INTRO Welcome and thanks for joining our webinar. This is the second in our Web Training Webinars series. You can find a recording of the first webinar: How to create and edit content on your Drupal site On the Tech Help site Victor has added the link in the notes box: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/help/training/web-help This webinar will also be recorded and available on the Tech Help site For a list of our upcoming sessions and other Drupal resources, Check out the Extension Technology Help site And if you haven't been receiving our emails to let you know about the webinars -- and you would like to, please put your name and email in the comment box Or send Victor or I an email I'm Tamara Hill-Tanquist -- Victor Villegas is also here today. He'll be monitoring any comments and helping with any technical difficulties If you're having trouble hearing the audio or seeing the slides Please write in the chat box. This is Tamara, I'm an instructional designer Extension and Experiment Stations Communications (Also know as EESC) I m involved in the planning, design, content development, coding and maintenance of OSU Extension websites. To give you a feel for my work: - Oregon Agricultural Progress magazine website We've recently released the OAP site as a new responsive design website. This site can be viewed on a phone, tablet or laptop And it looks good in all platforms. What does this have to do with Extension you might ask? Towards the end of this year we'll start discussing how we can get the main Extension site, County Extension sites and AES sites into a mobile friendly platform - OSU Extension If you haven t looked at the OSU Extension site recently, We ve been keeping it updated with: - new stories, recent publications, hot topics - and featured Ask an Expert questions and answers Any questions, no? If you have any questions, please just type them into the chat box and Victor will field them... Let's get down to business.
YOUR WEBSITE CONTENT The content you provide is what brings people to your site. How do we get people to stay on your site to learn more -- and come back again? First: Did we answer the questions that brought them to the site in the first place? The answer will effect how they feel about OSU Extension. (A great place to start is) Making your pages scan-able Research has shown when people visit websites, They are scanning the site, not reading word for word This is a Heat maps from user eye-tracking studies. This study included 232 users looking at thousands of Web pages. Red is the most looked at, yellow has fewer views, Blue was viewed the least and grey had no eye fixation. More eye tracking examples The further down the page the less the page is viewed. And headings get the majority of time. But mostly just the first few words of the heading How can we help our visitors -- find info while they scan our sites? - Have purpose: Make sure everything on the site has a purpose Reduce clutter where ever you can - Be thoughful content creators: Challanging to structure you site in a way that is easy for users to find what they are looking for. But it is up to us. We need to think about: - The whole site - Where each piece of content should go to make the whole site easier to nagivate - When you add content how does it relate to content already there? If I add this paragraph, will there be too much content on the page? Will it make it hard for people to find what they are looking for? Take a step back: When I look at the page, do I find it overwhelming? Does my co-worker, friend or family member find it confusing? - Answer your visitor's questions: Our visitors are looking to answer a question: - Where is the location of my child's 4-H class? - How can I check if my pressure canner is working? - When does the next Master Gardener series begin? What is involved? - Where do I find info on pruning grapes? Can our visitors figure out where to go answer their question?
Can you imagine tyring to put all this info on the homepage? -- do you think they'll be able to find what they are looking for if everything is on one page? - Priotitize: We have to prioritize. What really needs to be on the homepage? And what can we get rid of? Bonus: the less that is on the homepage, the more your sidebar navigation links seem like a good place to look When you are looking at your homepage: Do you have any unnecessary content? Perhaps: badges, old content, Centennial celebration info from 2011? It's be great to get rid it. Making it easier to scan: With the content we decide to keep: We can use: - Short paragraphs (1-2 sentences) - Headers / sub-headers - A header should precede text related to the header. - It should only be 4-6 words - If half of the text on a page is sub-titles, then you are probibly making it harder on your visitors. - Use heading sizes just to make text look bigger, bolder and stand out. And if you find yourself using headers to make content stand out, Don't feel bad about it, just give us a call so we can talk through other options - Bulleted lists - Descriptive text links - Bold, please 1-4 word max These are the styling pre-set we've provided to help you organize your site. Example: Linn: Forestry & Natural Resources Let's look at a good example. All the sites I'm going to show are mockups I've took the best parts of multiple sites to create examples to share with you. Example works well because: - The paragraphs are short. The first one could be even shorter. - We have pictures of people learning -- with a description that shares what they are learning or why it is important - Resources are broken into small chunks using short paragraphs - Links are descriptive - Call to action at the end of the page
So that is an example of an inside page, what about a homepage content? HOMEPAGE CONTENT What content is on our Extension County homepages? I took a look at what is on many of the Exension County homepages, and this is what I found: - Our location and hours - Registration has opened for a class - About OSU Extension Etc. These are all good things to tell people about. The trick is how do we present these things so people can find the content. Makes good homepage content: - Breif intro about Extension - Hot topics - Timely resouces (what people are looking for at a specific time) - Announcements (will disappear after it is no longer relavent) We want to show who Extension is instead of telling. Show through resources and timely content. If you add a food preservation hotline to your Family and Community Health page It would be a good idea to have it on your homepage for a couple weeks. OSU Event Calendar We have separate OSU calendars for each of the Extension Counties and AES offices This is what it looks like if you actually visit the calendar When you are adding content to a site, where does it go? We want to be consistancy. If you always add events to the event calendar, then people know where to go for event info. OSU Calendar on your Drupal site Each County office has at least one calendar: - Main calendar: display on homepage (Benton) You can also have topic calendars, for example: 4-H Benton calendar: displays on the 4-H Benton page - If you'd like an additional calendar for your office, please contact Victor Announcements More annoucements ideas Topics Caledar It can be hard to keep track of all the things Extension and AES do every year
Can keep track of events or info requests that happen regularly By starting a monthly topics calendar spreadsheet Can keep track of what people are looking for at a given time of year and try to answer those questions. We keep a Topics Calendar by month it helps us plan for future content. We note: - What we know people have asked for in the past - Look at Google Analytics for keywords people are searching for on our site - Pages people are visiting Helps us decide what to promote on a given month. Where to find Content We have lots of resouces Bridges, EESC Photo Archive, Extension news and garden stories. If you are looking for a picture of hazelnuts, check the EESC Photo Archive. Or give EESC a call and talk to our digital asset manager. Example: Linn County Homepage What works: - Images show people activities they could be involved in and why the activities are helpful - There are many different places to get drawn in Join 4-H, call preservation hotline Example: Linn Counyt 4-H Youth PROVIDING MORE HELP TO USERS Help visitors find what they are looking for By keeping the content on your home page refreshed it make it easy for people to find what they are looking for. - Keep homepage clear of clutter Counters, awards, extra logos, etc. Try include only things your users are looking for And remove content that isn't educating your visitors - Reducing the words used by half Make all the words you use count If you can say it with one Sub-title and 4 bullet points, more power to ya - Try to have content available within 3 clicks Users should be able to find the info they require in three clicks or less. Not always achievable, but should be taken into consideration - Promote new site content on your homepage You know your site better than they do, be their tour guide. Suggest places to visit on your site, starting with what is new.
Non-descriptive and Descriptive links Nothing helps people navigate more than knowing what they'll get if they click a link Non-descript: - Offers no info on what they will get - Or what the visitor can expect from clicking it Descriptive: - Specific, content-rich link descriptions - User knows what they will get If you take one thing from this webinar, my hope would be this is it. Linking to documents People want to know if they are going to be downloading something Let them know by providing the document type (PDF), (Word doc), etc. For example: Title of document (file type) Download the lemon curd recipe (PDF) Download the knitting class schedule (Word Doc) Download Tree Trimming workshop slides (PowerPoint doc) Providing additional document info - It is kind to include what size the document is if it is over 2MB A large part of our audience is still on dial-up - If you revise a well used document, consider including a revised date - Can include a ID number When adding links on your site (especially to outside sources) Describe what they'll find & why they might find it useful. Example: Linn - Family and Community Health Let's see how we're doing on the descriptive links. Pretty good. CREATING A MENU Creating a menu - starts when you edit or create a page At the bottom of the page when you click edit, or create a new page You see "Menu settings" Creating a menu - pieces Describe the parts Our menu This is what the menu looks like You can create third level links too
WEBSITE LEARNING RESOURCES Your website learning resources Tech Help site - The Drupal Quick Reference Guide -- learn how to update your site. - Recorded webinars Getting Help: Victor Villegas at ECTU (Ballard) - Supports Extension and AES Drupal websites. - Contact with any questions about how to use your site, create content, and get feedback on how a page is organized - Get help setting up a Social media account - Coaches on developing videos Abour Next Webinar ACTIVITY Edit a page together, if there is time at the end Add content to a Google Doc, share screen so participants can see what I'm doing Does anyone have a page they would like us to look at? Which brave soul would like to go first?