[IMC-Tech] Re: on UCIMC website, hard to find "how do I help in area X?"

[Danielle Chynoweth]

agreed.  thanks for the suggestion.  yes, as someone who gives tours every
week, i hear frequently that the website doesn't reflect the organization as
a whole - even folks who scour the website don't "get it" until they come to
the space.  lots of folks complain about a lack of location and contact
info.

I have given this some thought, based on the best use of the upper site real
estate.

the banner image should include the location. or if another navigation
module can be added - location and open hours should be posted there.

i propose upper links called:
news (which goes to home)
about us
projects
calendar
space
donate
search

and under "be the media" on the left hand side could be:
- publish online
- web group (which would include links to chat, RSS, forums and other things
not used at all right now but taking up a lot of space)
- public i newspaper
- radio free urbana
- books to prisoners
- booking collective
- video group
- artist collective
- community wireless
- bike coop

And then put our address and contact info in the footer.

thoughts anyone?

- Danielle


On 5/27/07, Barry Isralewitz <barryi at ks.uiuc.edu> wrote:
>
> Hi Danie The UCIMC website makes it hard to find out the important  fact
> that  are many specific, active groups (the Working Groups) working on
> particular areas.  Perhaps something as simple as a "Projects" link in top
> navbar of  http://ucimc.org, along with another mention at the top of
> http://ucimc.org/info/volunteer.  Both links would point to the list of
> working groups in the middle of the page of
> http://ucimc.org/info/volunteer.
>
> Details
> As it is, web site visitor asking "who at UCIMC cares about local video
> production issues" will navigate to the ucimc.org site, maybe click
> 'volunteer' (alhough a much better nav-bar  link for this visitor might be
> "Projects" or "Activities" or even the jargonny 'Working Groups") .
>    Problem is, even  when this visitor reaches
> http://ucimc.org/info/volunteer, she may not scroll down the page to the
> "Plug into a working group project" part.  The details about joining all at
> the top (initiially visible part) of the page all come before the important
> fact:
>     there are multiple, actiive specific groups one can contact by joining
> their mailing lists / reading their mailing list archives.
> Best might be putting all working group names on some front page nav
> bar.
>
> Why do I say all this?  Two people came and visited the UCIMC and reported
> such an experience; had a community action item (looking for partners for a
> road trip to cable video access legislation event).  She could not find any
> contacts on the web site they could write to.   Then when _I_ -- who knows
> well the fact that there are multiple working groups, and ones directly
> relevant here -- took several minutes to discover  find the list of working
> groups
>
> Bonus sign suggestion: The people visiting came in the back way, to the
> bike co-op entrance, perhaps confused by the front way's appearance. Maybe
> UCIMC needs a nice "go back upstairs for most activities" sign for the
> Cherry Alley entrance ; so confused visitors don't miss activities taking
> place on the upper level -- should they go to the Cherry Alley entrance and
> the  lower level doorbell goes unheard since nobody is on the lower level.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Barry
>
> --
> Barry Isralewitz   Theoretical and Computational Biophysics Group, UIUC
> Beckman 3043   Office Phone: (217) 244-1612  Home Phone: (217) 337-6364
> email: barryi at ks.uiuc.edu      http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/~barryi<http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/%7Ebarryi>
>
>
>
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/archive/imc-tech/attachments/20070529/4ad5b3b9/attachment.htm