Ohio Quilt, 1855, The Shelburne Collection
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
While I was in Vermont, I got an email from Polly, a volunteer who does a lot of the web site work under Maureen Smith's direction. Polly has a background in programming and is more computer savvy than most. Last week, when I began familiarizing myself with Joomla! and considering it for our new site development, I let both Polly and Maureen know so they could take a look too. Polly's email said she thought Joomla! was more software than they could handle. She had read some reviews, and really had not worked with the program. I sent her some links to see tutorials, etc. I personally don't think Joomla! is extremely difficult, nothing like Dreamweaver, that's for sure. However, to build a site from scratch from Joomla! you have to understand the architecture of the software. That is a little complicated, but not impossible. I think once I had the site constructed, Polly and Maureen could adapt to it.
However, because Polly voiced concern, I began looking at even simpler software. The trade off is less flexibility. However, ease of use is their #1 priority. They have felt so strapped down with Dreamweaver ever since they began using it. If they are going to leave that behind, they want software that is very easy. I get that. I have found the software for this blog very easy to work with. It's very intuitive and there are tutorials available. Weebly is a fairly new company and are rapidly building a following. They are also listening to their users and adding more and more functionality. The price is right too. But, my concern was whether it had the building blocks to construct a professional looking web site. So, I began to look at weebly more closely.
I spent many hours while I was in Vermont and after I got back home on Sunday night and Monday looking into weebly. By Monday, I was convinced it was a good possibility. I also began finding other themes on the web that worked with weebly. We want a front page that has some life to it, a slide show, or something more engaging than the current site. Weebly can accommodate that. I am also looking at other museum sites to see what they are doing. The Met, just brought up a new site at the end of August, so that's a good up-to-date site to look at. The Guggenheim, Winterthur, and the Peabody Essex are are worth taking a look at. Not only is their style helpful, but also how they have organized their site within the navigation. This is a good time for the NEQM to revisit how its pages are organized and see if they want to do it differently.
This afternoon I spent a little time with Connie and showed her some of the functionality we would have with weebly. Her criteria for the new site is that it have an up-to-date "look" and have some movement on the home page at least. In the weeks past, we have spent a little time looking at other museum sites, and that is what we are seeing a lot of. I showed her a neat slide program that can be put on weebly and she liked it a lot. It's a little different than the norm, and I consider it "artsy" as well. It will allow them to change their home page easily and without technical help. They can use it to highlight different quilts in the collection, or events at the museum, or something else.
To add this particular slide program to the site, it would have to be purchased from a 3rd party along with a template it resides in. As cost is a critical consideration in this decision, I also presented to Connie the financial ramifications of making these changes. Long story short, they will end up spending substantially less money on their site hosting if they go this direction, which leaves some funds to purchase a theme/template and slide show. I think they will be very happy with this and it is certainly cost effective. I think as time goes along, weebly will continue to add more and more function. The down side to going to weebly is that they will have to host the site in order for us to continue to easily update it as the NEQM would need to do. However, they do allow users to export sites built on weebly so we aren't necessarily required to host there; it would just make it easier and less expensive. Connie agreed to a budget for the new site development that was very reasonable for the museum and I think will more than accommodate the purchases that will be necessary.
Connie and I agreed that we would meet with Maureen and Polly later this week. I will make a presentation to them along with my recommendation. Then Connie and Maureen will make the final decision.
While I was in Vermont, I got an email from Polly, a volunteer who does a lot of the web site work under Maureen Smith's direction. Polly has a background in programming and is more computer savvy than most. Last week, when I began familiarizing myself with Joomla! and considering it for our new site development, I let both Polly and Maureen know so they could take a look too. Polly's email said she thought Joomla! was more software than they could handle. She had read some reviews, and really had not worked with the program. I sent her some links to see tutorials, etc. I personally don't think Joomla! is extremely difficult, nothing like Dreamweaver, that's for sure. However, to build a site from scratch from Joomla! you have to understand the architecture of the software. That is a little complicated, but not impossible. I think once I had the site constructed, Polly and Maureen could adapt to it.
However, because Polly voiced concern, I began looking at even simpler software. The trade off is less flexibility. However, ease of use is their #1 priority. They have felt so strapped down with Dreamweaver ever since they began using it. If they are going to leave that behind, they want software that is very easy. I get that. I have found the software for this blog very easy to work with. It's very intuitive and there are tutorials available. Weebly is a fairly new company and are rapidly building a following. They are also listening to their users and adding more and more functionality. The price is right too. But, my concern was whether it had the building blocks to construct a professional looking web site. So, I began to look at weebly more closely.
I spent many hours while I was in Vermont and after I got back home on Sunday night and Monday looking into weebly. By Monday, I was convinced it was a good possibility. I also began finding other themes on the web that worked with weebly. We want a front page that has some life to it, a slide show, or something more engaging than the current site. Weebly can accommodate that. I am also looking at other museum sites to see what they are doing. The Met, just brought up a new site at the end of August, so that's a good up-to-date site to look at. The Guggenheim, Winterthur, and the Peabody Essex are are worth taking a look at. Not only is their style helpful, but also how they have organized their site within the navigation. This is a good time for the NEQM to revisit how its pages are organized and see if they want to do it differently.
This afternoon I spent a little time with Connie and showed her some of the functionality we would have with weebly. Her criteria for the new site is that it have an up-to-date "look" and have some movement on the home page at least. In the weeks past, we have spent a little time looking at other museum sites, and that is what we are seeing a lot of. I showed her a neat slide program that can be put on weebly and she liked it a lot. It's a little different than the norm, and I consider it "artsy" as well. It will allow them to change their home page easily and without technical help. They can use it to highlight different quilts in the collection, or events at the museum, or something else.
To add this particular slide program to the site, it would have to be purchased from a 3rd party along with a template it resides in. As cost is a critical consideration in this decision, I also presented to Connie the financial ramifications of making these changes. Long story short, they will end up spending substantially less money on their site hosting if they go this direction, which leaves some funds to purchase a theme/template and slide show. I think they will be very happy with this and it is certainly cost effective. I think as time goes along, weebly will continue to add more and more function. The down side to going to weebly is that they will have to host the site in order for us to continue to easily update it as the NEQM would need to do. However, they do allow users to export sites built on weebly so we aren't necessarily required to host there; it would just make it easier and less expensive. Connie agreed to a budget for the new site development that was very reasonable for the museum and I think will more than accommodate the purchases that will be necessary.
Connie and I agreed that we would meet with Maureen and Polly later this week. I will make a presentation to them along with my recommendation. Then Connie and Maureen will make the final decision.
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