Ning is a social media site that is often used as a way to communicate some sort of social change. As a group, we decided to focus on something that was important to us, so we chose to advocate a social change for Childhood Obesity. This was something that really stuck out in all of our minds because we are all active in sports and healthy eating. This project really allowed us to have the opportunity to use our previous knowledge and also research more into the issue.
Ning provided our group a venue to get our message out into the public. We used videos, pictures, discussion boards, and facts in order to really stress the seriousness of the issue.
I really loved this project because I am always looking for ways to generate a sense of awareness for autism. I think that most people rely on facebook. While I do believe that facebook has the ability to reach large audiences, it is nice to know that there are other places and more options to do this.
Social media is a really effective way to reach people and get a message out. As I have learned beign a public relations major, more and more businesses are relying on different forms of social media to raise awareness of their organizations and services. It is a way to connect with people all over the world and bring attention to businesses. In a time of economic turmoil, social media seems to be the number one venue for advertising because it is free and very easy to use.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Letter to Organization
We found a website that we really thought could use some help with the design of their website. We really liked the idea of what the organization had to offer, but the website did not reflect this at all. We wrote them a letter in hopes that they would use our sample templates that we created, or atleast take some of our advice on how to better improve their existing site.
To Whom It May Concern:
We are a group of students attending the University of Rhode Island, majoring in a wide range of disciplines. We stumbled upon your website while doing research for a writing class specifically focused on electronic environments. We found ourselves interested in your website because of what it offers. Being students, we feel that tutoring is extremely useful, but a very underused service.
After reviewing and analyzing the contents of your website we came up with some ideas that might give it a better flow. We truly believe that the services you provide are extremely unique. With tutoring for math, science, and standardized tests, free of charge, this offers your community something that no one else does. The current styling of the website discourages further navigation. Therefore, we really feel that you could easily and accessibly grab the attention of a much wider audience with a more user-friendly and aesthetically pleasing page.
Some of the items we wanted to focus on was creating a navigation bar that would be more organized including options like About Us, Contact, and a separate navigation button for each school subject you tutor in. We also felt that a huge part of drawing people in would require changing some content wording, the color scheme, fonts, and other style choices.
There are certain design principles that make for a quality website including alignment and contrast, which we hope to focus on. We came up with some templates that follow these ideas. We want all page elements to be lined up for a sense of organization. The items on the page will be pulled together with repetition in colors. Along with this, placing certain items closer together will allow users to understand what elements are related.
We hope that you like some of our ideas and would be willing to take them into consideration. We believe in your service and think your website could be great!
To Whom It May Concern:
We are a group of students attending the University of Rhode Island, majoring in a wide range of disciplines. We stumbled upon your website while doing research for a writing class specifically focused on electronic environments. We found ourselves interested in your website because of what it offers. Being students, we feel that tutoring is extremely useful, but a very underused service.
After reviewing and analyzing the contents of your website we came up with some ideas that might give it a better flow. We truly believe that the services you provide are extremely unique. With tutoring for math, science, and standardized tests, free of charge, this offers your community something that no one else does. The current styling of the website discourages further navigation. Therefore, we really feel that you could easily and accessibly grab the attention of a much wider audience with a more user-friendly and aesthetically pleasing page.
Some of the items we wanted to focus on was creating a navigation bar that would be more organized including options like About Us, Contact, and a separate navigation button for each school subject you tutor in. We also felt that a huge part of drawing people in would require changing some content wording, the color scheme, fonts, and other style choices.
There are certain design principles that make for a quality website including alignment and contrast, which we hope to focus on. We came up with some templates that follow these ideas. We want all page elements to be lined up for a sense of organization. The items on the page will be pulled together with repetition in colors. Along with this, placing certain items closer together will allow users to understand what elements are related.
We hope that you like some of our ideas and would be willing to take them into consideration. We believe in your service and think your website could be great!
Website Redesign
This project truly intimidated me when first presented. When thinking about redesigning an entire website, I think about professional graphic designers who get paid large sums of money to help organizations get their goals and objectives out to the public. The design of websites is such an intriquete process. It seems as though there needs to be a purpose to every element on the page. Users need to be drawn into the site through its colors and layout in order to navigate further and explore the web page.
As I discovered through research and reading, there are many other important aspects to a website besides a nice color, in order to make the site effective and user friendly. There needs to be a sense of allignment. This simply means that all of the elements on the page should be lined up with one another. Along with this, there is a principle of proximity. All items on the web page should show a relationship through its placement. When items are close in proximity, it typically means that they are related in some way. As another principle of designing a website there is repitition. This means that throughout the page there are certain elements that should be repeated in order to tie the page together. This could be certain fonts or colors that are repeated. One of the final basic principles is the idea of contrast. When parts of a website have contrasting colors, it draws the eye in and creates a sense of interest. Contrast does not always mean colors, however. It can also be a contrast in shapes or fonts that create interest to users.
These simple principles really help to illuminate the importance of a well designed website. You want people who are viewing your website to have the urge to navigate further based solely on the aesthetics. Once the user is drawn in, the information provided by the organization should also keep the user interested.
As I discovered through research and reading, there are many other important aspects to a website besides a nice color, in order to make the site effective and user friendly. There needs to be a sense of allignment. This simply means that all of the elements on the page should be lined up with one another. Along with this, there is a principle of proximity. All items on the web page should show a relationship through its placement. When items are close in proximity, it typically means that they are related in some way. As another principle of designing a website there is repitition. This means that throughout the page there are certain elements that should be repeated in order to tie the page together. This could be certain fonts or colors that are repeated. One of the final basic principles is the idea of contrast. When parts of a website have contrasting colors, it draws the eye in and creates a sense of interest. Contrast does not always mean colors, however. It can also be a contrast in shapes or fonts that create interest to users.
These simple principles really help to illuminate the importance of a well designed website. You want people who are viewing your website to have the urge to navigate further based solely on the aesthetics. Once the user is drawn in, the information provided by the organization should also keep the user interested.
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