Websites and Web Presence

Website Design Tools

This week in class we are studying how you create websites and how they should be formatted. I have been in charge of updating and creating web pages for a couple of the nonprofit organizations in the past. For this work, I always used website builder programs that allow the user to design the website without any programming skills. For instance, the one that I used most recently was Wix. Wix is extremely easy to use with very little learning curve for beginners to the platform. They have beautiful templates (https://www.wix.com/website/templates) for the user to start from.

Final Project Tool

For the final project for this class I plan to create an online exhibit. I have not yet decided what web tool I will use to create this exhibit. I have created online exhibits for my current job using Google Arts & Culture: https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/bureau-of-indian-affairs. However, only partner museums can upload object photos to that platform to use in exhibits, so it is not an option for the project I am envisioning.

The tool that I choose will decide the format of the exhibit (or vice-versa). Here are a few ideas that I have for the format, the tools that would work with them, and my thoughts about each.

• A slideshow format. This could be done extremely simply with a Google Slides presentation. Or it could be done in a more complicated way, but more reader-friendly and professional, by creating a website in which the reader clicks through a set series of pages. I would appreciate any suggestions of other web tools to use for this format.
• A scroll-down-the-page story format with large photos between short text paragraphs. This would be a simple way to present the information that could be done on just one web page. However, unless done very well, this might not be the best way to capture the viewer's attention to read all the way through the exhibit.
• A full website, like in this example final project provided by the professor: https://sharonea124.wixsite.com/historyknittogether. In the real digital history world, this would be a great way to allow the creator to go as in-depth as they'd like with the history, and for the viewer to do the same with the amount they read. The main page can be used to get the basic information across, and then further pages in the site can give more detailed information about different aspects of the topic.
• A Pinterest board. This seems like the version in which the creator has the least control of how the viewer will take in the information, and the most limiting in terms of the story the creator can tell and the amount of words provided. I will likely not use this one for my project, but it could be a good option for other exhibit projects. It would be especially useful for exhibits in which the most important part is the visual aspect, such as a photograph exhibit.