What Makes a Good Website?

The STC Leadership Community Resource (LCR) sponsored Tom Johnson, who offered to critique some STC community websites during a free webinar. In addition to being a WordPress consultant, Tom is a senior technical writer for a non-profit organization in Salt Lake City, Utah. He writes a popular blog, Idratherbewriting.com, where he explores the latest trends in technical communication. He also records podcasts of interviews with technical writing luminaries around the world.

Tom had a co-presenter, Will Sansbury, who is a usability specialist in the area of web-based design.

The session ran overtime, so I couldn’t stay until the end, but here’s what I learned:

• They suggested using SharePoint as a CMS (Content Management System) for your website. Its one drawback is that it’s hard to make it look less like SharePoint.
  
• SharePoint has a Wiki that can be used for meetings, newsletters or news items.
  
• You only need generic skills to work with SharePoint, but you need specialized skills to customize it.
  

They critiqued the following three websites:

Twin Cities (http://www.stctc.org/)

• Protected site; social networking component so you can find other members
  
• Can load a photo and profile; good for interactivity, bad for broadening user base - since people are loading personal information, you can’t make it public
  
• Recommend adding an RSS feed for the blog; the feed enables easier access for RSS users
  
• Note: Facebook is blocked by some employers; if you plan to use Facebook to communicate with your members, their access might be limited
  
• Allows members to post jobs (with recommendations)—the personal recommendations are useful
  
• Job bank restricted to members; while this enhances member value, it limits the number of people who can see the jobs, and discourages employers from posting
  
• Everyone on the council is able to publish on the website; takes the pressure off the webmaster

Heartland (http://www.heartland-stc.org/)

• It’s very attractive; aesthetics count
  
• They have a problem making changes to the website because only one person (the webmaster) has access
  
• Static site; they can’t have more than one person making changes to the website
  
• He recommended adding interactivity, such as a discussion list, a Wiki or a blog
  
• All community websites should have the STC logo and a link to Head Office

Technical Editing SIG (http://www.stc-techedit.org/)

• Using Tiki; good because it’s open source, which means it’s free, there are a reasonable number of people who know how to use it, there are good sources of information about it, and it allows the website to be dynamic
  
• Opening new pages is slow
  
• The email list postings are automatically copied to a discussion forum to allow people to search the information

My notes abruptly end here because I had to leave the webinar, but if you visit some of the sites listed above, you might find some inspiration for your website.