First fare 2013 website design for frc teams

Website Design for FRC

Bob Goetz - FIRST Fare 2013

November 16, 2013

Website Design for FRC Teams 2

Who am I?Mentor

Nine year veteran of FIRST

Robot Inspector

Former Board member for OregonFIRST Robotics

20+ year IT professoinal

OregonFIRST.org Webmaster

OK – So what do you want to

learn?

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(Audience Participation, please)


What (I Hope) You’ll Learn Today

What (and who) you should focus on

What successful teams do

What your next steps are

How to get help

What we won’t Cover

Setting up a URL (AKA Hostname)

Technology steps to setup a websiteSee previous FIRST Fare presentations on oregonfirst.org

Get a free blog at wordpress.com



A little Terminology

This session is called “website design for FRC Teams”

But we’ll cover design topics that can be used on:

Mobile

Facebook

Pinterest

Tumbler

Etc. Etc. Etc.

11/16/13


A little Terminology

This session is called “website design for FRC Teams”

But we’ll cover…Mobile

Facebook

Pinterest

Tumbler

Etc. Etc. Etc.

11/16/13

These are called CHANNELS and include things

like Print, Newspapers, TV,

Radio, Web


It’s All AboutCommunicating with your stakeholders to achieve your teams’ goals

“Stakeholder, an entity that can be affected by the results of that in which they are said to be stakeholders, i.e., that in which they have a stake.”

-wiki

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Ah…but you ask?Why do I care about this?

Why is this important?

What will this really fix?

Isn’t this just a waste of time?

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Who Are Yours?

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Your Team!


Your Sponsors!


Your Families!


Your School!


So who are you Stakeholders?


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OK, Bob!I GOT IT – I KNOW WHO MY STAKEHOLDERS ARE

WHAT DO I DO NEXT?

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18

Roll the drum….

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Stake Holder Analysis

“Stakeholder analysis is the process of identifying the individuals or groups that are likely to affect or be affected by a proposed action, and sorting them according to their impact on the action and the impact the action will have on them.

This information is used to assess how the interests of those stakeholders should be addressed in a project plan, policy, program, or other action. “

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How?Develop a categorized list of the members of the stakeholder community.

Assign priorities across various “dimensions”Influence (high, medium, low)

Support (positive, neutral, negative)

Need (strong, medium, weak)

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How?Translate the ‘highest priority’ stakeholders into a table or a picture.

The challenge is to focus on the ‘right stakeholders’ who are currently important and to use the tool to visualize this critical sub-set of the total community.

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Keys to SuccessAnswer WITFM (aka “What’s In It For Me!”)

Map their needs and how they want to hear from you

Give them OptionsPush: (You send them information)

eMail Blasts, RSS Feeds

Pull: (They come to you for communication)

Website Updates, Tweets, SMS

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RememberJust because you posted on the web or sent an email

DOES NOT MEAN THEY READ IT!

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So what and who should you focus

on?

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What do Successful Teams

do?

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What do Successful Teams

do?Team’s match the stakeholders needs with what the team’s produce

The consistently communicate the Teams Goal’s

The have a broad market to hit the right Channels

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Think Assembly Line



Wait a second.. Goals?

Yes, GOALS!

For each of your Stake Holders, create goals on how you’ll reach them on each of your Channels

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Keep it simpleStake Holders

Channel GoalSchool

Officials Parents Sponsors Team Members

Website Create a special Landing Page (URL)Ensure all communications to them refer to that URL

X X X X

eMail eMail update on Team Progress

Monthly prior to Kickoff, Weekly

Thereafter

Bi-Weekly prior to Kickoff,

Weekly Thereafter

Monthly prior to Kickoff, Weekly

Thereafter

Weekly prior to Kickoff, MWF

Thereafter

Posters Print Posters to prior to KickOff promoting team and events

X X

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OK, I’ve Got my Stakeholders

DOWN I have my Goals

NAILED.Now WHAT?

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Just do itFollow up on your Goals

Track to make sure you are meeting them

Check in with Stakeholders:Is what you are doing meeting their needs?

How can you change?

What is working?

What is not?

Adjust your methods and then repeat!11/16/13Website Design for FRC Teams

32

Other Ideas?

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Website Design for FRC Teams


Some General Advice

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TimelyPost every 48 – 72 hours

And show your Twitter Feed

Give 4 to 8 weeks notice for major events

Post no more than 24 hours after a major events

Use google’s feedburner to promote your postings: http://feedburner.google.com

Don’t post everything…keep them coming back for more

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http://feedburner.google.com/


AccurateSpell Check

Get the day & date right

Don’t forget to add the address information

Check & double check every URL, name, location

Get the basic facts right

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RelevantStay on topic - focus on your team

Target your four customersTell stories that impact each

Tie the pictures to your story

Make sure you can be found on the web (akaSEO)

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SimpleConsistent Taxonomy

Common colors and fonts

Clean and clear design – first impressions count!

No clutter

No popups!

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SpeedyPeople are impatient!

Speed is critical

Hosting has biggest impact

Use Firefox’s Firebug

Yahoo’s yslow

Google’s pagespeed

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TypographyText that is too small to read

Text crowding against the left edge

Text that stretches all the way across the page

Centered type over flush left body copy

Underlined text that is not a link

Paragraphs of type in all caps

Paragraphs of type in bold

Paragraphs of type in italic

Paragraphs of type in all caps, bold, and italic all at once

Spelling erorrs …err… errors!

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ImagesGraphics

Large graphic files that take forever to load

Meaningless or useless graphics

Thumbnail images that are nearly as large as the full-sized images they link to

Graphics with no alt labels

Missing graphics, especially missing graphics with no alt labels

Graphics that don't fit on the screen (assuming a screen of 800 x 600 pixels)

Blinking graphics

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Q&A

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Business

First fare 2013 website design for frc teams