Sex appeal and feedback, capstone website

I think one of the most inspiring weeks of my Capstone has been this week. For another class that I am taking, Advanced Internet, we are also working with Wordpress, and I had to write another blog for that class analyzing another Wordpress site. I've learned so much about how to make a site dynamic, even when I can use fancy Javascripts or code. It really is a challenge to both my left logical brain and my creative right brain when it comes to figuring out how I'm going to make this site work.

A website's sex appeal, to designers and builders may not be be the number one (for me it's definitely organization) but to a standard audience, it means the difference in how long they're going to stay on a website, or how they're going to process information.  So what I plan on putting into this week, is thoughtful 'sex appeal' making sure as I start putting in visually attractive content (pictures, picture slideshows, organizing video) that I do it in a way that is not only attractive and interactive, but also smart and intuitive. I've learned that links, although not the superior form what I want to accomplish, work well if implanted constructively and seamlessly.

I have made some plans as to how I'm going to execute this idea, and I think that it is going to rely not only on my judgement, but also vigorous user testing. Though I feel like I'm in "beta" mode of my site still, I think the sooner I get people clicking and exploring, the more that I can do to make it better. Feedback is definitely going to help this part of my project. I've also begun mobile device testing, and seeing how I can customize what the mobile side of SCS site looks like and responses.

The Anti-Script Underbelly of Wordpress.com for SCS's site

So I found out today, that if you create a blog/website under Wordpress.com ( not .org) where you have a free blog/website, that you cannot embed html, javascript, or  (unapproved) iframe into these sites. It took me about an hour of searching Wordpress forums and Google until I came across this page. Which explains that external embeds are not allowed because they might contain harmful elements, so if Wordpress encounters these kind of scripts, they automatically strip them out.

So that means no Google Custom Search Engine. Which is a total and complete bummer, because I definitely think it would make such a great addition to the site. Good news though, I've already created the search engine until Shepherd Career Services' Google account, so that if one day it does become available, the search engine code is ready to be copied and pasted.

Actually the more that I delve into Wordpress.com, the more I think it would definitely be worth a company or organization's time to just spend the money and self-host with wordpress.org rather than use a free blog with wordpress. The snags that I have run into, are definitely frustrating.

Since I could not enter into custom javascript or css, and I wanted to do something a little more dynamic for Shepherd Career Services' "What Can You Do With this Major?" page, I decided that I could use Wordpress.com's gallery feature, create buttons in Photoshop and then have it display as a dynamic gallery while linking each gallery image to a link on Salary.com or other job search sites. Turns out though, you cannot link individual images to individual links inside of a gallery. Well i don't know if you can, but I've been researching it profusely for the past half hour to no avail, so if someone has done it, I would greatly appreciate it if you pass the word along.

Mainly, through my Wordpress experience, I've realized how much you can't do rather than what you can do with Wordpress.com. I guess that's an okay thing, since this site has to be integrated on a different server soon anyway, but it just makes it more difficult for me as I keep trying to find ways to make the content more dynamic without being to code in javascript or iframes.

After taking time to think about how I was going to include some of the cool elements into the site that I had originally planned to embed. I've just decided that it is easier to to just put links in to the different elements that I want to put in, especially some of the resources that I've found from Salary.com and other career service sites. Links are not the most dynamic thing, but I have been so focused on how to uniquely put them in so it seems more interesting and less static. I think it will just require more playing around with the gallery feature.


Other than that, the only real dilemma I've had to work with, it how to use posts and pages to organize content. I've found out how to use categories and a custom menu to do most of the work for me, however sometimes I've seen that's where I run into problems. Because under the navigation, the pages designated for a category show up as an index with no page content or text. It just brings up each relevant post in reverse chronological order under each category. So if I want to have an index or introductory page, I have to create it as a parent page and then make the category the child of the parent index.  This works fine, but it is a little bit clunky and not as streamlined as having a little static section on for each category page.
A little mix of each seems to be working out, but I as I work I just play with what feels right, if I add something new, or go in and change content, then I can always go back and change it so it makes more sense.

If you can sense the little bit of frustration I'm having, then you know how I'm feeling this week. I'm hoping next week that thing will be better and I can find better solutions to what I'm working on. I'm not ready to have a major breakdown yet, so that's a good thing. I think.

An Analysis of The Rolling Stones website

As I delve in deeper to Wordpress, I am learning so much about the way content is handled and organized.  And one of the best resources that I found that helps to build and better blog and/or website is to research other websites and see how they use a content management system. Though what I’ve learned is that there are wrong and right ways to use a CMS but there are also many different ways to organize information as well, not necessarily wrong, but different.

The site that I researched for this post is the band site for The Rolling Stones. I must say I am a little bit of a Stones fan, but I am even a bigger fan since they are using a CMS to do their web stuff. 

One important element of Wordpress that all builders, new and experienced should always take into consideration is the difference between posts and pages, when to use each one. This is a great feature of Wordpress and if done correctly cannot only make your site/blog more organized but it can also improve the visual aesthetic as well. The eye can definitely pick up when something is designed well, even if you can’t pick out what it is about the site that sets it off. The Rolling Stones site manages their posts and pages in this way. The pages function statically and hold the appropriate content, while the posts show up on each page. Some of the posts, you can tell are set to be sticky (holds them in place and ignores the reverse chronoglogical function of posts on pages) which actually works with the other content that they have. I think this display of posts is most functional on the home page. 

They also use Wordpress plugins very well. Wordpress is really just very basic without the thousands of plugins that are used to tailor so many different aspects of a site. From incorporating Javascripts to multimedia, plugins are definitely one of the most important features that Wordpress offers. ( Which sadly I found out the hard way by using a free Wordpress.com site for Capstone) There was actually a pretty good example of the Stones incorporating a Lightbox-like photo gallery that I know was made possible via Java.

I think navigation is what really sets Wordpress apart from other types of CMSs and

webbuilders, because you can almost guess that a site was created by Wordpress just by looking at the navigation. I like the Rolling Stones site because it uses custom menus and parent/child pages to help navigate content. Everything that I could possibly want to find on the Stones' site is easily accessible without having to search and sift through information. 

If I would give any cons to the site, I would definitely say that the text sections (scroll down once you click the link) have too much information for a user to digest at any moment, and that I would hope that they might go through and shorten/ condense some of the info to make it more user digestible. 

Starting Wordpress

Finally, the real work begins!

 These next two weeks are the going to be the bulk of my Capstone experience and I have to admit that I am a little nervous, but mostly excited to dive right into work. I definitely have so many ideas and goals running through my head still, and I hope I will be able to translate them all into the website.

I have found working with the Lynda programs makes me not so afraid of working with Wordpress. I actually think it will go very well. And I’ve come to terms that this site is going to be mostly framework, and that the organization of data is such an important factor that I have to convey in my work.

I met with Victoria again on Thursday and we talked about the additions that I needed to add onto my current client analysis and also, what features they needed as an organization. I’ve already set them up a Twitter account and linked their Facebook page to their new website, I’ve also already started dumping their written copy into posts and pages on the new site. I think that is going to be the bulk of the work is sorting and organizing the data, but I’ve also got some fun thing to put into the site as well.

Wordpress has so many great features such as polls, google analytics, a google calendar for their events and such that I’m sure those will be welcome add ons to what I already have. The only thing that I am truly concerned about is if I will have the means to insert some of the dynamic content. Hopefully most of the plugins that are available will be free and have installation that isn’t crazily complex.

I also need to go back and edit my proposal, client analysis, and previous webmap, which I am hoping to also complete this week. Website goals this week is to have all pages and copy in so I can maneuver posts around in the following week. I ‘ve got so much to do and not very much time to do it. But I'm just hoping that everything will turn out for the best. Victoria has been such an inspiration to work with and I want to give her my best, because she puts so much in Shepherd Career Services.

Why Content Management Systems are Preferred

For this blog, I am going to discuss why content management systems are preferred over traditional web building methods and why they should be considered for websites and the future of the internet.

Having used both web building software and browser based CMS, I can definitely say that first, in my personal opinion that I cannot believe how much simpler and easier building a complex and nice looking site is with a CMS. Not downing on Dreamweaver ( the website building software I used to use) because Dreamweaver definitely fits its purpose and now have available all kinds of plugins that can enhance the features of Dreamweaver.

However, Dreamweaver is code based. And I truthfully, I don’t mind noodling around with code, I find it interesting other than the fact that it can get repetitive at times and somewhat tedious after long intervals, however for me, I think it’s easier to pinpoint problems with a site if you can find the exact code where something is wrong, not exactly the easiest thing in a CMS.

So, to first start off, I guess I should explain what a content management system is or rather give an example of how I understand CMS. The easiest way that I can explain CMS, is like a big  self-organizing filing cabinet. It’s browser based really large database where you can store all your web’s content and have it organized any way that you want. Which I prefer to Dreamweaver, because I like being able to not having to use code all the time. Oh yeah, did I mention that it’s much less code focused than a program like Dreamweaver? It is. Oh yeah.

Well, not that code bothers me, it doesn’t ( see above) but I haven’t had a strong background in coding, (I knew some, but not enough above novice level) and a content management system allows me to bypass alot of the menusha code ( though it is still good to know CSS for stylistic purposes).

Also from a business end, CMSs just make sense. Websites are crucial to a business's success and you need an attractive, working, and current site, to make it in the market. One online company explains the benefits of using CMSs like this,  " Business websites frequently need to perform tasks like upgradation, content management, sales analysis, vistor analysis, etc... A majority of business websites prefer CMS solutions thanks to their ease of use and extraordinary features that make these tasks a lot easter. With the help of CMS solutions, online business management has become a lot simpler than it e was ever imagined to be."

What are some of these features you may ask? The plugins available for CMS are almost limitless there are thousands and thousands of them, from shopping cart and online web store plugins to photo and product design, to marketing enhancers, membership logins, security based, newsletters and so so so many more.

One webmaster, Christopher Heung of thesitewizard.com also describes some time saving, effort saving benefits of switching to a CMS, " Unlike an offline web editor, where everything you want done on your site has to be added manually, blogging and CMS software handle things like tagging, categories and a managing a search engine for you. 

-Simply tag your post as having a certain keyword, and a new index page is automatically generated for you with a list of posts that have that particular tag. There's no need to contemplate whether it is worth the effort and time to create a new page for that particular keyword or tag. The software does it for you. 

-Your visitors automatically have the option, if they wish, to check out all the other articles having the same tag. Unlike an offline web editor, where everything you want done on your site has to be added manually, blogging and CMS software handle things like tagging, categories and a managing a search engine for you. 

.-Likewise, adding a search engine to your website is no longer a hassle. In fact, the few popular blog software that I have tried automatically add a search engine for you whether you want it or not.

-The blogging software automatically increases the usability of your website without adding complexity to your job as a webmaster."

Learning from Lynda and Client Analysis

This week in Capstone, I feel like I have made a few big strides in my work.  I’ve drafted my client analysis and my old webmap. My meeting with Monica I think really helped me find the right direction that I was going on with this website. Also, in my 447 class, we are starting to delve more and more into Wordpress, which is helping me with my research for the Shepherd Career Services site.

In my client analysis, I tried to stay organized and streamlined with 3 main points/ goals of the new site:

-to be fun, entertaining, but informative

- to have connections to social networking and other databases

-to make the information easily accessible and user friendly to navigate

I've also been looking at other career services websites for even more research, and I've been looking at websites who have been acclaimed for their design and trying to pick out pieces of content and style that will make a seamless integration into the site. Social media such as LinkdIn really make a difference in how effective a career services site is. 

Victoria Buchbauer, head of Career Services, also gave me some content to start looking through that she had collected over the years. I found many creative and fun videos about career choices, creating a resume, interviews, and most importantly networking that I think will make excellent additions to the media on the website.

I am also starting to really try and get the hang of Wordpress and I’m ready to begin my intensive training with Lynda.com and any other tutorials that I can find. We also decided in 447 whereabouts we are going to host the site, and since I plan on using my time in 447 to work on my capstone project, I think it has been such important research in helping me determine what steps I need to take to make this successful.

Goals for this next week:

Try and absorb as much information about wordpress from tutorial sites and lynda.

Edit and do another draft of the client analysis

Fix and edit the old site's webmap