look great!
Thanks
Liz,
This is a great blog. There have been many good ideas expressed here, some of which appear to have been implemented already. I think commandment #10 (after creation comes evolution) hits the nail on the head. I know you have put a great deal of work into the design of our website, and it is looking great. I also realize that the maintenance or (evolution) will require much work as well. Your hard work and commitment to this is greatly appreciated. I am interred the idea of creating a video to promote the school/town as suggested. I would be interested in your ideas on how this might be done. I went to Parker's website but did not find a link to their video. I did like that they had links to the Homer Roll, School Store, and parent comments on the website. I also thought the week’s events posted on the home page to be very convenient. I have not paid much attention to blogs before, but I see they can be a great tool used for sharing ideas.
Thanks for all your hard work,
Todd Tilberg
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