Transcript Site Genres - Vanier College

Site Genres
Site Genres
• Each Genre has its own content, needs and
audience.
• Provides the framework needed to construct
many different kinds of sites.
• High-Level and fairly abstract, describing
general properties and characteristics of various
types of Web sites.
• Not cast in stone, one can pull ideas from one
genre to another so that each can benefit from
elements of the other.
Personal E-Commerce
• Forms the core that makes online
shopping possible.
• Promises to make customers` lives easier
and more enjoyable.
• People enjoy the pleasure of discovery,
simplicity and convenience.
• Problem: many e-commerce sites are too
cumbersome to use and as a result
customers leave.
What should you do?
• Make it clear WHY People should
Purchase from you
• Provide many ways to find Products
• Keep it convenient
• Avoid Surprises
Solutions
• Differentiate your site so that customers
know why it is compelling and valuable.
• Provide browsing and searching tools.
• Rich information about products and
services.
• Accessible
• Clear privacy and security policies.
• Shipping/Handling/Returns policies.
• FAQ
Example
News Mosaics
• Learn about their world through news and
history
• Must deliver:
– What their readers want
– Depth and breadth of coverage – to engage
them
– Make historical record available (archives)
Time and Access
• Time and Access – The web allows for better
archiving and retrieval
• Time pressures – delivering the “scoop“ faster
and faster
– Use page templates
• Sources – long-term value is based up the
quality of its product
– Trust and reputation are closely linked
• People perceive news articles are more credible
is referenced and plinks are external provided
The Web is all three, but..
• Television: motion & sound
– Limited in duration and depth
• Radio: story telling & music
– Travels well
– Limited in duration and depth
• Print: space, depth & mobility
– Lacks interactivity
• BUT…people skim the web
– People use the back button fast!
– Lacks portability
Draw people by using…
• Clear first read: sets and unifies the visual
and writing style
• Inverse-pyramid: give the important
information first
• Use online videos
– lacks quality
– Broadband capabilities
– Not portable
– Hard to search
Strengths
• Provide short and long forms of the news
articles
– Use hyperlinks for full versions
• Manageable chunks: break it up and give
it the characteristics of TV’s brevity and
print’s depth
• Use embedded links or consistent
sidebars of related content
– Adds depth to a story
Audience
• Advantage: Tailored to each person
– Limiting their exposure to news outside their
immediate areas of interest.
• Challenge: offer what your readers want,
but also the high-quality. information they
do not know about
– looking for a guide when they come to a site
with lots of information.
– How to prioritize the information based upon
the readers interests.
Hints and Tips
• Multiple ways to navigate:
– Category, topics, keyword, historical
reference.
– Writing for search engines and organized
search results.
• Getting the news right is an important
societal issue. The quality of your news
site can have a major impact.
Solutions
• Build a mosaic of news
– Provide breadth and depth of coverage through
various categories and subcategories.
– Highlight the most important article and lead text
– High level summary – for the quick read
– In-depth information for the entire article
– Link together related news articles (articles, radio
stories or video clips)
– Archive
Example
Non-Profits as Networks of Help
• Rely on financial sponsors, volunteers and
staff members to the benefit of a client
cause.
• Bring them together in a network using the
web.
• Each have their own needs for
participation.
• Provide information anytime anywhere.
• Build an individual relationship between
the Non-profit and each visitor.
A True Network
• A Web site can be the nexus of
communication that allow people to
connect directly to one another.
• Most non-profits are organized around
projects bringing together volunteers,
beneficiaries, and sponsorships from
financial contributors.
• Coordinating all projects is a arduous
tasks requiring resources and time
• Financial sponsors benefit from seeing the
projects come to term/advance
Network Effect
• Using the web allows for cost savings.
• Improves communication.
– Message boards
– Online schedules
– Site-publishing tools
• Central Project Management Server –
centralization of information.
• Everyone gains more benefit as more
individuals use this network of
connections.
Specific Solutions
• Each group has their own particular interests/questions.
• Financial:
– What do I want to fund this non-profit?
• Volunteers:
– Why is this a worthy cause?
• Staff:
– Who are the current volunteers, financiers, etc…?
• Beneficiaries:
– Who are the people helping me?
• Everyone:
– What are the latest developments with current projects?
Solutions
• Minimum:
– Respond to their needs/interests/questions
• Enhancements:
– ability to sign up for projects in a place where
all team members can coordinate, participate,
and record project developments for future
reference.
Example
Valuable Company Sites
• Company sites must address the needs of
many audiences, but a site that does not
balance these needs in proportion to the
audience will not succeed.
• Company sites engage, sell, support,
promote, inform, recruit
• Reinforces brand recognition
• Give the largest groups priority (95-5 rule)
Balance
• Trade-off between communication &
differentiation.
• Navigation tools to find what they seek.
3 observations
• Clear First Read:
– Logo top left hand corner
– Up-front value proposition
• Focus your design on phrases that people
normally scan:
– use succinct phrases
• Audience is comprised of many groups and
subgroups:
– Each need answers to their particular questions
– Caveat: 95-5 rule
Targeting
• Everyone:
– What does this cie do?
• Customers:
– How do I buy the products & services?
• Partners:
– What would a partnership offer my company?
• Investors:
– What is the financial performance of the cie?
• Employees:
– How can I apply?
Convenience
• What makes sense to people internal may
not make sense to its customers
Solutions
• Dedicate 95% of the area and links to the visitor groups
that account for 95% of the total visitor population:
– Provides clear value proposition
• Balance space for your branding against the navigation
needs of your target audience.
• Provide effective search capabilities:
– Multiple ways to navigate.
• Communication:
– Use familiar language targeted to the target audience
• 2 click:
– Get to where you are going in about 2 clicks.
• Value-add services:
– Email subscriptions
– Newsletters
– Job postings
Educational Forums
• Promote Learning by providing a way to
publicize using New Mosaics, community
conferences, deliver online learning and
research tools, and online courses.
• Problem: Being able to bring together
students, parents, mentors, alumni, and
educators to the site.
What Can be done?
• Provide news and information for students,
potential students, parents, mentors, and
teachers that help coordinate offline
activities.
• Building a common forum among these
groups to allow for appropriate interaction
depending on the maturity level.
• Satisfying each group’s different needs.
Other Solutions
• Basic Educational Forums: using a portaltype approach that allows multiple ways to
get to information.
• Advanced Educational Forums: Online
interaction between groups through
Secure connection by using user/pass
authentication.
• Example:http://jmsb.concordia.ca/login
Example
Web Apps that Work
• Web Services that are sold online rather
than in a store.
• They get customers up and running
without time-consuming and costly
software installation, etc.
• Customers use these for real work often
for hours every day.
Web Apps
• Problem: Customers will want to try before
they buy.
– Provide lots of information about your service.
(value proposition, screenshots, etc.)
– Allow for a trial account.
– MAKE SURE IT IS VERY USER-FRIENDLY.
People don’t always want to make time to
learn Web Apps. They’ll just look for another
one that is better.
Web Apps
• Problem: Latency on the Web. Customers
get impatient, frustrated, want to cancel
the service!
– Offer informative feedback (status info like
...loading… please wait…)
– Design pages to be fast loading.
Overall
• Offer Abundant Help
• Make Security and Privacy Tight
– Information hosted is confidential
• Support Different Roles
– Management, operational, administrative, etc.
Enabling Intranets
• Support the internal work of an
organization.
• Problem: the need to have more
productive employees, but employees
have new responsibilities over time and
should not have to learn new computing
systems to carry out their new
responsibilities.
Intranet must have’s
• Personalized Views (permissions): not all
information should be accessible to all
members of the organization.
• Support Workflows: Filling out a claim form
which is automatically sent to the manager
or department that handles those claims.
(I.e. insurance claim, expense reports,
etc.)
Overall
• Consistent look and feel (support
employee learning by using consistent
terminology)
• Establish Policies on new Content
• Provide simple ways to add new Content
• Start off with a few modules and then take
small steps forward adding new modules.
• Provide a Secure Area