mindgraffiti

I find that rebuild projects often focus on the negative: what needs redone and what needs improvement. What I often fail to communicate is why I am excited about projects like this to begin with: because the site has a lot of potential! So before I discuss any more of the improvements I would like to see, here are a few things that the Parents as Teachers website does right:

1. Content is king. Every bit of information on the site is relevant, useful and kept up-to-date. Past events are posted to give new parents an idea of what to expect in the future, even if the future date of the event is unknown.
2. Information architecture by design. Instead of thrown-together content, the information is organized with a purpose. For example, on the landing page the featured events line the right side of the page and events categorized by age line the left side. The school district’s disclaimer is kept at the bottom, in a smaller text size – a normal text treatment used for secondary information and legalese.
3. Readability is excellent. A few splashes of color and a touch of informal fonts convey an open, friendly attitude without becoming distracting.
4. Acknowledges the visitor. That the site even exists means that someone, somewhere has acknowledged how nice it is to have this information available, at a busy parent’s convenience. Another way the visitor is recognized is in the tone of the writing. For topics like Kindergarten Registration, it addresses parents in a direct manner: “If you missed the Kindergarten Registration [...].” then gives a full set of instructions on the page, arming parents with the information they need to get stuff done.

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