TOPIC:

Thank you in advance for your great critique.

datacenter.toastmastersclubs.org/

Jessica, here are my thoughts...

Likes:

1. A good mix of text styling on your home page. I like the large Welcome! (although maybe a different font)

2. Next meeting date is listed on home page.

3. "Data Center Toastmasters Club has helped hundreds of people: ... " Great Elevator Pitch/Value Proposition section.

4. Google Map - good!

5. Contact us has phone number - good!

6. You have most of your officers listed on M.O.M. page with photos.

7. Meeting dates and district events on Calendar - good

8. "Taking the Skills Beyond the Club" - Nice supporting page.

Possible Areas for Improvement:

9. Lots of white. Could use some strategic/moderate use of more color. Nothing intense, though.

10. "Please click the "Contact" link" Just make this a link to the Contact Us form: datacenter.toastmastersclubs.org/?contactus Set the advisory title for the link so you get the pop up help ("Click to Contact Us") when you hover the mouse over the link.

11. You have a couple of photos with members in them on your home page, but they have masks on. That is fine for event photos, but a prospective member will likely be more interested in a photo with your club members smiling faces showing.

12. Could use some supporting pages, and links to those pages in your home page.

13. Meeting Info / Directions page - Could use an exterior photo of your meeting venue. If I am a first time visitor, it will make it easier for me to find your meeting venue.

14. M.O.M. Page - Background color is kind of intense to my eyes. Maybe lighten it up a shade or two. See if you can get all your officers to put their bios in their member profiles.

15. You could use some more supporting pages: FAQs, a Typical Meeting, etc.

16. Here is the most important support page you could make, I think: A Distinguished Members page. See my club's for an example: www.mindfulcommunicators.org/Distinguished.html Reason: You have three DTMs in your club (huge accomplishment), yet you do not mention that on your home page and you do not honor those members with their own page to highlight them. Highlight these members, celebrate their accomplishment, introduce new members to them, and point out that having these members makes your club stronger and more effective than other clubs. What I did for my club was to do a short bio form to get information from my club's DTMs and advanced members (personal and toastmasters info) to put together two paragraphs on each.

It looks like you have a wonderful club that you can celebrate with your website. When you do that, other people will want to be a part of it.

Jessica, I checked your information in the Main Menu, you have done a good job. I believe your home page could be more abstract, I mean use less space. and maybe be choose a color for the background. I was told to tone down in the colors on my Web sites, I manage 2 of them. half of the people we have in our Club have joined because they saw the information in the Club's Websites. Also it is a good idea to have a picture taken and have most of your members on it. Sincerely. Aida

Jessica,

In addition to what Steve and Aida mentioned, I like that you have the calendar entries for the Area Contest and the conference linked to the custom page. You should also link the Open House entry to a flyer. I also like that you have agendas posted a couple of months in advance for members to be able to sign up and for visitors to be able to know that your club is planning ahead.

A curiosity question: Why do you have a . between the first and last names of the members?

Hi Jessica!

Yes, the masks might need some explaining. You also may want to put some photos closer to the top of you home page. Personally, I thought your custom page was very nice. I especially like the round table top photo, because it is warm and inviting. I would put THAT photo on your home page.

Background color. Steve has PURPLE, which is my favorite color. I played with e idea, and thought it would be too wild, but he pulled it off. You may want to consider going to a light neutral color for your background. This will not change the white in the content panels.

I didn't see any social media. If you have them, get everything linked.

I also noticed you have a very active calendar. Good job!

Keep at it... just a little at a time.

Blaine Little, ACB
V.P. of PR, TM 1757

After the welcome, I read, "Wondering what Toastmasters is all about?" That doesn't catch me. If I am a perspective member, I am more interested in what Toastmasters can do for me. To me that should be highlighted. You have that information at the bottom of the page. I would move it up and replace this section.

I like I know when the next meeting is. Good job!

Link the Contact Us page to "Contact" in the text on the homepage. Make it easy for the visitor; don't make him work to get the information.

Is the Toastmaster video yours? I ask because the perspective seems off to me. The people depicted seem thin and long in the face.

I like the advertisement of the Area 21 speech contest.

The Taking the Skills Beyond the Club is gold. What a great way to highlight what you do!

Thank you very much for your critique. I have only started updating our website these past couple of months since our webmaster had to leave the club due to a move. Thank you for your great feedback, it is very helpful and I am really looking forward to including many of the tips. I can see what many of you are sharing with me and have found a lot of great points. I now know what to work on over the next few weeks.

I honestly do not know why the period is there. I will definitely be asking those who have been around for a bit, as I am newer to the club as well. Thank you.

RogerM wrote:

Jessica,

In addition to what Steve and Aida mentioned, I like that you have the calendar entries for the Area Contest and the conference linked to the custom page. You should also link the Open House entry to a flyer. I also like that you have agendas posted a couple of months in advance for members to be able to sign up and for visitors to be able to know that your club is planning ahead.

A curiosity question: Why do you have a . between the first and last names of the members?

Forget what I said about the Toastmasters video. I see this is from TI. The perspective still seems off to me, but I realize this isn't yours. I think this video has changed from what used to be in the link.

I was trying to figure out how to make the "contact us" linkable, but I couldn't so I left it how the previous webmaster had it. Thank you for that link.

SteveTheTechie wrote:

Jessica, here are my thoughts...

Likes:

1. A good mix of text styling on your home page. I like the large Welcome! (although maybe a different font)

2. Next meeting date is listed on home page.

3. "Data Center Toastmasters Club has helped hundreds of people: ... " Great Elevator Pitch/Value Proposition section.

4. Google Map - good!

5. Contact us has phone number - good!

6. You have most of your officers listed on M.O.M. page with photos.

7. Meeting dates and district events on Calendar - good

8. "Taking the Skills Beyond the Club" - Nice supporting page.

Possible Areas for Improvement:

9. Lots of white. Could use some strategic/moderate use of more color. Nothing intense, though.

10. "Please click the "Contact" link" Just make this a link to the Contact Us form: datacenter.toastmastersclubs.org/?contactus Set the advisory title for the link so you get the pop up help ("Click to Contact Us") when you hover the mouse over the link.

11. You have a couple of photos with members in them on your home page, but they have masks on. That is fine for event photos, but a prospective member will likely be more interested in a photo with your club members smiling faces showing.

12. Could use some supporting pages, and links to those pages in your home page.

13. Meeting Info / Directions page - Could use an exterior photo of your meeting venue. If I am a first time visitor, it will make it easier for me to find your meeting venue.

14. M.O.M. Page - Background color is kind of intense to my eyes. Maybe lighten it up a shade or two. See if you can get all your officers to put their bios in their member profiles.

15. You could use some more supporting pages: FAQs, a Typical Meeting, etc.

16. Here is the most important support page you could make, I think: A Distinguished Members page. See my club's for an example: www.mindfulcommunicators.org/Distinguished.html Reason: You have three DTMs in your club (huge accomplishment), yet you do not mention that on your home page and you do not honor those members with their own page to highlight them. Highlight these members, celebrate their accomplishment, introduce new members to them, and point out that having these members makes your club stronger and more effective than other clubs. What I did for my club was to do a short bio form to get information from my club's DTMs and advanced members (personal and toastmasters info) to put together two paragraphs on each.

It looks like you have a wonderful club that you can celebrate with your website. When you do that, other people will want to be a part of it.

No problem. I will look it over and see if I can find a better video to display. Thank you for the feedback.

RDOwens wrote:

Forget what I said about the Toastmasters video. I see this is from TI. The perspective still seems off to me, but I realize this isn't yours. I think this video has changed from what used to be in the link.

@ RD - Yes, they FINALLY got rid of Chris Matthews. In the next scene, you would see him throwing a chair at baby penguins! Just kidding. I believe the latest video was made in Kuala Lompur... KL

Hi Jessica!

The maroon totally works! Great update.

Slow and steady gets the job done. You're on your way!

Blaine Little, ACB
V.P. of PR, TM 1757

Jessica, I like the changes! You may want to adjust your Hit Counter text color. (look at bottom)

I have changed it to black. Should it be a different color than that? I did change it a few times before I settled. The other colors seem to have a funny glow.

Jessica.Hentges wrote:

I have changed it to black. Should it be a different color than that? I did change it a few times before I settled. The other colors seem to have a funny glow.

Ok, it may just be my eyes, but my first impression was that it seemed like an oversight--to me it seemed like "dark on dark".

I would suggest trying a dull white/light gray or maybe the same color as the background color of your menu. You should just be able to copy the color code from one color picker to the other.

Jessica

I am most impressed at how you have taken on board the comments so far and made changes as appropriate.

You might want to add the link to the contact us page on your meeting directions page as well – I see you have already done that on your home page.

I happened to take a look at your page on my iPad, and the images on your home page show up sideways. This seems to be a problem with some pictures taken on mobile devices – the device doesn’t know which way is up so that information isn’t stored in the image metadata. You probably rotated the image before uploading it from your PC, but when displayed on different devices it displays differently. The easiest way to overcome this is to make a screen dump of the image (right way up) and upload that to the server. The screen dump image will have the correct orientation metadata attached, and after that it will display correctly on all devices.

I looked on my ipad as well and you were right on point. I already deleted the original photos, so I used some other photos that I have taken.

They seem to work better now.

Pam wrote:

Jessica

I am most impressed at how you have taken on board the comments so far and made changes as appropriate.

You might want to add the link to the contact us page on your meeting directions page as well – I see you have already done that on your home page.

I happened to take a look at your page on my iPad, and the images on your home page show up sideways. This seems to be a problem with some pictures taken on mobile devices – the device doesn’t know which way is up so that information isn’t stored in the image metadata. You probably rotated the image before uploading it from your PC, but when displayed on different devices it displays differently. The easiest way to overcome this is to make a screen dump of the image (right way up) and upload that to the server. The screen dump image will have the correct orientation metadata attached, and after that it will display correctly on all devices.