I've learned that you don't really know how to do it until you've actually done it. I've redesigned my very first site three times and I need to do it again.

But, if you could instantly redesign and republish your school's site based on everything you've learned about your school's community, technology, and processes, what are the top 2 or 3 things you'd change?

-- Terry Kearns (gradyproject@aol.com), April 07, 2001

Answers

Hi Terry, I am the Mentor High School Webmaster, and to help you out, I am putting togeather a "Informational Online Tutorial" for everybody to read that wants help.

To answer some of the posted questions:

>> For a site redesign, sit down, and map out the whole site on paper. This way, you know where everything will be placed, and not placed at. This helps out...A LOT!

>> Gather information that is to be posted, then figure out how you want to present it. By doing so, and keeping your site uniform in style, you will keep the readers attention. Use images **Keep Size Small** to make your site more lively. Try, however, to limit the size of the files (images).

>> Understand the rule of attention spans. By keeping your reader's attention, and getting it within the first 10 seconds of being on the page, they are more likely to stay on the website itself. If your site becomes boring, they will end up leaving. ==================================================

Mentor High School Webmaster,

Brandon Intihar---------
brandon@mhs.k12.oh.us
http://www.mentorhigh.com
------------------------

-- Brandon Intihar (brandon@mhs.k12.oh.us), April 11, 2001.

Thanks Brandon,

One of my favorite things on the Mentor site are your mailing lists for daily news, sports, and scholarships. I signed up for them and I am very impressed. We use Philip Greenspun's SPAM for our lists at Grady.  Our *GradyGrams* are one of our most popular features.  But y'all send out something at least once every day!  What is your list server?  Is it integrated into your web server software?

Another question: The scholarship information and scholarship list server is very impressive. I presume that your counselors prepare the messages. Do they prepare it for broadcast and send it themselves or does the information have to pass through the webmaster(s)?

Along the same lines:  What is the information flow for your daily announcements and your sports announcements?  Who prepares it, who approves it, who submits it to the list server, and who archives it?

-- Terry Kearns (pthkdym@aol.com), April 11, 2001.