RE: AIS Website Goals and Suggestions

[Susan Boyce <100T@rewrite.aisboard.org>]

Hi all,
   I have to disagree with Bob's statement that we had an unsatisfactory
result.  The website has served us well since it was redone.  Yes, there was
some adjustments in finding the information, but there is always an adjustment
period when changes are done and some people find it hard.  Just like when a
grocery store moves all of the food around to a new location in a store, it
takes some time to relocate where your stuff is now located.
   The opening page of the website is now an attractive site with rotating
iris pictures to entice you to look further.  The old website was plain and
boring.
  The last time we started to totally redo the website the cost was estimated
at $8,000.  If we were to totally redo the site, the cost would be far about
the 10 grand mark.  An amount that the AIS could not realistically afford.
   In my opinion a minor upgrade to the website that would allow easier
navigation, that comes out of the Electronic Services Restricted Fund, not the
AIS fund, would be an affordable welcome change in assisting our members to
search for what they need.
Susan Boyce

> Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2014 09:21:56 -0400
> To: aisdiscuss@aisboard.org
> Subject: Re: [AISdiscuss] AIS Website Goals and Suggestions
> From: 101p@rewrite.aisboard.org
>
> As I showed before AIS is performing quite well in respect to other plant
society websites. I wanted to share the following ALEXA ratings. Remember
lower is better. Alexa does not rate sites that get too little traffic to
measure. That is why most of the AIS sections are not listed. But what is
listed gives some idea of their relative importance on the internet. As John
pointed out there are analytic tools that can tell us what pages of the AIS
website are most visited. It seems to me before we go about redesigning the
menu it would be nice to get a better understanding of how the AIS website is
used. I do not think quantity of traffic is the only parameter that should be
considered. How do we want people to use the website (Perhaps how does it
attract new members)? How can it best serve existing members? I believe we
should work on gathering some of this information before we proceed in the
same way we did the last time that gave us an unsatisfactory result. We have
gone se!
>  veral years without a correction I do not think we should rush into a quick
fix. It is an opportunity to do more/better.
> Alexa website rankings
> Daves Garden=16,947
> All Things Plants=210,987
> AIS (including wiki)= 250,593
> Reblooming=4,023,712
> TBIS=5,493,575
> HIPS=7,045,862
> SIGNA=7,809,407
> Siberian=8,729,218
> Median=12,637,921
> PCN=14,302,508
> DIS=15,966,439
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Wayne Messer" <6d200f2f1@rewrite.aisboard.org>
> To: aisdiscuss@aisboard.org
> Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2014 9:33:56 PM
> Subject: [AISdiscuss] AIS Website Goals and Suggestions
>
> As Jim pointed out, we need AIS goals to align the website goals with.  But
> there may be website goals that would support whatever AIS goals are.
>
> One website goal that I would put in that category is Keeping members and
> the public engaged with what AIS is doing.  We want members to know what is
> happening so they can participate and we want the public (potential
> members) to see that exciting things are happening because of AIS.
>
> My suggestion for doing this would be to add a blog to the website.  This
> would not be the World of Irises blog, which I would continue as it is
> showing the breadth and beauty of irises and their history.  The blog I
> have in mind would focus more on AIS news and happenings.  It would include
>
>    1. News from the AIS.  Items that now show up under News in our current
>    menu.  The Board and various Committees may also have items they wish to
>    share.
>    2. News from the Sections and Cooperating Societies.  Similar to Gary's
>    Section Happenings in the Irises Bulletin.
>    3. News from the Regions.  Much of this is in the Regions' newsletters
>    and websites and deserves a wider audience.
>    4. News from the Affiliated Clubs.  This we might have to limit if it
>    really gets rolling.
>
> As a blog, items could be a little longer than some that now appear in News
> on the website.  And they can be more casual and include images as well as
> the links to the full items.  Having it as a blog will also make it easier
> to point to individual news items from other AIS sites and even from
> non-AIS sites.
>
> I believe there are widgets we could add to World of Irises which would
> display the titles for the last few entries from this blog adjacent to the
> World of Irises entry.  Presumably there is also something similar so we
> could show recent entries titles on the AIS website, maybe the front page,
> as well.  As an aside, there might also be a widget for the AIS website to
> display recent titles from the World of Irises.
>
> I have no idea whether this would fit in the current design of the
> website.  If it would, the menu item News could be replaced with News Blog
> or whatever we would like to call it.
>
> If it would not fit in the current design, it could still be implemented
> without waiting for a redesign by hosting the blog on a separate site.
>
> My other suggestion/comment on adding a blog would be to follow the World
> of Irises setup.  If I understand it, they have someone (Andi) responsible
> overall for it and there are many additional editors who can add items.
> This allows more frequent changes and updates without overloading one or
> two people.
>
> Regards,
>
> Wayne Messer
>
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