Site Rebuild: Parents as Teachers
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:
- 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.
- 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.
- Readability is excellent. A few splashes of color and a touch of informal fonts convey an open, friendly attitude without becoming distracting.
- 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.
A walk through a site rebuild
Nothing new happening at work, so I have been focusing on freelance projects to help keep me sharp. The local St. Joseph Parents as Teachers is a group I find relevant and worthwhile, so I’ve volunteered my skills to revamp their website.
Landing page for the St. Joseph Parents as Teachers
The First Step
Research. Who owns the parent site? St. Joseph School District. What technology are they using? SJSD is using a combination of ASP and ASP.NET, but the Parents as Teachers site is plain vanilla HTML. That indicates they have independent control. A good thing for me, but possibly a hassle for the Parents as Teachers volunteer who has to deal with managing a site and who had no idea where to start.
Step Two
Find a contact that manages the site. Easy enough, with the Contact Us page.
Hi Debbie,
Scott and I took Erik to our first Parents as Teachers meeting last night. The Water Play for Babies meeting was a lot of fun, and Scott’s taking Erik to the Infant Massage today.
You guys do some great work and I was hoping I could help out. I’m a web developer by profession and I design and build websites for a living. If you need any help with the Parents as Teachers website, I’d love to volunteer. Feel free to contact me by e-mail: [x] or phone: [x].
Cheers,
Thuy Copeland
Wait for reply.
You must be a Godsend. I am in Virginia now on holiday, but am returning next week. YES, we’d love help on our website. It is connected to the SJSD site, but we know there is much work to do.
I’ll contact you in the next couple of weeks.
Thanks so much. I’m glad you enjoyed the class.
Debbie
Now what? My goal is always to make this as easy as possible. Busy people want managers. They don’t want to babysit me.
Hi Debbie,
My goal is to make this as painless for you as possible. I’m ready to work on the site, I just need 2 pieces of information to get this project rolling:
1) FTP username & password
Since they have independent control over their site and do not use ASP, I think it’s safe to assume they have access to an FTP account.
2) Information on events (Date, time, location, etc.)If you have a Word document or other electronic file, just e-mail me that. I can work with whatever you have.
Bonus:
Contact info for the tech person that provided the FTP info.Thanks,
Thuy Copeland
I should have made the e-mail a bit shorter, but that’s okay. It only contains 1) relevant, necessary information; and 2) a call to action.
While I Wait
I downloaded their files as a temporary backup and started looking at options. Since the preferred server-side language of choice is ASP, I know it’s highly unlikely they have PHP installed. WordPress is likely out of the question, but I’ll certainly ask. That means possibly sticking with a Dreamweaver/Template-based site. Not a real problem, though. I can still use JavaScript libraries and a nice site design to spice it up.
Aside from technical constraints, I consider their content. What content exists right now? Is it presented in a way that’s easy for a parent to access? How I can generate more for them? What other content would parents be interested in seeing? From my own limited perspective as a parent, I would like to see the events highlighted on the landing page. I would also like to see a map embedded in the “How to Find Us” page, so I can get driving directions or see if I’m already familiar with the area. Already I’m thinking Google Calendar, Google Map and a Flickr photostream (or a local slideshow, depending on their needs).
Design is not what I want to focus on, so I search for a few open-source designs. From the color schemes used on the site and experience from the group meetings, I know the basic messages Parents as Teachers wants to convey: an emphasis on fun, education, and kids. Something bright, bold, open and cheery would do them justice. I take a few screenshots and bookmark the site designs.
I can’t wait to get this rolling!
What’s New in Web Services
Some of our long-awaited projects have been released, so I thought I would make note of them. Web Services now has a respectable web site to represent our department. Now that Creative Media and our department’s sites have launched, I wonder when we will be working on one for Special Services?
Our parent company has launched their touched-up design with a brand new back end. A revamped Angus e-Classifieds site has also arrived, all ASP.NET powered and compliments of the IS department.
The e-classifieds site was the first project where the Web department had the chance to work directly with the IS department. It was exciting to get the chance to collaborate with them. From a technical standpoint it was refreshing to find others who read Lifehacker and wanted to argue the finer points of jQuery versus MooTools. From the business perspective, the e-classifieds will finally become a viable revenue source for our department. The old site was so archaic it was actually losing money every time someone called to post an ad.
One step forward: our e-lists are now sent using a less-spammy/less-amateurish method.
…and one step backward: our e-lists no longer have a limit to the number we can send per day. We used to tell clients that they needed to book in advance, because we only scheduled 2 full page e-mails to be sent every Tuesday and Thursday. (Still too many, IMHO.) Now we have no limits. April is one of our busiest months. We sent out 83 e-list messages in April alone. Talk about e-mail overload! It’s no surprise our e-list subscribers never hover far above the 4,000 mark.
There are other projects waiting for the IS department’s attention, but hopefully they can help us with the Sale Books problem next. Maybe they can help us create our own Issuu-like application. A Flex app (built by us) powered by ASP.NET with a Microsoft database (built by them).
Flex, Flash Media Server and RIA concepts
Flex Research
Rich Internet Applications are popping up all over the web. When I first saw them, I thought, “I want to do that too!” I started from level 0 when learning how to use Flex and Flash Media Server to build RIAs, and I had a lot of questions:
- What is Flex?
- What makes the Flash Media Server so special?
- Why are developers using Flex & FMS to build their Rich Internet Applications?
Defining Flex
Flex is confusing. Like Flash, it can mean many different things, depending on the conversation. If you are familiar with the multiple meanings of “Flash,” it will help you understand “Flex.” As you are probably already aware, “Flash” can refer to:
- the software – an IDE, such as Flash MX 2004
- an animation or game built from the software – like homestarrunner.com
- the .swf – the most common compiled file created by the software
- the player – such as Flash Player 10, a web browser plug in
Its logic is driven by a script language called ActionScript. “Flex” can mean:
- the software – an IDE, such as Flex Builder 3
- the framework – the SDK, such as Flex SDK
- Rich Internet Applications built from the software
Flex creates .swf files for the client, just like Flash. It uses Flash Player, just like Flash. Its logic is driven by ActionScript and can also incorporate a server-side language, such as Coldfusion, PHP or asp.NET.
The applications I develop for my company will use a symphony created from Flex, Flash Media Server, ActionScript 3 and asp.NET.
The Flash Media Server
FMS is a powerful tool that is simple to implement. If you want to manipulate online video and deliver it in an efficient manner without knowing much about video, FMS is a good, albeit expensive, answer. Dynamic video streaming and live streaming video with fast setup and use. Once FMS was installed it was easy to jump right in and begin adding stream-on-demand videos for our clients. The Flash Media Encoder allows you to start streaming live video with less than 5 minutes of time setting up the program. The major flaw of the Flash Media Encoder is that it supports Windows only- no Linux or Mac version of the software is available.
Rich Internet Application Development – Why FMS and Flex?
FMS makes it easy to deploy video as well as coordinate any real-time tasks by using RTMP. Flex allows rapid prototype development thanks to the multitude of components and libraries available in the framework. Create your application in Flex, publish the resulting .swf file, have it coordinate with FMS for any real-time tasks you have, and voilà! you just produced: an online video chat, a live auction complete with audio, video and real-time bidding, or a live business presentation across countries.
Reinterpreting Wardens Farm
Wardens Farm is a new client with an existing web site – what we call “takeover sites.” Built in Front Page 5.0, it was my responsibility to reinterpret their old site into something a little more palatable. I was instructed to keep the color palette the same and “clean up” the design. Here you can see their original look:
complete with a snapshot of the scary code Front Page generates:
We had a clean version of the Wardens Farm logo on file, so I plugged it into PhotoShop and created a design file. Here is the reinterpreted design:
Although I still don’t consider myself a web designer, I do push my limitations and improve my design skills as often as possible. I focused on the typography, since my color palette and design element choices were pretty limited. As for the code, Dreamweaver does a much better job generating clean HTML (well, compared to Front Page anyway):
This was of the fastest and most enjoyable clean-up projects I have worked on in a while.
