Guidelines for Developing an Effective Web Site for Your School
By: Henry Czubkowski

There are still many schools out there that have not looked into the benefits of having a school Web site. They cannot perceive how it could be beneficial. Today, more people look for information on the Internet than anywhere else. They can find a Christian school in the phone book, but this will not give them the feel for what the school is all about. They have to call the school and talk to someone to have their questions answered.

On the flip side, a school Web site could answer most of their questions and help them to make a decision faster on whether to enroll their child in a Christian school. A parent could get updated information, at their convenience, on a variety of events and other information without calling the school. If you have contemplated having a
Web site designed for your school, consider the following guidelines.

There are certain procedures that need to be followed in order to develop an effective Web site. You need to have a focused vision of what your school wishes to accomplish through this site. Besides having a vision of what you would like to do with this site, you need a plan of how you will fulfill this vision.

Planning is very important because it helps you focus on your objectives or goals. It also helps you map the usability of the Web site, which is very crucial in the process of developing a successful site.

Before any design is done, you must first answer these three questions:

1. Why does your school need this Web site?
2. Who will come to this site?
3. When and why is the reason they will come?

Why Do You Need a Web Site?
First, you need to get together with the people who will be giving input to this site, like the Web site developer and designer, copywriters and users who establish objectives for the site.

You need to answer the following questions:

• Why do we need a Web site?
• How do I know if this site will be successful?
• What will happen if the site is not successful?

If you are not completely convinced that you need a Web site for your school, then it obviously will be hard to devise plan for this site.

As you answer the questions, you need to be specific in your answers. A non-specific answer would be, “We need this Web site so we can give out information.” A specific would go more like, “We need this Web site so that we can feature a calendar, so we can inform the parents on upcoming events.” Or, “We need this Web site to attract new students to our Christian school.”

Who Will Come to This Site?
Web sites have public access. You will have all sorts of viewers come to your site. But “all sorts of viewers” is not the best definition for your Web site. Think specifically about who you wish to attract to your site. There is a certain audience who you want to attract. You need to make a list of the people that comprise this certain audience.

Another important factor of who will come to your site will be reliant on characteristics of the person:
• Busy
• May or may not be experienced on the Web
• Anxious
• Not motivated to get information
• Very motivated and knowledgeable what they are looking for

When and Why Will They Come?
In the first stage of planning, we focused on answering, “Why do we need a Web site?” People coming to your site also have goals. Most users come to Web sites because they need something. Every aspect of your site should be in your goal – be it for information or to “sell” your services.

Begin to list the reasons why should they come to your Web site. You can make up scenarios as part of this phase of planning.

After you go through these three planning stages, you can start thinking about the design of your Web site. What good is a beautiful Web site if no one can find the information that they are looking for? If you want your Web site to be effective, you will need to develop a site that serves the needs of your visitors in a manner that it is user friendly and easy to understand and navigate.

Web Site Design
When designing your Web site, it can be tempting to jump right in and get distracted with choosing nice colors and a fancy logo. Before you consider how your design will look, there is a much more basic design step that needs to be taken. You might have a Web designer design your site, but you need to know some of the basic rules of Web design.

You must plan your navigation and content first. Web sites not only have to look good, they have to work! Remember, your Web site is designed around your content.

You have 10 seconds to convince the visitor that they are at the right site. Think about the times you have arrived at a Web site and it overwhelmed you with graphics, slowed you down with a long Flash presentation, or drove you away because of lack of relevant information.

Before designing the site, you have to know what will be included. You will need to make a list of all content and images will have on the site.

Every site is different, but there are a few basic pages your visitors will expect to see because they are considered a standard page of a Web site, including an About Us section and a Contact Us section.

You can add as many pages as you’d like as long you have the basic information pages that the visitor needs in order to find out information more about you and how to contact you.

Creating Simple Site Navigation
The best way of adding all the pages you need is to sketch it out on paper. Draw a Home Page and then for each link to a new page. Draw another page on a separate piece of paper. Lay all the sheets on a table or floor with your home page on top. Now pretend that you are a visitor, and then try moving from one page to the next. Are you able to get to the information you need quickly? How easily are you able to get back to the previous pages that you already viewed?

Mapping your navigation on paper will help you catch issues with navigation before they become a serious problem.

Your focus should be to minimize the number of clicks that your visitor will have to make in order to accomplish the key goals of your site.

Keep Your Navigation Consistent
Navigation bars on Web sites are like traffic signs on the road. They have to be consistent to be effective. This means the same size, color, and in the same place on every page.

Choosing where you will place the main navigation bars will depend on a number of factors.  The two most common locations are horizontally along the top of the page, below your logo or banner, or vertically along the left side of the page.

If you have more then eight navigation buttons in your main navigation bar, try to group them into larger categories. Testing has shown that once a navigation bar has more than eight items, the links in the middle tend to get unnoticed. The top three and bottom two links in your navigational menu will always get the most attention, so reserve these spots for the most important links.

Once you have laid out your site’s structure and have designed your navigation, it’s time to decide who will actually build this Web site. You can find a Web site design company to do it, or you can try to do it yourself. If you have the time to learn some graphic design and HTML code, this could be a new venture. Many of the schools have someone else design the site for them.

The next issue would be who will update the information on your Web site? There are changes that need to be done from time to time.

There are so many more critical elements that need to be included in an effective Web site. Hopefully, this information has helped you get an idea of how you can plan out an efficient Web site. The Internet is a very powerful and useful tool for a Christian school, so make sure you take full advantage of what it has to offer.

Henry Czubkowski is president of 4 Winds Group, www.4windsgroup.com.

Sidebar
Long-Term Goals and Benefits
By Stephen Shapiro

According to the National Coalition for Parental Involvement in Education, when schools and families work together, everyone benefits. Their studies show by working together, students perform better in school and life; parents are empowered; teacher morale improves; schools are better; and communities grow stronger. Unfortunately, creating parental involvement is not a simple endeavor. Most teachers don’t have the time to have one-on-one conversations with all of their student’s parents.

Fortunately, a high-quality Web site can bridge this gap. While quality design and content is paramount to getting started, it’s only a good first step. Often a Web site becomes dated, causing the teachers, parents and students to cease using the site. This is where “Content Management Systems” come into play. These systems enable non-technical individuals the ability to keep the Web sites up-to-date.

A first-class Content Management System will be built for the needs of a school community and be so simple to use that your teachers will be eager and technically able to participate. The following are four primary areas found in a good Content Management System:

1. Web Page Authoring Tools
These are tools that allow non-technical people to go directly to the Web site to update content.

2. School Calendar Management
A school’s calendar is of major importance to everyone in the community.  A comprehensive calendar tool that allows events to be easily inserted into the Web site is of key importance.

3. Classroom & Group Web Pages
Students love to learn online. If your teachers can post educational material on a Web site, you will be amazed at how many students participate.

4. Personal Space
The best systems provide students with their own personal calendar that automatically combines all homework, tests and events from all their classes. This allows parents a simple way of viewing what homework needs to be completed each night, while ensuring their students stay organized.

When all four of these items are in place, you will be ready to take advantage of the power of the Internet over the long-term. Whatever your percentage of students with access to the Internet at home, it’s no doubt increasing. That’s why now is the time to take advantage of this trend by finding a solution that combines your short-term aspirations with your long-term goals.

Stephen Shapiro is president of SchoolFusion.com, which combines design with Content Management Systems for the school and its teachers.