ama basics in website design
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Basic Web Design for Collegiate AMA Chapters.TRANSCRIPT
Development of a Winning Collegiate Website:
Strategies, Development and Focus
Presented by Theresa Boucher
VP of Technology UNLV AMA 2007-2009VP of Technology AMA Las Vegas 2008-2010
UW – Whitewater2009 Regional AMA Conference
November 6th, 2009
Website Basics:
• Development of the Website
• Key Steps
• Do’s and Don’ts
• Content Development
• Social Networking
Two Basic Purposes:
• Selling a Product or Service
You’re selling your groups image
Selling what you have to offer
• Sharing information
Providing all your visitors with resources
Developing a plan for Your Website
1. Who is going to your website?
• Students, members, faculty, parents, professionals,
community leaders, organizations, and other schools
• Design your content with all these people in mind.
• Realize that people are on the internet to find
answers – so create your website to meet that need.
Developing a plan for Your Website
2. What do you want your website to do?• Flyer – Provide basic information about your group.
- One page, who we are and how to contact us
• Brochure – Who we are, what we do, list of events, some
photos, and contact info
• Interactive Reference Guide - Providing resources, links, and
a collection of information
• You want to call for action on the part of the visitor, joining,
linking, calling, coming to events, and getting them to participate
Flyer Website
Developing a plan for Your Website
3. Deciding Pages/Navigation
• Create an outline of what you want on the website.
• Your main categories will become your Navigation Structure.
• Sites need to be designed to be user friendly and easy to navigate
Website Outline
Developing a plan for Your Website
4. Designing of the website:
• Programs: Many programs based on skill and access. - There are classes, on-line tutorials and guides
• Templates: You can use templates or site builders- Available on the internet (many are free). - Make it your own.
• Restrictions/Guidelines: You should check with your school - Determine the rules for creating a website. - Security agreement- Restrictions and Guidelines
Your school may have templates, programs, and graphics you can use on your website.
Website Templates
Developing a plan for Your Website
5. Test the website:
• Test to see if it is working – put it up and make sure the links are
working.
• Check the website on other computers –
- Mac and PC
- Screen sizes
- Web browsers: Explorer, Firefox, Safari
- Different upload speeds
• Make sure it works, and that it keeps on working
• Get Feedback – ask for outside input from your board, professors,
professionals and other students
Developing a plan for Your Website
6. Promote your website:
• Put the web address on everything - flyers, business cards,
bulletin boards, social networking sites, etc…
• Submit it to search engines – like google, yahoo, and msn
• Place links on other people sites and in directories
Developing a plan for Your Website
7. Update your website often
• Reevaluate the website to see if it is meeting your needs and goals
• Updating will bring visitors back over and over again
• Search Engine like fresh websites
Do’s and Don'ts of Designing
• Don’t use blinking or scrolling text, animated GIFs, or auto-
loading sound. - Annoying and drive your visitors away
- Take too much time to load
- Can be distracting
- Most people quickly lose interest
• Do Keep in mind that less is more- Small sized images
- White space
- Use images that are appropriate to your content.
Ask yourself - does it add to what you are saying or is it just eye candy?
Do’s and Don’ts of Designing
• Don’t use more than three types of font in one page, and a maximum of three different font sizes.
- Nobody wants to fight their way through a big, gray wall of text.
• Do use headers - The user should know what page of the website they are on and what content to expect.
- Break up the text with headers, images and bullet points.
Do’s and Don’ts of Designing
• Don’t make your visitors hunt down information or links.
• Do keep your visitors' interests in mind.- Make it easy to find stuff- Create a site map- Keep pages consistent- Have contact information on every page
Do’s and Don’ts of Designing
• Don't underline words if they're not links – it just confuses the visitor
Do let people know where a link will take them - Especially if is away from your website- Use "ALT" tags on graphics and links
Do’s and Don’ts of Designing
• Don’t use under construction graphics - Don’t post or link a page if it is not ready- Don’t leave old stuff up on the website for long periods of time. - More than a week old and people will stop checking the website.
Do Keep it Fresh- Most important is to keep your site up to date- Remove old events and dates
Content Development
• Most important item is content
• Consider all people visiting your website
• Updated
• Relevant
• Accessible
Content Development
• Membership information
• Calendar and Activities
• Career Information
• Study Resources
• Community Resources
• Photogallery, Videos, Social Networks
Social Networking
FacebookLinkedInMySpaceTwitterBlogsEmailsText messaging
Conclusion
www.amalasvegas.com
www.unlvama.com
Resources:• http://www.openwebdesign.org/ - Open Web Design is
a community of designers and site owners sharing free web design templates as well as web design information. Helping to make the internet a prettier place!
• http://www.webdesign.org/ - Web Design Library
• http://www.statcounter.com/ – free stat counter and statistics
Copy of Slides or Search Engine Optimization Guide