How to NOT design a web page
DavidTO
Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 19,160 Major grins
Unfortunately, the awesome school that my children go to has one of the most unfortunate web pages I have ever seen. Just try and find something on it.
I'd love to find a way for them to make it better, but I also don't want to just mosey into the school and tell them what they're doing wrong.
Colina Middle School
I'd love to find a way for them to make it better, but I also don't want to just mosey into the school and tell them what they're doing wrong.
Colina Middle School
0
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From a look at the home page, I'd bin the whole thing and start again, and keep the 'designer' of this monstrosity in solitary confinement throughout the process. But if you've absolutely got to work with what you've got, I'd get rid of all the animation, chuck the ticker, eliminate the slideshow, seriously cull the spurious volume of content on the home page, and completely replace that crass colour-scheme!
Burst in and tell them their design is antiquated, wretched, revolting, and blech. That they should fire their web designer, and find someone with a clue.
Ok now that I go tthat out of my system. Who designed that thing? It's really bad.
www.zxstudios.com
http://creativedragonstudios.smugmug.com
My kids' counselor. See? Diplomacy required.
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www.zxstudios.com
http://creativedragonstudios.smugmug.com
GAAAhhh.!..my eyes...my EYES!!! :cry
Sam
Bear
http://behr655.smugmug.com/gallery/2514206#132038106
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Sad but all too true.
David
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Well, it could be that Andy's trying now to get more humor on his Random Quote Generator...but I'll take what I can get.
Maybe I should change the name? At work we used to have the Wall of Shame for the stupid things people said. Any suggestions?
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That whole page looks like a pop up ad.
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Travel = good. Woo, shooting!
nickwphoto
Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life...Picasso
Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life...Picasso
There i said it !
I feel somewhat... grubby.
you are too funny.
you asked me how i knew that site as if it had dirty things on it I double checked 3 times I put the right hyperlink in
Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life...Picasso
I'm sure i've seen a worse website somewhere but i cant remember it.
Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life...Picasso
If it has a manual setting then it can do storms.
Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life...Picasso
The only good thing I can say about it is that it finally gave me a good excuse to use the South Park smiley.
You are in a delicate position, it seems. I gather you don't want to take over the site yourself. Perhaps the most diplomatic approach would be to look for some examples of better designed sites from other schools in your area. I'm guessing that should be easy enough to find. Then send the designer an email with links to the other sites and briefly explain why simpler is better. And let it go at that. After all, it really isn't all that important, is it?
Cheers,
Try it outside in the dark & practice a bit before a storm.
Think of the poor counselor who got kind of forced into doing this job and has to please everyone who wants "their" item on the front page. In fact there are no other pages at all and that's the problem! The person may not know how to add a second or third page.
What is the "approved" software the person is allowed to use, does anyone else update the page?
There can be a lot of school politics surrounding the web page that the counselor can't work around -- maybe an outsider could have an effect.
Showing local schools' pages might have some good purpose (if they are any good, that is).
My daughter's preschool website is also one big mess, primarily because it's not updated -- all parent volunteer.
So before you criticize this counselor, find the story behind the webpage first.
BTW I thought it was neat they have "bees" other than spelling!
http://www.twitter.com/deegolden
This guy is very enthusiastic and full of energy. He's a great asset to the school. Very nerdly, too. Makes him kind of funny, all that nerdly enthusiasm. I'd like to help, but also understand that it takes diplomacy (dragon300zx).
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There should be a setting in my browser to disable those things, right?
Even so, that's a mess of a website.
"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky
Can I have some tone to go with those bars
Ian
David,
I promise you no one has ever accused me of being a dipolmat.
However you sould setup a un-named email account. And send some of our comments to him along with some suggestions for improvement. That way you can be blunt and not have to worry about reprocussions.
www.zxstudios.com
http://creativedragonstudios.smugmug.com