Icons Continued ...
Although, I am starting to see some reversal in trend, too many web pages are missing opportunities to show their guests that they are, indeed, a valued resource ... after all, one expects serious URLs to have serious content that can be used, seriously and thereby keeping you and me glued to their site.
If a page is designed to hook-in "Bob Browser"--so to speak--well, that's one thing. If the page is to present an impressive company store front--that's another and both of these are equally valid in their own context. But, if The Company or page-designer wants me to come back again and again ... because they are presenting themselves as a repository of unique and complete content .. and because they are looking at me to use their content ...then... then we have something more to talk about.
After looking at many web pages I come away with the thought that too many page designers lack vision "to look beyond box." They don't seem interested in creating a valued and unique resources for me and my tribe. They seem to be substituting entertainment for content. Perhaps the problem is lacking time or money. But it is not time consuming or costly to present a complete package ...if... your guests return, many times. Now one way to do this is to point your guests to related web pages--perhaps pages that have other pieces of the content that you and your organization don't have. A good clerk knows that he has to sell himself, first, before he can sell "the product." If he can point a customer who has really big feet "get" to a place where big shoes are sold ... because his store doesn't sell big shoes--that customer will pass on your reputation and probably come back for other products.
You say your not selling anything?
Several years ago, I asked a friend--a college professor-- if he used the Internet. "Sure," he said, "all the time!"
Since he taught a (rather dry) course in medieval theater, I was surprised at his response so I asked him how he felt about the seemingly uncontrolable chaos taking place on the Internet--a time when the Internet rapidly expanding. "Oh that," he said, "When I stopped to think about the larger number of people I teach to, now, I realized that it is only a bigger classroom." So here was a specialist, an educator--whose limitations were not con-tained by traditional images of bricks and registered students. He was expanding his "customer base" ... big time ... and I learned something else from him.
There are many educators, and agencies (... and web designers) still playing on the beach--not risking getting into deeper waters--waters rich in opportunities to better perform their intended mission. Certainly teacher who began teaching 30 years ago should not teach the way a teacher taught, then. My educator-friend told me that he had also started a public "discussion list" to facilitate and extend this new form of teaching. Using this discussion list, his virtual students come, one-by-one, and each contributes their personal questions and experiences ... to the whole.
Now contrast this person's personal use of this networking tool with that ... little bitty eMail-clickable .. lost somewhere near the bottom of the last web page.
Each site should ask, "Do you have comments? Fine, send them in ..."
I do this. Quite often I get a nice response thanking me for the comment. Rarely do I get a response that encourages a continued discourse...cause I usually have more to say (!!!). Once, I asked a member of a organization (operated with public funds) why they did not include any eMail response button on the web page. After all, someone might want further information. "I don't want a bunch of people sending me eMail all the time," he said. Perhaps, he is worried about getting into deep water because his 30 year old manual hasn't told him what to do about all these changes.
Now there is a point to bringing up "eMail" and "discussion lists" while I'm discussing web page design. Can you guess what the point is?
If you can't, not to worry, I had a college roommate whose girl friend kept leaving her ear-rings in his car after each date ... and he didn't understand that either.
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The writer, James Michener once said that "structure" is everything to writing. I think this comment applies to web page content. If a web page designer can reduce chaos surrounding each topic, he will have done me a service and I will be grateful.Normally, I prefer using a structure built on keywords. Once something starts to stand out, I skim the contents to see if I have found the material I have been searching for. Some structure ...any structure... provides me with the ability to move away from things I am not interested in .. and toward things that interest me. If the author knows the topic, their structure, and their specialized use of words can be very facilitating. It seems desirable, then, for web designers to spend some time talking to specialist about their topic? The closer the page designers gets to the content, the better will be their structure.
There are specialists who design their own pages. But even here we may have a time and resource problem. Almost as an after thought, some page styles, often contain a short list of related links--perhaps a 1/2 page or so--some contain a short paragraph describing the content of the link ... which is an example of, "read before you try." A case can be made for each of these styles but it is not enough to "sprinkle" a few URLs about your page.
Each web page has an implicit "bargain" with each guest that deceides to visit your page. You have enticed him there by your structure now it is time to show him that his efforts to find you are not wasted. You must show him that you are complete and worth it.
Harry Truman had a sign on his desk, "The Buck Stops Here." Bill Clinton had his sign, "It's the Economy, Stupid! And when the alligators are whorling, about, I need my own focus-sign, "Message from Srikakulum, Sir!" to remind me that I can communicate to anyone, anywhere in the World. If you want to knit-pick "anyone, anywhere" ... well perhaps you've are missing the point of it all.
But I don't want to be vague ... We are rapidly moving all forms of communication to everyone, everywhere in the World. Now within this paradigm shift, surely organizations, agencies, educators, students, vendors ... even web page designers ... and all of us, must find reasons and ways to shift our personal paradigms.
... Doing Web Pages ...