RE: Website Candidates

["Christopher Hollinshead" <wolf-com@rogers.com>]

Some of what I write below is technical but please don't get too hung up on
it, that is there for JIJ and the designer. It is fine just to take in the
general concepts of what I am outlining... 


While its nice to present a pretty face to the world, content is king. I
think way too much concern is shown here for creating a splashy main page
and trying to jam the whole website contents onto it (exaggerated but my
point is you cannot have EVERTHING front and center, much as we would like
to). I don't really like the oddball items down the right side... to me
these items looks a little junky graphically and they appear like an
afterthought. 

There is something to be said for simplicity, and leaving "white space" is a
design concept. Every square inch does not have be filled with something. I
have resisted from time to time put to items on the main page, preferring to
put them where they really belong, where someone would expect to find same. 

I would like to see much thought given to the overall organization of the
content. The content needs to be available in a logical and succinct manner.
Easier said than done, I know, as I have pondered and adjusted our present
AIS website organization groupings and presentation for many hours over the
years. Probably it could be better, it needs lots of thought from people who
know the functioning of the AIS and how it all pieces would logical flow
together under a limited number of headings. (and they do need to be
limited, four might be not enough, perhaps a couple more at most would work
better logistically)

The new site should cleanly and easily present our available content, so you
can easily scan a broader and deeper range of the AIS. The contents
navigation (what will be contained in the cascade menus from the main four,
should be: intuitive, easy to understand, easily visible and always
available in a consistent manner. I also don't really see how the AIS
website overall content would slot under the four headings as they are named
now. A simple search function would also okay to have too but should just be
considered as an extra option to use in conjunction with the main
navigation. 

The original AIS website was designed in 2002 to the standards of the day -
monitors were smaller and many people ran 800 pixel width resolutions, and
high-speed internet was nothing like now. It is my feeling that in the last
couple of years computer hardware/monitors have far outgrown that
limitation.

The new design page needs to be wider - the current design of mine is 760
pixels wide to accommodate the old monitors and settings to avoid side
scrolling. The new design should go to 1100 pixels wide. This allows for
better use of today's bigger monitors - the space is there so I say use it.
Most new monitors run and look better at 1280 or higher resolutions
(1440x900 and many are 1680x1050) - so if you're still running an old
monitor (1080 or lower resolution) - monitors have never been better or less
expensive - and if you are not already there, I invite you to upgrade -
'cause the future is here.

The wider page (1100 pixels)also answers the call of a better general page
layout design (as yet unseen). It avails a 3 columnar layout format that can
accommodate copy and photos presenting content nicely with a proper
technical line length for readability (this is important).

It also allows for the future of potential advertisers ad formats. Allowing
the incorporation of spaces for internet industry standards of 300x100
Rectangles, and 300x250 Boxes. These are commonly run down the right hand
side of the pages. 

Faced with the reality of shrinking membership for various socio-economic
reasons, website ad spaces could help to pay the AIS bills in the near and
projected future.

In closing I would like to see a re-work of the main page layout to a wider
and cleaner design and also like to see the design layout of the general
site pages which will have to hold the important information contents of the
AIS website.

All of this is offered as constructive input. Best regards.

Christopher Hollinshead | AIS Website 
3070 Windwood Drive
Mississauga, Ontario L5N 2K3
AIS website: www.irises.org  
e-mail: wolf-com@rogers.com
e-mail: aiswebsite@hotmail.com 
 

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-aisdiscuss@aisboard.org [mailto:owner-aisdiscuss@aisboard.org]
On Behalf Of John I Jones
Sent: Saturday, January 31, 2009 4:00 PM
To: aisdiscuss@aisboard.org
Subject: [AISdiscuss] Website Candidates

Below are some links to possible designs for the new home page for the AIS
website. Try not to be concerned about the particular irises that were used
for the various graphic elements. They can be easily changes according to
what we want. We just grabbed some to use as representative placeholders.

The center section will be a window into a changing list of irises that will
change everytime someone selects "Reload" or comes back to the page. There
will also be "Next" and "Previous" buttons to srcoll through the library of
pictures. I do not want to have an automatic slide show because that can
load up a slow internet connection when people don't want that.

The section at the bottom of the page is meant to be an "Article/ Story of
the Month" and we will need lots of authors and ideas for this area.

What is important is the top level division of information. Are the
categories the right ones? Is the wording right? What about the fonts we
used? The graphics and shapes? The background?

The categories are:

Growing Irises: Cultural information on all the various classifications
(lots of content to create here), links to local Regions\Societies. Links to
sources  (What else?)

About the AIS: Some of our history, what we do, mission, benefits (What
else?) Conventions, meetings

AIS Members: Links to a page that has some public information and a button
to go the Members Only section (when we have one). News and announcements,
Information central, Conventions, meetings  (What else?)

AIS Board: AIS board contacts, related files, minutes etc  (What else?)

There will be duplicated links in several of the categories because multiple
constituencies need the same information and there is no sense in having the
same information in multiple places when the same page can be referenced
from multiple places.

http://www.mchalecreates.com/AIS/AIS-home-page-comp-A.4.html

http://www.mchalecreates.com/AIS/AIS-home-page-comp-B.4.html

http://www.mchalecreates.com/AIS/AIS-home-page-comp-D.2.html




So what thoughts do you have?

Thanks

John

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