[webproducers] Re: my feedback, was New website

hi darren, 

i think you emailed to the wrong amy. i didn't do the
site you are talking about.


--- Darren Ernest <Darren@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Dear Amy,
> 
> I realize that this was posted a while back, but I
> haven't checked my
> [webproducers] emails in a long time.
> 
> Anyway, here are some comments (mostly based on the
> homepage):
> 
> 1) Homepage Message
> As a marketing communications specialist the first
> thing I do is examine
> where my eye goes and what the first message I get
> is -- in this case, there
> are NO messages on the homepage -- not even a tag
> line, a mission statement,
> or a description of JTS.  You may assume that your
> audience knows who or
> what you're all about, but they may not -- and even
> if they do, some type of
> marketing message will make a lasting and positive
> impression.  For example,
> an east coast ski resort in might say, The best
> skiing in the North East.  A
> spa might say, "The ultimate in relaxation and
> pampering."  When coming up
> with a tag line, use your mission statement, which
> should be written with
> the audience benefit in mind.  For example, a
> manufacturer that makes hockey
> sticks might have a mission statement that reads,
> "To manufacture the
> highest quality hockey sticks," but their mission
> statement should be "To
> enable superior athletic performance by
> manufacturing superior quality
> products" or some such variation.  Translated into a
> great homepage tag
> line: Enabling superior athletic performance with
> superior quality products.
> 
> 2) Changing Homepage
> It is winter right now -- seeing a spring/summer
> picture of your building
> looks funny to me.  In winter, I'd like to see a
> picture of the building
> with snow maybe.  Perhaps even you should have
> several pictures of the
> campus and each loads randomly each time the
> homepage is accessed.  You
> could have the same image in different seasons, as
> well as show off your
> library, hallways, lecture halls, etc.  Here's
> another tip from the print
> world: when you use photographs, it is always a good
> idea to have
> accompanying text that tells the reader something
> about the image.  Images
> attract attention, and when there is no message, the
> attention is wasted.
> Why is the image there -- to say we have a beautiful
> campus, or look at the
> great courtyard you can hang out in?  Whatever the
> reason, associate some
> marketing message with the image.  You have included
> text, but the message
> could have greater impact to achieve your goals.
> 
> 3) Browser compatibility
> Congratulations - many sites do not render properly
> in Mozilla.  The type of
> navigation used is often rendered incorrectly, among
> other problems.  It is
> good that you made your site browser compatible.
> 
> 4) Meta Tags
> I found no keywords or description tags, nor any of
> the other search engine
> specific tags.  Perhaps search engine visibility was
> not part of your site
> goals/objectives.  What is the goal of the site? 
> One is to attract eligible
> students, but are there secondary goals such as
> public awareness and
> education?  Do you want search engine traffic?  If
> so, you this site can be
> better optimized, although that is a much longer
> discussion, and requires a
> page by page analysis along with a communicated
> understanding of each
> individual page's goal.
> 
> 5) User Experience
> When clicking through the site, I am unsure why the
> quick links and search
> were dropped to the bottom of the page.  There is
> still available "real
> estate" on the top, and this kind of change may
> confuse some.
> 
> 6) Page Resizing
> Resizing the page to fill the browser is a neat
> thing you can do on the web,
> and I encourage it from an esthetic point of view. 
> But, from a user point
> of view, I strongly suggest setting maximum
> parameters for content.  Ideal
> column widths are between 8-12 words -- anything
> more than 12 is just too
> hard to read, and users are likely to glance at the
> page looking for a small
> "sound bite" they can easily digest.  If all they
> see are long long lines of
> text (I counted 20 words in many lines on
> http://www.jtsa.edu/development/index.shtml) they
> will simply click to the
> next page.  Check your site logs and see what the
> average amount of time
> spent on each page was -- was it long enough for the
> average reader to
> absorb the key messages of the page?  Of course,
> there are other strategies
> which must also be incorporated to get more visitors
> to actually read
> content, but column width really stands out and is
> easy enough to fix.
> 
> 7) Breadcrumbs
> It took me a while to figure out why it said JTS /
> something on all the
> pages.  I was confused, and thought it was giving me
> the option of going to
> other pages.  Even Jakob Nielson has trouble with
> this on his site, using a
> colon for his breadcrumb pattern.  His site has no
> graphics so it loads
> quickly, but he had to give in, and use an arrow
> graphic in order to show
> users that the there was a hierarchy at play.   That
> is why many use this:
> one > two > three.  That is a better way to show
> path than the forward
> slash.  Plus, most sites that do this effectively do
> it in a special
> space -- yours is floating in the middle of no
> where.  I recommend you
> discuss this with your designer, and find a better
> way to designate the
> bread crumb.  Do you really require it even?  It is
> mostly used on sites
> with more than 3 levels of content.  Perhaps place
> is in the same place you
> have the << back link on the contact page.
> 
> Overall, I think the layout, and color scheme are
> attractive and modern.
> Clearly, you have also spent a considerable amount
> of time on the
> information architecture, which is very important. 
> I wish you lots of luck
> with your new site and hope the
> redesign/implementation meets the objectives
> that warranted a new site in the first place.  I
> hope my comments are useful
> to you.  Please feel free to contact me if you have
> any questions.
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> ~Darren
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "A.Helfman" <amhelfman@xxxxxxxx>
> To: <webproducers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Thursday, October 09, 2003 10:36 AM
> Subject: [webproducers] New website
> 
> 
> >
> >          The Jewish Theological Seminary recently
> launched a completely
> > redesigned and restructured website. Please visit
> us at www.jtsa.edu.
> > Comments welcome.
> >
> >
> >   Amy W. Helfman
> >   Manager of Web Technologies
> >   Computer Operations, Jewish Theological Seminary
> >
> >   Voice: (212) 678-8043              Fax: (212)
> 678-8891
> >   Email:  amhelfman@xxxxxxxx    Website: 
> www.jtsa.edu
> >
> >
>
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> 
=== message truncated ===

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