Friends of Colombia Online

Toward a new FOC web site--a test model.

The FOC board has desired a more flexible, effective web site to better serve the group's mission. The existing site has limited functionality and very little of it is accessible to us for making changes or extensions.

We have had some conversations with the firm handling the site for estimates of the costs for a limited addition of a few features and for a full redesign. At the same time the webmaster, Jim O'Reilly, has been exploring the feasibility of building our own site. The major requirements he has been seeking to address are

  • Flexibility--the ability to add and update items quickly
  • Extensibility--the ability to add major new categories of features, for example,
    • a membership capability so that folks can join, renew and donate to FOC online
    • a connections service to support contacts between members and other RPCV types
  • Maintainability -- a design and approach using standard tools and techniques so that the web system could be taken over by someone else.
  • Enhanced content--adding relevant materials that make the site valuable for users. The current FOC site provides very little.
  • Attractive, professional look and feel

What you see here is a test model of the site. What it includes are

  • A barebones graphical design. Something more colorful with Colombian motifs would be nice.  But that requires talents that Jim is deficient in. Later, this could be enhanced.
  • The structure of sections, navigation elements, etc.
  • The content of the two most recent newsletters have been extracted from the PDFs, converted to a web presentation and organized in the sections shown on the left panel.

Now we need to discuss and comment on this test effort and think about where to go.

For me, the most critical issue is what should be on the initial page should look like. This is where the site must grab folks attention. The current web site seems to do the opposite with dull, out-of-date materials and little to entice the less motivated to go further.

I think this test effort suggests we can display our content is a fairly useful fashion. And it shows that in its newsletters, FOC has a lot of interesting and valuable stuff to publish on the web. But to really gain traction on the web, we need to make obvious on the first viewing what new and interesting stuff is available.

--Jim O'Reilly 6/22/07