Our web page

Topics worth discussion

• User Personas and how they influenced the creation of our site
• Work delegation(how we planned everything to happen in comparison to how thing worked out)
• Site Goals (the process of how they changed as we started working with our site)
• Reseach of other related websites to gain ideas of how we wanted our page to look (simple, easy to navigate, fun, and covered with glitter!)
• Site Design (wireframe and sitemap post it process on chalkboard)
• The Page Building process (template, color, nomenclature and overall design decisions)
• Difficulties we overcame(that Dammed Calendar, not enought time to get everything (poll, pictures, raffle) that we wanted into the site, the process of overcoming our lack of experience in Dreamweaver...)
• The results (how we feel about our site, why we worked so well together, what we would change if we had more time available)

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The Creation Process Revisited

Purpose Statement:

• We would like to create a website for BSU's Hobson Union Programing Board as a part of HUPB's market scheme. The site will include information about HUPB and what they do.

Site Goals:

The Big Three

• Recruit for members
• Recruit for events
• Acquire feedback

• Popularize the HUPB name and organization
• Inform BSU students about HUPB
• Inform students about events HUPB is sponsoring
• Inform students about HUPB perks
• Create a fun place for students to spend time at
• Provide information on how to join HUPB
• Provide information/pictures of past events
• Provide meeting information
• Educate students on HUPB's budget
• List committees

User Goals:

• Find general information on HUPB
• Find out about HUPB events, past and future
• View pictures of past events (to see if I am in any)
• View other user comments
• Voice opinions
• Find contact information
• Find out who HUPB's members are
• Learn how to join HUPB
• Learn how being in HUPB would help me in the future
• See how to get more free things
• Have fun and waste some free time

Interview Groups:

• On-campus students
• Off-campus students
• Traditional-aged freshman students
• Upper classmen
• Non-traditional aged students

Site Reviews

St. Cloud State University Program Board

http://www.stcloudstate.edu/upb/default.asp

St. Cloud State has a much larger programming board then we do at Bemidji State so their website is much more extensive then ours will be. I had some problems finding their website through navigating the site, but found it through the search bar. Once at the site it was very easy to navigate because it has a very simple layout with sidebar navigation. The main purpose of their website seems to be inform student of events that are happening. The home page is focused on a concert that they will be hosting and then two links to events they are hosting on campus. Their website is going to be a good referance for us to use because it is very practical and student orientated. St. Clouds programing board website is useful because it has some of the same goals as ours, but just on a larger level.

• The committe page is very informational and could be useful for us as a reference
• I like how they also really emphasize the events that will be happening around campus
• Their site is simple which makes it easy to navigate through, as should ours.

-CourtneyNelson

St. Scholastica Campus Activity Board (CAB)

http://student.css.edu/cab/

It was very interesting to look at St. Scholastica's (CAB-Campus Activity Board) website because it has a very unique design. The main focus of the "CAB" website is an actual bright yellow taxi cab. Because St. Scholastica is a smaller private college the website seems to have a more personable fee. The website is very fun, but it almost seems unprofessional. The main page features is a huge image of an clip art cab, with several links to events that they are planning. The main goal for this website seems to inform students of the different events that are happening on campus. They use very simple navigation and layout to advertise for the different catagories of events (movies, coffeehouse artists, dances....). The site does not explain anything about the organization, which seems odd. It only lists the few members, how to contact them, and a copy of the minutes for the last meeting. Overall this is a good site for us to look at for creativity, but it lacks professionalism. This site is very fun, but almost too much fun.

• This website is very unique, but almost seems amateur
• Its main goal is also to inform students of future events
• It has very simple navigation throughout the site.

-CourtneyNelson

BSU Student Senate

The Senate website is very well put-together, aside from a few needed updates. At the top are links to general useful items (BSU home, MSUSA, University Directory, etc.). The left-hand navigation had Senate-specific information (senators, committees, minutes, resolutions, constitution, bylaws, FAQs, links, and contact info). Underneath the left-hand navigation is a calendar that shows anything happening; you can't click on the events or days, which HUPB probably would need to do, but when you run the mouse over a highlighted day it shows the event and time. At the right are four boxes with arrows (links), saying "Join us," "Gripe? Complain here!", "Blog," and "Scrapbook." Along with being set up nicely, it also uses the right nomenclature (i.e. "Got a gripe?" instead of something more boring). There are useful links, downloadable forms (applications, budget request info, etc.), and a green background that makes it similar to the BSU website. Each category is also set up well; for the Constitution, it doesn't just have it, it has links to each article. There's a page for each committee, and at the bottom of each page, it says, "all people are accepted into all committees, but which matches my major?" Each committee also lists a purpose, meeting times, members, and any useful links. The minutes are downloadable in Microsoft Word, and the Bills and Resolutions pages also have archives from past years. There's also a link for the webmaster.

These are all things that HUPB could borrow, because they make it interesting and easy to navigate. When I looked for something, it was clearly labeled. However, aside from our own design scheme and nomenclature, we'd also need to add categories that would give people information on past events. We'd also have to have a lot more pictures--Senate didn't have any--because that's what gets people interested in events. We'd probably still keep certain aspects of the home page the same--for example, their meeting times were listed right in the middle of the home page so that people could see it--but there was a boring little intro diddy: "Here you will find information, resources, and updates about Student Senate that might be helpful to current and prospective students of BSU." We definitely will not have that. We'd have to add pictures of members (not just a list of names), and instead of having an email link (which always opens up the webmail email thing), we should have the forms that they can fill out right on the website, which then would be sent to the HUPB email (like the WRC draft submission form). ~Traci Nigon

BSU Hobson Union

It will be important to us to differentiate HUPB from the Union, as our names are so similar that students automatically assume that we are the same. We are not. I do like all of their pictures, especially the fact that there's at least one on every page, and I like the post-it note in the corner. However, we'd have to move these around and change the design to make them different.

Another way to differentiate us from the Union would be to emphasize the words "programming board," perhaps by making it larger underneath the "hobson union" part or by making it look fancy somehow. We could also have pictures of our (tiny) office within H2O, which maybe will help differentiate us from the Union and Info Desk. Also, the nomenclature will be different, as we don't have the touche gallery, an info desk, or info on other student organizations (although we do have events and activities, which we'll have to focus on). The other problem in differentiating us is the fact that they have lists of events on many pages, as well as pictures of past events. We would have to make sure that we either have a great home page or a different list somehow. We'd also follow the union's footsteps by having pictures of places that people would recognize on campus so that they'd know where to find us, although our pictures would be more of our office and meeting space than the union itself.

A different use of color may also be helpful. The Union uses primarily blue, red, and yellow; we could use green, like BSU and Senate, and maybe pink or something different like that. Maybe HUPB itself can start a new PR scheme using the same colors as the website. ~Traci Nigon

UMD Kirby Student Center

http://www.d.umn.edu/kirby/

The first thing I noticed/liked about how UMD set up their programming board website was their featured event right on the main page. They had a picture of the band the University is bringing in as well as some background information on them. Because UMD is a bigger school, they can obviously bring in big events like this one, yet, it might be a good idea for our site to keep the idea of having a featured event (whatever it may be) on the home page. I think by doing this it also shows that we update frequently.

The site was easy to navigate around. There was a lot of helpful information. Late Night Kirby was one of the action links that caught my eye. When clicked on, it lists events students can attend during the evening hours that the Kirby Center works with. In the list, price, time and place was included, making it easy for students to see what they had to pick from if they chose to attend one of the events.

The site wasn't too extensive and it was easy to move around in. They had a lot of information on events and other campus-related issues. I found it a basic "how to" and "where to go" site, that overall, gave me some general layout ideas for how we may want to construct our HUPB site.

-Emily Halla

Cornell University Program Board

http://www.rso.cornell.edu/cupb/index.html

The first thing I liked about this programming board was that its name was CUPB, kind of like our HUPB, clever.

Anyway, I see a lot of similiar ideas of our group that match what this site has already accomplished. However, their site is pretty basic and plain, I see ours as more colorful and standing out a little more (depending on how good we get with Dreamweaver.)

Like Duluth, CUPB also has their main attraction (Stephen Colbert) featured on the main page. Just by looking at that, it makes me want to investigate the site more and see what other kinds of activities the oraganization offers. By highlighting this main event, along with another on their main page, it appears to me that the main goal of this site is to let the public know what is currently happening within the campus.

Another aspect I liked was the past shows they list. This board has brought some pretty big names, such as Jon Stewart in. I'm jealous.

To wrap it up, the site's navigation is incredibly straight forward and not at all complex. The site also lists the Executive Board, mission, meeting information and contact information. It was a good site, it just needed some spicing up, it was very boring to look at. All in all, it was interesting to look at something outside of Minnesota.

-Emily Halla

UCLA Happings and Texas A&M MSC.

• I visited UCLA's website and found that they have all their activities under events and concerts and it was found under happings. It was very confusing and hard to navigate through because of all the links that were spread out over the whole page. Nothing was clearly defined on what any activity was. It was very colorful and was divided into sections such as sports, lectures, concerts, ect. I also looked at Texas A&M. Their programing board is found under student life under student memorial center, then click under programing. It is basically just a calender with dates and the names of the programs and they are links that will tell you more about the event. It was divided into four different catagories, prorams, services, facilities, and committiees. Easy to navigate through but a little blinding with all the huge bright colors used for the back ground and headers. I also looked at NYU's but they did not have one that I could find.

-Heather Smith

Interview Questions

• What year are you in school? Or Position?
• Are you involved in organizations on campus,what are they?
• Do you live on campus?
• What kinds of things do you do in your spare time?
• How many hours per week do you use the internet?
• How often are you on campus?
• Do you know what HUPB is?
• Do you attend HUPB sponsered events?
• If you had an idea for an event on campus, who would you tell about it?
• If you clicked on a link to a HUPB website, what would you expect to see?
• What would cause you to look for a HUPB website?
• Starting from the BSU homepage, where would you look to find a HUPB website?
• What would you like to see on a HUPB website?
• Do you know the difference between HUPB and the Union?

Kinds of People We Want to Interview

• Freshman students
• Upper classmen
• On-campus students
• Off-campus students
• Transfer students
• Non-traditional students
• International students
• Students involved in clubs & orgs
• Students not involved in clubs & orgs
• Faculty
• Staff
• Students looking to get involved
• Student athletes
• Students who are familiar with HUPB (friends, etc.)
• Students who have no idea what HUPB is
• Potential BSU students

What do we want to know about these users?

• If uninvolved: what would motivate you to become involved?
• If uninvolved: why?
• If involved: what will keep you coming?
• If involved: what first got you involved?
• If freshman: how do you know about HUPB, if you do?
• Would you like to get involved in HUPB?
• Gender
• Age
• Values (responsibility? civic engagement? environmental stewardship?)
• First-generation student?
• Interests

• Accessibility

• Full-time or part-time student?

Interview Personas

Traci'sPersonas

• On campus student, non freshman, somewhat familiar with HUPB
• Staff

Jake Scleron Meet Jake. Jake is a junior at BSU, lives on campus, and is an active member of the Tamarack Action Group (TAG—another name for hall council). He is familiar with HUPB and knows one person on the board because he went to high school with her, but he doesn’t talk to her on a regular basis. He enjoys attending HUPB events when he can, but only if it’s something he’s really interested in; he doesn’t go looking for events—he just responds to events that he hears about from friends or posters in the dorms. While he came to Bemidji for the academics and the outdoors, he also enjoys some of the cultural and unique things happening around town.

He spends an average of two hours a day on the internet for checking his email, facebook, and random google searches. If he had an idea for an event, he would tell his hall director or assistant hall director first (after his friends, to make sure they liked the idea as well); then he would probably seek out his friend from HUPB.

Jake went to high school in a small town in northern Minnesota, and he used to be in a band with his friends. He enjoys music, movies, and going out to parties on the weekends if he has time. A lot of his time is spent doing homework or just hanging out in the dorms; he has a comfortable schedule—some homework, but still enough time to enjoy himself.

Goals:

• Find out upcoming events
• Check out the member page to see his friend
• Graduate with a good resume
• Have some good clean fun

Professor Achertine Professor Achertine is a history professor at BSU. She spends a lot of her spare time outdoors for birdwatching, gardening (or "putting things in the ground, at least"), bicycling, and hiking. She loves Bemidji because it's so welcoming to outdoorsmen. She's married and lives with her husband in a small house just outside of town. She is involved in the Inter-Faculty Organization and sometimes attends seminars or other things that sound interesting. She spends about 12 hours per week on the internet, including email. She doesn't like the BSU webpage because it's hard to navigate. She's on campus every day for about four or five hours, and she has only the basic idea of what HUPB is because of a few fac/staffs sent out.

If she had an idea for an event, she would tell her department chair and leave it at that. She would mention it to other faculty but not with the intention of seeing what they could do about it; she just mentions it in conversation. The only way she'd go to the HUPB website is if she heard students talk about it or if she stumbled upon it through the crazy BSU site.

Goals:

• Find out what HUPB does/**what they stand for**
• See the faculty involved with HUPB
• Be in tune with students and help them succeed in and beyond college

Courtney

• Off campus student, upper classman, goes to some HUPB events, somewhat involved on campus
• I HATE HUPB

• Sophie Johnson is a junior majoring in Mass Communication with a minor in Spanish. She is involved with Habitat for Humanity. She works at the Rec. Center as a yoga instructor and at the Cabin Coffee House. Class and work are generally the only reason why she comes on campus. She lives in an apartment downtown with two other BSU students. She likes to read books, listen to music and hanging out with her boyfriend. She has been to a couple of Johnny Holmes dances and likes to get free cookies in the union. She spends about 10 hours a week online mostly for homework and social networking. Sophie doesn't have much time, so she would only spend a couple of minutes to search for a HUPB website. An event poster for an folk music singer caused her to look for the HUPB website, because she forgot the time it starts.

• Sophie wants to find quickly out information about an event on campus.

• Trevor Gurney is a junior majoring in Philosophy and Political Science. He is the President of the Philosophy Club. He lives in a typical college house with four other people. He likes to annoy his roommates with a constant flow of heavy music spreading from his bedroom into the rest of the house. He enjoys reading biographies, playing guitar, skateboarding, listening to live music, and going to parties. He spends about 20 hours online throughout the week for homework, online gaming, and social networking. His idea of the current BSU website is negative because of the broken links and picture of people whom he does not like. The only reason he would get to a HUPB website is by accidentally clicking on the link. He has not gone to any HUPB events that he knows about. He once snuck into a Johnny Holmes dance and likes to listen to the coffeehouse artists when they are playing. He has no idea what HUPB even stands for and still has yet to find out what the student union is even though he walks through it everyday.

• Trevor goes to the HUPB website to make a complaint about an event on campus.

Emiy

• Off campus, doesnt know what HUPB is but attends events

• Anna Mattson is a sophomore at Bemidji State University majoring in Pyschology. Anna transferred from St. Cloud State University and is very excited to be here at BSU. She lives with two girls she knew from high school in an apartment not far from campus. In the spare time she has, Anna enjoys being with her friends, going on road trips, listening to music, going to movies, and overall being social. She just recently got a job waitressing at the Green Mill and loves that she is meeting new people. Anna gets out to as many campus events as she can as a way to get to know more people. She has attended Johnny Holmes, a few movies in Haag Sauer and the guest musical comedian. She really enjoyed those events and is always looking forward to hearing about more.

• Off campus, doesn't know what HUPB is and does not go to events

• Dylan Whitecloud is a freshman at Bemidji State University double majoring in Chemisty and Mathematics. He lives in the basement of a house with three other guys that he doesn't really know, but anything was better than living in the dorms. Dylan spends several hours a week online mostly working on his homework. He enjoys video games, solving problems, loud music and drawing. Dylan is very serious about school and doesn't have a lot of free time other than his school work. The only time Dylan is on campus is for class or for his work study job in the math help room.

Heather

• On campus Freshman who know about HUPB

Katlyn Kasper is a freshman living in Maple Hall. She is from a small town and was very involved in high school. She enjoys being involved and making friends. She is currently on hall council and apart of the chem. club. She goes to all the events offered on campus and works with the RA's on her floor to help promote a better community. She would look for the HUPB site for upcoming events to tell her floor about and make sure her friends go. She would also go to the site to find pictures of the events so that she can see if she is in any of them. Her favorite HUPB event that she went to was the movie on the lawn because so many people were there for her to meet. She likes going to concerts and listening to up beat music to keep her in a good mood. She looks forward to the next events on campus, so she can go and be with her friends and meet new people.

• On campus Freshman who dont know about HUPB

Corbin St.Cyr is a freshman living in Oak Hall. He never leaves his room because he is always playing Hallo with his friends from back home. If he does leave he is going to the occational class to make an appeance. The only activity he has gone to is his floor's first floor meeting. He does look forward to going to a hockey game because his other floor mates tell him it is cool. Corbin really wants to fit in but only if he can look cool doing so. He does not like meeting new people and would prefer not being pushed into going to any activities. He uses the excuse of he has to do home work to get out of going to any events that his RA invites him too. He would not go looking for the HUPB site the only way he would find himself there is if he was looking for the on-line directory to find a Prof.'s e-mail address to let them know he was going to be gone for hunting.

Content Inventory

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Item	Current state of Item	Assigned to Who?	Comments
HUPB Logo	Obtainable through HUPB	Traci
Events Calander	Obtainable through HUBP	Traci	Wont be used until January
Links to information about Jan. events	Needs to be done	Traci
Event Photos	Obtainable through HUBP	Traci	New pictures of HUPB events were just taken
Photo Captions	Needs to be done	Heather
Previous Event Descriptions	Needs to be done	Heather	Can talk to Mary
Member Profiles	Need to be done	Courtney
Member Pictures	HUPB has a disk of photos	Courtney
General Information on HUPB	Needs to be done	Emily
Information on specific committees	Needs to be done	Heather
How to contact HUPB	Needs to be created	Emily
Feedback Area	Needs to be created	Courtney	Create a submittable online form
Free give away information	Needs to be created	Traci	Need to figure out what we are giving away and how
Poll	Needs to be created	Traci	Need to figure out what we're polling
Link to HMU	Have it	person?
Link to Facebook group	Have it	person?
FAQs	Needs to be created	person?	Need to figure out which Qs don't fall under other categories