The Redesigning of the Website - Case Study Example

Connecting Syracuse Web Design Project Executive Summary In the modern world, every single organization is using and embracing different technologies methods to communicate its messages to their followers. This is no different at Syracuse University where the use of Internet to communicate messages through the website has been adopted. The church website is aimed at ensuring that members interact with one another freely at night and can subscribe to the newsletter to get updates every time there is a new posting on the website. The redesigning of the website will factor out the best hosting package and the most reliable company to provide hosting services. An optimized interface for users will be the ultimate goal of the team because it will easily help people connect and share content on their social profiles from the installed ones on the website. People will be able to donate their money without leaving the website because a donation button will be available that is secure for their online transactions. Background Website development and ownership has become an integral part of the society and organizations around the globe such as churches embracing this new technology. The Lutheran Campus Ministry at the Syracuse University, an organization that has seen the need for an elaborate website that would cater for the needs of its four instructions and connect people of Syracuse, needs a better website that would perform its goals. The website connectingsyracuse.org runs on a content management system called SquareSpace that helps web developers create a website from scratch without much of a hustle. The original website does not meet the optimum requirements that are need for efficient use of the project for its intended purposes. It is in this regard that the team seeks to redesign, create better ways of using the site and ensure it is easy to use everyone who is in the target audience. Business case The Luther Campus Ministry prepares a better-organized website and it is the reason behind their quest to redesign the website professionally. The client also demands the reevaluation of the website hosting for a guaranteed future usage of the website. Hosting a website is far much more important that the redesigning of the site, this because the host determines how you access your data and any information uploaded on the website. Clients cannot afford to get wrong the information on hosting their website, whether for business purposes or charity works. The host of a website determines the website speed which depends on the space the host has given the client, the security of the website – though other parameters such as strong passwords play part n the security issues. Hosting a website like connectinsyrcuse.org needs a clear investigation on the host company. This is to determine if the company fits and will meet the requirements needed for the success of the website and contain all the materials. Review of the host company on the Internet is a top priority, to understand people’s experiences about the said host company and know whether it’s reputable enough to carry on the mission of hosting a good website. The hosting company must be easy to maintain and use, people can post their information without fear of it being deleted. This means that connectingsyracuse.org needs a host that provides unlimited disk space to enable the organization post unlimited information on its website. The host company must also provide unlimited emails at a fair price and give unlimited databases for the organization. The website, the ideal dream of the organization, will have each of the four ministries elaborated for everyone in their circles and outside to understand what their undertaking is in the ministry. Every single ministry will have a link on the homepage of connectingsyracuse.org, to redirect to a detailed page about the ministry. On the homepage, there will only be a small description, which creates curiosity for people to click on the link and learn more about the organization in reference to that particular ministry. Within the description of each ministry, they will be links with the texts directing people to different pages such as about us, contact us and other ministries. The descriptions will be in simple language which can be understood by both the natives and those who speak English as a second language. The redesigning of the website will put into consideration the events the organization undertakes. There will be a clear column show on the coming events, previous events, and the ongoing events. This is aimed at making the people visiting the website for different purposes understand what the organization has been doing or indents to do in the near future. This being a church website, and most of their budgets depend on well-wishers and donors, the website will have a donation page and an icon – the page is to explain on why they are donating and the icon redirects them to the option of donating. For the donation purposes, the use of PayPal donation button is most viable because of its security. PayPal is an online payment solution that helps people transact online without worrying on infringement of their credit card details. The website will also have a volunteer and services sections which are vital in the ministry. This is because the organization requires willing participants to help enhance their goals, and this can be achieved if they get people on a volunteer basis. The volunteers section on the website will explain the goals of the organization and contain a link to the full description on the about us page, explain the benefits of being a volunteer and why you should get involved in the ministry. Client Needs The client needs a website with a better interface. The user interface optimization plays a significant role in any web development and determines on how people perceive the website at first – remember the first impression matters unless you are another Richard of Virgin Atlantic. The interface determines how easily people using the website navigate to other pages from the homepage or current page. For instance, when someone visits connectingsyracuse.org, the link will take him/her to the homepage, now how the links and others pages are placed on the homepage helps the individual click on the right pages which are relevant to what he was looking for or for just exploration. This aspect is referred to as user interface optimization, and every designer must put it into consideration as a top priority. Users interaction should be at all time high because the main aim of the website development is to enable people interacting. To enhance user interaction at the website, installation of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Plus among others is a priority. This helps the users share different contents of their interests to their social networks and increase traffic to the website and more people get informed on the Campus Ministry goals. The other user interaction will be an installation of a mailing service; this helps people subscribe to the campus newsletters and get details of what is going on in their emails if they have subscribed. Emailing services include Aweber, Inbox, and Mailchimp among others in the market. The client deserves a simple website that caters for all the requirements of an international website to cater for their goals. The simplicity of a website starts from a good host that helps in accessing the information easily, a good interface that enables easy navigation and simple sharing plugins for users to easily share content on their profiles. The redesigning of the website will help improve efficiency in the sense that people will not take much time looking for information on the website because the interface will play its magic role of helping them navigate easily as per our redesigning prowess. The redesigning will significantly improve user experience because we will have reevaluated the host company for a better speed, installed social media platforms and a better-optimized interface for the client. Resource, Constraint Analysis There are several resources that are needed for the success of this project to be realized at the expected date. Team members in the group will play a significant role in redesigning the website and meeting the client’s expectations. The clients will be a resource in the sense that what will be redesigned will depend on the information they give out for their project. Previous team’s work will be relied on and correct any mistakes and improve on their project for a better connection. SquareSpace will be the most important resource that the team will require. SquareSpace is a CMS that helps in developing client’s websites easily using its readymade templates. There are several constraints that will be experienced in the implementation of this project such as the limitations of SquareSpace. It is not easy to edit each HTML/CSS in SquareSpace. This will force the team to work on new modalities on how to can improve the user interface and enhance the connection to the people and institutions under the project design. Not every single resource that is required by the team will be available, and this is a big challenge in completing connectingsyracuse.org as per the client’s expectations. Reference SquareSpace, Website Design, accessed on December 8th 2014, www.squarespace.com Read More