I must say that I really enjoy looking at different websites and finding all sorts of information. It has been so helpful to me to google a topic and find information that I can include in media lessons. With college and a beginning a new career in the media center, I don't always have time to come up with my own ideas and plans...so I've borrowed a great deal this year. I really like looking at the websites and finding information that is helpful. What I don't like is going to websites and thinking that I've found the perfect link only to find out that the link is no longer available. I also find it hard to use websites that have too muh on the home page, especially a lot of advertisements.
I am including a list of what I feel should be the Do's and Don'ts for websites, of course everybody's views are different.
Do...
1. Make website attractive, open, and usable.
2. Keep links updated.
3. Include a search tool.
4. Make it user friendly.
5. Consider you audience and make age appropriate.
Don't
1. Make page cluttered.
2. Include too many advertisements.
3. Use terms that younger audiences will not understand.
4. Leave links on site that are no longer available.
5. Make site just a list of links.
When my plate is not so full, I intend to create a website for the media center. At this time, I just link onto the schools website and someone else puts the information on that I give her. My goal is to learn how to create a website and how to do it well. Hopefully, I can meet that goal after summer semester!
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5 comments:
I appreciate your list of Do's and Don'ts for the websites. I also spend a lot of time looking at other websites and finding informaton that is helpful. I think the biggest is thing is your first "do". Making the website attractive, open and usable. If they students don't find things quickly, they tend to move on to somewhere else.
Hi Jill -
I too find it quite annoying to feel I have stumbled across a web site worthy of evaluation only to learn it is no longer available upon clicking the link. In fact, I believe I am completely in agreement with your entire post as too much home page content annoys me as well. I believe web sites should be clutter free and user friendly. While I do enjoy shopping and researching online, I will avoid certain sites that give me a "headache" with all of their content.
That said, thanks a million for the "Do's and Don'ts. I will definitely keep them in mind when I acquire my own media center.
Jami
I liked your list of dos and don'ts. I think they are very useful and applicable to all school web sites. It is good to know what is best and pleasing when creating a product for the public to view. Also, organized web sites are more useful and informative. I also hope to learn more about creating a web site. That is something I would really like to work on this year.
Jill, I really like your do's and don't lists. I agree with keeping a website simple and up to date. I too find it very frustrating to open a site and find that it is no longer available. That happens way to often for me! Goodluck as you start to create you own webite in the future. I hope it goes well.
Your list of does and don't mirror my thoughts. A website should be attractive, inviting, informative and interactive. Of course, each media center may not be able to accomplish this task, but it should cover some of the basics. During the course of this program I have researched many websites and it seems that many media specialists seem to include too much information. We should want to invite the patron into the media center begging for more information. Too much clutter could also turn many people away. I have experienced this on many occassions and as bad as I would want to peruse the site, I can't get past the clutter. We should also keep the audience in mind. We are targeting students first, parents and the community.
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