Chapter 12 Case-Study-Research Portal Web Site and the Online Feature Story: Britannica.com and the Harlem Renaissance

This chapter starts off talking all about the Britannica.com web site and how well it competes with Yahoo!, which is an already well established 'portal' web site, one of the major ones attracting millions of page viewers per day. He says that "Britannica.com filled a niche somewhere between Yahoo.com and Discovery Channel Online" (177).
He says that Britannica.com is useful to study for anyone trying to figure out how to make money from a content site, because originally the site was free and the way they were going to obtain money was through those who wished to advertise on their site, but now a user gets a brief summary of articles on their database and has to be a paying customer to view the whole article etc. I personally hate those kind of sites that give you half the reading, but never finish. It's horrible for research papers.
He says that the Harlem Renaissance was a 'spotlight' for them. It was to create interest in Black History, kind of like a feature story in print journalism. One thing I found interesting through his discription of this 'spotlight' was when he said that they subtly tinted each section a different color for variations on the mood. But, he then says there was editing problems with that in that you had to redue pretty much the whole section if you wanted to change simple text, but it acheived its goal, which was to make the era come to life.
He mentions "Hot Spots" map as a clickable menu.

"To connect with a site user, it is important to 'write as if you are talking to an INDIVIDUAL, not a collective group of anonymous Web surfers'" (183).

Chapter 13: E-Learning Lessons

In this chapter, you have to be proficient, use a variety of textbooks, be an expert at summarizing things, and reach a variety of audiences.

It talked about storyboards and how effective they are to use. It just is a really simple way to show the beginning, middle, and end (the whole process).

Scripting is important because you will have everything that will be said written down before-hand. It's always good to organize. You can never do too much.

It talks about chunking, which is almost like Chapter 11 when it talks about how to make changes. You do it in little amounts at not close intervals.

It is always good to have more skills. This chapter just reapplies that knowledge by saying to get graphic skills, not just be a good writer.

Chapter 11 Case Study--Corporate Web Site: T-Rowe Price: Reflection

In this chapter, he lists the five categories of websites and personally, I would like to create the Personal one if I could. That is only because I would have more fun perfecting it and I would know the material, which is me!

One profound statement in this chapter is the fact that you have to make changes without losing a large portion of your audience, because people don’t want to have to re-learn how a site works every six months or so. That, to me, sounds so difficult to keep up on.

You want to start building your website section by section, starting from the top most important on down and you want to make sure it is a user-centered design. So, I guess my Personal website wouldn’t do, right?
One thing I would have forgotten (if the website I ultimately create needs it) is the search feature. I always appreciate a site that has a search box. It’s so much more helpful and straightforward.