Great Valley Computer Contest » General

The Web 2.0 Component

John Dawe, CFRE — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 05:14:12 +0000

Part of the contest is adding a Web 2.0 component to your website. Here are three suggestions.

Create a Twitter Account for your client. Add a Twitter feed to the client’s website and teach them how to update it. It’s a quick way to post updates without knowing any programming.
Create a Facebook Page for your client. Incorporate the client’s logo and messaging. Add a “Facebook Connect” button to the main website to encourage visitors to connect.
Do a video tour of the business. Create a youtube account and embed the video tour on the website. Do this for your client’s existing TV commercials.

One note about video and load times:
Stay away from embedding Windows Media. With services like YouTube, there is no reason for you to host or stream media from your server. Upload the video to YouTube and use the embed code to make load times fast and efficient.

Project Management 101

Fred Aebli — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 13:04:54 +0000

Project management is necessary for your website to be delivered to your customer. It allows you to manage all aspects of development and keep communication flowing with your team members. Not doing this will make the project seem difficult and ultimately let your customer down and all the team members. If you follow some of the basic principles set forth in our Project Management 101 talk, you raise your chances of success!!

At a minimum, you need a plan. This plan, however detailed, should at least provide the following:

Communication Plan
Know how you will communicate with other via email, txt messaging, online meetings, etc.
Know when you will meet. Set at least one day a week to meet at a set day and time.
Timeline
Know when the project needs to be completed, then work backwards to fill in all the deliverables such as the framework of the website, content pieces, graphics, scripting for functionality, video, etc..
Be prepared for things to not always go well.
Delegate
Everyone on the team has a role to play, otherwise you wouldn’t need a team. Use your team wisely by knowing who is capable of what and tasking them. Once you give someone something to do, make sure they know when to turn it in!
Status
Eliminate surprises by having status updates for all to see. Everyone needs to report to the team lead as to what they have or have not accomplished. If you find out you still have much to do, reassign people who are done to a task that needs help.

Communication is the key to project management. If you can all work together and communicate well, there isn’t a project that you can’t handle.

Think Web 2.0

John Dawe, CFRE — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 16:34:53 +0000

Presentation Skills Training

John Dawe, CFRE — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 16:28:35 +0000

Sponsor Links

John Dawe, CFRE — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 16:13:11 +0000

In the past, we have required students to contact the individual sponsoring organizations to obtain images and URLs to link to from your contest entry site.

This year, we are providing the images. There are two formats.

http://www.gvhscontest.com/images/sponsorsrow2.jpg

http://www.gvhscontest.com/images/sponsorscolumn2.jpg

You should insert this image into your design and link it back to this site (http://www.gvhscontest.com).

You should NOT use the image from our server, but rather download the file and upload it to YOUR project’s hosting. The image will not be available if hard-linked on the day of judging.

What’s your E-mail address?

John Dawe, CFRE — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 17:28:56 +0000

E-mail marketing is a powerful tool that allows you to keep in touch with customers, drive repeat business and reinforce a brand. But it’s more than simply typing up a quick letter. There’s technique, best practice guidelines, regulatory compliance, look, feel and other aspects that go into sending a successful, well-received e-mail.

Your sites could collect e-mail addresses through a web form and your community partners then can e-mail them (making sure to use a good e-mail marketing software like Vertical Response to comply with e-mail privacy regulations.)

At any rate, no matter how you manage it collecting e-mail addresses is a great way to build loyalty.

Speaking of which, use the links on the left navigation to sign up for the contest e-mail lists.

Common Navigation Element

John Dawe, CFRE — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 19:29:57 +0000

One of the contest criteria is a common navigation element, but what exactly does that mean?

From a design standpoint, it means that your site’s visitors will see the same navigational element on every single page. This is most often done via a top or side nav. For example, this website uses a right-side common navigational element that is the exact same thing no matter what page you’re on. There is also a less prominent TOP navigational element that exists for the homepage and About pages.

From a programming standpoint, it means that if possible, the same file should be used on every page for navigation. Sometimes called “Include” pages, the navigation is placed in a separate file from the rest of the site. That way, if you have to update a navigational link you only have to do it one place instead of on every single page.

From a load-time standpoint, this helps because the navigation typically only loads once and that bit of code doesn’t have to load on every click.

Here are some varied resources on the subject of site navigation:

http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-1058652.html

http://www.poynterextra.org/eyetrack2004/navigation.htm

http://searchenginesmarketer.com/2008/11/14/website-navigation-left-vs-top/