AMA Basics in Website Design

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

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