TOPIC:

Steve,

We need district website evaluation. Willing to do club website evaluations.

tmd29.org

Best Regards,

Harminder Lall

Ok, I broke this off into its own topic thread, so you only get replies directed at your post.

So... I will get things kicked off with the hope that others will jump in here, also.

So, for some context, I am an incoming Division Director and I am the only current FreeToastHost system developer. I update and maintain the system (fix bugs) as a volunteer in my spare time.

Here is my evaluation:

1. The use of color is very appealing to me. You do have a lot of colors, but I think you do it in a way that works well. For instance, the multi-colored flowers are on a pale background, which makes them stand out without "fighting with" a background color. (good)

2. You have obviously paid attention to what is "above the fold". This is a term that means the content that the user immediately sees when visiting a website, without having to scroll down to see it. It is the highest impact content since it immediately shapes the user's impressions. I see the image of the meeting photo immediately, and it is completely visible. Very good.

3. I like the links at the top that you turned into a bar menu. You are obviously skilled with html and css--good work.

4. The stars at the top of the home page containing letters are a bit ambiguous... It took me a bit to figure out that those are for the various division pages. I only see a link title for Division A. I would suggest looking at how to make it clearer what the stars are for and that they can be clicked to take the user to another page. Some possible approaches: descriptive link titles that say "Click for Division A" (or similar) and maybe also putting a label that says what the stars are for. It is just not clear right now.

5. You linked the image and you say Click here for details. Good. You can also put that in the link title text. (Make it obvious to the user what things do.)

6. I love the link/image map thing you got going on with the flowers. Really great. My only comment on that is again, to make sure it is obvious to the user to click stuff--use link titles or some other type of indication to the user that they should do something. You also have a flower to the right of the District Officers Training flower that is not doing anything... an oversight or a placeholder for something not yet added?

7. Good side-by-side layout with the widgets at the bottom of the home page. A tip: You will find that it is easier to layout things out with tables in the rich text editor than divs, due to how the editor works. This is counter to the conventional wisdom of using divs for layout, but tables are just simpler to work with in the editor.

8. I like the inverted triangle org chart. Nice! You could create a link/image map on this page also to the related web pages.

9. Your District Director page needs a bio or something similar. Currently, it is just a photo. If need be, put a list of relevant questions for your DD together to help get the content for a bio and then draft the bio for her to approve for publication.

10. The PRM page lacks a photo and the name of the PRM. "Hello, I am your PRM, and I am anonymous... Contact me anytime!" (teasing )

11. I see you are experimenting with tabs on the Resources page. Keep in mind that the underlying html for the tabs is just an unordered list and associated divs. You can change the look of the tabs by using inline CSS on the unordered list and divs--the inline CSS will override what I have in place for defaults. For example, you can kill the rounded corners, if desired, and kill the panel border. That would make the tabs just look like a horizontal bar menu. Here is an example of how the default tabs have been tweaked a bit: 1241.toastmastersclubs.org/

12. Scribd widget... nice.

13. You are using a custom social media link (EventBrite) ... nice.

14. I am not so sure I agree with shutting off the district leaders stuff. Some things are best disseminated as file downloads, but you have those disabled.

15. Some other pages you may want to consider: A new clubs webpage (list of new clubs w/ contact info and ***website links***)--helps new clubs w/ SEO to get traffic on their website and get found, a clubs with available speaking slots webpage (helps clubs get speakers... helps speakers get speaking slots), an overall geographic map w/ pinpoints showing club locations in the district. an Our Distinguished Clubs webpage celebrating Distinguished clubs, etc.

16. Here is another FTH district website you may be able to get some additional ideas from: d16.toastmastersdistricts.org/

Hope this helps...

Hello,

I really like this! It was immediately attention-getting. The first thing I noticed was the large lecture hall which showed someone speaking (very important) and was also an action picture in that everyone in the audience was applauding. I would not expect as many group photos as on a club website, but you may want to sprinkle one or two more in. Perhaps on your conference page.

The Quality Director's picture is fuzzy, you should consider replacing.

I LOVE your directory page, however, the chain of command is upside down. Yes, I know this is a Toastmasters "thing" to put the top officer on the bottom, but it is still upside down from how most will read an organizational chart. Otherwise, it was very informative.

I like the individual Division pages. This was an easy site to navigate if I am looking for something or someone specific.

I noticed a few recent posts on social media. You may want to consider getting a twitter account. You will be able to catch more of your members there.

It's informative, but not too flashy. Just what you would expect from a District website. All in all, very professional.