District Administration - July 2007 - (Page 62)

How Well Does This Web Site LEARN WHAT OUR WEB ANALYST SAYS IS RIGHT AND WRONG WITH THIS DISTRICT SITE Clarkstown Central (N.Y.) School District www.ccsd.edu By Kurt O. Dyrli THE CLARKSTOWN CENTRAL School District is located in a largely residential middle to upper class community in Rockland County, New York, 25 miles from New York City, and has a population of more than 70,000 residents. DESIGN The Clarkstown district site is well designed, sleek and professional in appearance, and presents a simple layout eﬀectively with easy-to-access information. The slideshow of photos at the left links to corresponding school pages, but it would be helpful to have a caption for each photo so users know what it depict’s. The major purpose of the slideshow is unclear, however, and the pictures seem to have been selected randomly. Some of the linked pages are relatively bland and could be enhanced with better fonts, colors, graphics and page layouts. NAVIGATION The use of a consistent site menu at the top of the page is eﬀective in making navigation easy and straightforward. In addition, the helpful site map lets users see all the menu links on a single page. Most of the school pages in the district share the same navigation format, but four schools adopted diﬀerent layouts that make navigation inconsistent and confusing. The school sites show varying degrees of development, and particular items may appear in menus to the left, the right or across the top. Navigation would be greatly enhanced through adding a search tool on the home page for quick access to speciﬁc topics. Many of the school sites oﬀer search tools, however, but some do not work. 62 July 2007 The use of a consistent site menu at the top of the page is effective in making navigation easy and straightforward. In addition, the helpful site map lets users see all the menu links on a single page. Improving the quality of photographs, adding captions and linking them more effectively would help immensely. The photos of school buildings are blurry and taken from too far a distance. Similarly, classroom photos are too small to tell what they depict, and in larger pictures students too often have their backs to the camera. QUALITY OF THE INTERACTION WITH THE USER The site provides amazing amounts of useful content for staﬀ, students, parents and the community, organized logically for each target audience. Faculty and staﬀ have easy access to the district e-mail system, downloadable payroll and beneﬁts forms, and human re- sources contacts via a separate “For Staﬀ” menu selection. There are no access provisions for disabled users, such as visually impaired staﬀ, students and parents. In the “About Us” section, the “School District Policies” page links to documents in Microsoft Word format, which are slow to load, diﬃcult to read and awkward to District Administration http://www.ccsd.edu

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - July 2007

Contents
Editor’s Letter
Letters
News Update
Facilities/Construction Update
Curriculum Update
Inside the Law
Administrator Profile
District Profile
Cover Story: Rethinking School Bus Safety
Broadening Collective Bargaining
Searching for Subs
Jersey City’s Broad Appeal
Improving Nutrition in Schools
New Products
Computer Literature
How Well Does This Web Site Work?
Research Corner
Problem Solution
Online Edge
Speaking Out
Supervisor’s Opinion
Calendar of Events
Understanding the Times

District Administration - July 2007