Your homepage

Once you have mapped out the possible content for your site, you could start by thinking about what your homepage will look like. Although your homepage is essentially a contents page for your site, don't blast visitors with so many options that they are baffled. These ideas may help:

  • Give a sense of what's unique about your school.
  • State what you are offering users.
  • Use graphics only when they are adding value to content, not simply as decoration.
  • Think about navigation. How will visitors find their way around?
  • Offer only around six routes into your website. Any more and you'll start to confuse.
  • Avoid having a link that points to the current page.
  • Gather all 'corporate' information in one area.
  • Identify what the website's priorities are and point users in the right direction to access them.
  • Consider showing examples of content to tempt users deeper into your site.
  • Keep everything clear and unambiguous.

Ten tips on building a good website:

  • Plan the site: consider all the options, map them out and retain this as a blueprint of how the site might grow over time.
  • Start one small manageable area and then build gradually.
  • Keep it simple and accessible for all users, including those with special needs — see what you can achieve without being over-ambitious.
  • Use the functions that are unique to the web to make your pages easier to navigate and interesting to visitors — hyperlinks, graphics and small animations if they're appropriate.
  • Remember your audience.
  • Enlist the help of others — children can take digital photos, for example, and write material for their own pages.
  • Invite feedback on how others view your offerings.
  • Review and update the site constantly — to ensure that you see your site as others see it.
  • Remember issues such as copyright, child safety and privacy.
  • Appoint a Webmaster to coordinate the efforts of everyone in the school and oversee the site's content.

Summing up

Remember that, just like any developing project, the website that goes live after all your planning and preparation is like the first step on a journey. It does not, indeed should not, have to be the final word on the subject. This is a project that will need careful nurturing and attention. If it turns out that a feature doesn't work well, change it. If there are obvious gaps, fill them. As long as you plan in the time to develop the website, you simply need to know that when it first goes live it's a foundation on which to build. Just don't forget to give it a test run before launching it on the general public!