Image: 'untitled'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/65002265@N00/4343097207
Found on flickrcc.net
Our new school website has just gone live. Earlier this year I was asked to
take over managing our website. For anyone else embarking on a project
like this, here is how I went about it:
1. Research
I was lucky to be given time to research what
makes a good website. Here are some of the notes I made around good
design features:
- Clear organization, easy to navigate and use
- Menu system that is clear and
concise
- Eye-catching, visual design
- Contemporary
- Easy to return to homepage
- Need reason to return
- Regularly updated pages
- Student published work
- Photos, videos, school events
- Fast loading time
- Cross browser compatibility, able to use on iPad
- Dynamic news panels
- Search feature
- Make sure it is easy to edit content
- Avoid:
- Too much content, especially
on home page
- Not enough photos
- Never updating
- Lengthy pages
- Comic sans font
- Links that don’t work
A memorable quote I found was that a good
website should be a "gateway to parental involvement". I also
visited the websites of other primary schools and evaluated what I liked and
didn't like about their sites. As we were considering changing website
providers I noted who they were using for website management. I also
jotted down the type of content provided to make sure our site was
comprehensive.
2. Review current site
With the best practice information I gathered I
thoroughly evaluated our current site. My recommendations were as
follows:
Homepage
- Reduce the amount of tabs so the menu system is
clear and concise
- Add a quick links section so frequently
requested information is immediately accessible
- Include a large slideshow of photos to add an
eye-catching visual element
- Add a search feature
- Move some of the content elsewhere to streamline
the look
Whole Site
- Ensure the website can work on iPads
- Embed maps and video rather than link to them to
increase visual appeal
- Include more photos wherever possible
- In order to provide a reason to return to the
site include student published work and photos and videos of school events
(and publicize them on our Facebook site)
- Ensure that all our links work and all our pages
have current information on them
- Maintain a common style on every page (including
font, layout and standard photo sizes)
- Include short videos on how to help your child
with reading, or explaining how we teach maths etc
3. Compare website
providers
I then compared the cost and service of a number
of website providers. At the top end of the scale the school website my
principal admired was custom-built for over $10,000. I talked to
salespeople from our existing provider and another company called
SpikeatSchool. In the end I recommended switching to SpikeatSchool
because the setup and hosting fees were considerably cheaper than our existing
supplier. The hosting fee was cheaper because our existing supplier gave
us the option of sending them content to add to our site. We didn't use
this service so were paying for something we didn't need. SpikeatSchool
provided an obligation free trial and I found that the creation of content was
very similar to our existing provider. This meant that our principal,
receptionist and PTA could add their content without too much difficulty.
4. Create a template
The next step was to work on a look for the
site. I came up with some ideas and made a mock up on Publisher. I
sent this through to Brendon at SpikeatSchool, who got his designer to work on
it. What came back was a bit different to what I had sent through, but it
had some lovely features I hadn't thought of. With a bit of back and
forth (I was adamant that our logo shouldn't cover any part of the slideshow),
we settled on the current design.
5. Swap over content
Luckily I was able to transfer over all the
content from our existing site to the trial site, so that when we went live the
website was fully functional. This process was particularly time
consuming as I evaluated all of the information I transferred over and made a
register of anything that would need to be regularly updated. This
included things like staff mentioning how old their children were in their
profiles, to uniform price lists and student house leaders.
6. Points to note
- It will take a lot longer than you think to
transfer over content, particularly if you help deploy a school set of
iPads and organise a Book Week in-between.
- Make sure your new website provider can do
everything your existing one did. A
bit late in the day I discovered our mailing list would have to be managed
by using a third-party provider.
The always helpful Brendon from SpikeatSchool recommended
“Mailchimp”, which is a free mail manager.
I had to learn how to use it with a deadline looming and it would
have been better to be aware of this from the start.
- Check and double check information on your
website. It is embarrassing (and
confusing for parents) if, for example, you put your personal phone number at
the bottom of your school website(!).
Even if I did get it fixed before the principal noticed.
- Be prepared to make changes where necessary once
the site has gone live. The
increased traffic to your new site will mean increased scrutiny. In my case I received feedback about
material that was identical to that on the previous site.
7. Encourage visitors
When
the site launched we used our school Facebook page to announce it and link to
it.
We
have also used this new website as a good opportunity to revise the way we
distribute our school newsletters.
Previously we emailed a link to the newsletter to some parents but the
majority still received paper copies.
Now we have advised parents that because the school wants to “reduce,
reuse and recycle” we will be emailing the link to the newsletter to all
parents unless they contact the office or don’t have an email address. The good thing about this is that not only
does it save time and money but the link to the newsletter takes people to our
home page and then they click on the “newsletter” tab from there. This means that each family should visit our
home page every week.
To
capture interest and create that “gateway to parental involvement” my aim is to
make weekly updates to the news and photos on our home page. I also want to feature and link to different
parts of the website so parents know what content we have on our site.
