Website Design

According to the Web Marketing Association (www.webaward.org), there are seven criteria you should look for in a highly competent school website. Each year the WMA names the Best School web site as part of the annual WebAward Competition according to these criteria. The seven criteria are as follows;   

• Design   
• Ease of use
• Copywriting
• Interactivity
• Use of technology
• Innovation
• Content

I agree with all of these, but my top two concerns would be content and clarity, i.e. ease of use. Design and ease of use are interwoven. The design of the site needs to be instinctive and clear. Buttons should be in obvious positions on the site, and links should be working. Most of us naturally look for a directory or map of the site either running across the top of the page, or in a column on the side. The site should be aesthetically pleasing and engaging, but shouldn’t have so much frill and fancy on it that it distracts or confuses the user. Parents, students, and staff will be the main users, and they will want clear directions to one specific place on the site each time they visit. Having the site organized into these three distinct sections is an excellent beginning point.

The WBA award was given to Wheaton College  in 2010, and the site is very appealing, although there is no option to skip the opening graphics. The timeline layout is very easy to navigate, and when you scroll over the pictures there’s a handy little bubble that pops up letting you know what to expect when you click the link.

Ohio State’s Stone Laboratory  website is entertaining and colorful, and listed on vandelaydesign.com’s blog as one of the top 25 websites for schools. The navigation buttons are at the top of the page, as expected, but the space between the nav and the body of the site is unreasonably long. The body of the site contains many more links to pertinent or entertaining information.

Both of these sites are easy to navigate, and contain the necessary information. Our own school website,  is an extension of the district website. It’s a bare bones site with most of the links in the body of the site. Aesthetically it has much to be desired, and the links need to be more definitively organized. Students often need help navigating the site in order to find the teacher’s pages because the info isn’t obvious enough. The site lacks clarity, but does contain the necessary content.