I don't have much hair left to tear
out, but I am ready to tear it out! I am always adding URLs to Schools
Online. It's fun work with one negative side to it: THOSE DUMB
WEB SITES WHICH ARE POORLY DESIGNED!!
| Joe Landsberger, the talented Web Master at St. Thomas' University in St. Paul, Minnesota, puts it succinctly: "90% of commercial websites are poorly designed, and satisfy an executive committee rather than the website visitor." Check out his matrix on the subject entitled Basics of understanding, evaluating, & developing Web Sites. It certainly applies to private school Web sites! |
So, what makes some private school Web sites better than others?
In my opinion the best private school Web sites are:
informativeOne final word of caution: let the folks in public relations, not the computer department, design the site content and concept. Then let the computer folks execute those ideas! Some of the worst sites I have seen were created by computer geeks who got totally caught up in the means rather than the end!
You pull up the splash screen and you know exactly what the school is all about. You don't have to search through several layers of material to find the pertinent facts about the institution.simple
Simple is elegant! Have a school crest? Use it! Mount it on an easy to read background. (Sorry, folks! Green on black just isn't easy to read!) Keep those type faces a reasonable size too. 8 pt is really very small and hard to read!fast-loading
Come on, guys! Spare me the gimmicks! We don't need to have the school song or, worse, a plagarized popular song - does ASCAP know you are using it? - which takes three minutes to load with the splash screen! Ditto for things which flash at you! Give me a break!accessible from a variety of platforms
Most browsers can support frames. But not every browser will support the very latest HTML tags. Better off avoiding anything which might make your site inaccessible to the poor souls using Netscape 2.0 or earlier. And take care with those Meta Tags. Nobody will find your site if you don't get those right!cohesive
This ties in with #2! Make the site logical. Have some flow and connectivity to the various segments. If the site is confusing, folks will click out of there but fast! Tell the school's story in an orderly manner. Be intuitive when you label the various segments; strangers will find it easier to get around and read your message!
For a look at safety considerations in school Web site design turn to page 3.
--Rob Kennedy, Private Schools Guide
Related Link
School
Web Sites: Design Matters 
School
Web Sites: Internet Safety and Photos
HTML
OneStop
Private School Technology Center
Web
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