Beginning this week of my internship, Scott, one of my supervisors from the web development team, approached me with a new project regarding improvement of website content and presentation. Bike Louisville is a city initiative that encourages citizens of Louisville to become healthier and friendlier to the environment through increased use of bicycle transportation. Although the concept is not new, it has become a trending subject in the last few years as there are multiple benefits for the community. The initiative has its own internal website to explain rules of the road, studies from statistics and other recorded data, as well as information about local race teams and shops. At first glance, it seemed as if the content was fine and did not need any changes, but it became evident that citizens were having some confusion on where to find the most important information suited for their needs. Ironically that same night, the local news featured a story about a biker who has been in life threatening situations due to drivers not knowing the proper bike laws. Even authorities had a difficult time searching for consistent rules of the road regarding bicyclists and could not properly inform citizens involved in accidents. “What better time to help out on this project,” I thought to myself.
One of the largest aspects I focused on this week was the importance of content organization within site navigation. If categories are too broad, it can be difficult to understand where to click and browse for information, which essentially wastes the user’s time. Instead of focusing on the Mayor’s five categories of E’s in the menu in which most people had no idea of what they mean, I reconstructed the menu to feature topics that begin specific enough to understand, with the ability to become more specific within. For example, “Safety” was created to group together pages about road rules, instructional safety videos, and educational safety programs offered. I connected this strategy from an ICT class I took last year about managing information for efficiency. This was important because it showed me applications from that class in the information technology field. Next week, I will then focus on improving the wording and graphics within the content to make it quicker to the point.
On Tuesday, Scott offered to take me to a Communications meeting between different city department representatives at the Metro Archives building. There, we met to discuss different events in the city and which ways to properly communicate them to the public through different methods on the central Metro website. This was important to me because it addresses the communications aspect in an ICT degree. In addition, we were provided with a tour of over 7,000 books and 15,000 boxes of stored historic files from the merge of the county and city governments. We even got to hold the original land surveying book of George Rogers Clark from 1779! Although the tour wasn’t necessarily relevant, it was very interesting to see history of the city!
One of the largest aspects I focused on this week was the importance of content organization within site navigation. If categories are too broad, it can be difficult to understand where to click and browse for information, which essentially wastes the user’s time. Instead of focusing on the Mayor’s five categories of E’s in the menu in which most people had no idea of what they mean, I reconstructed the menu to feature topics that begin specific enough to understand, with the ability to become more specific within. For example, “Safety” was created to group together pages about road rules, instructional safety videos, and educational safety programs offered. I connected this strategy from an ICT class I took last year about managing information for efficiency. This was important because it showed me applications from that class in the information technology field. Next week, I will then focus on improving the wording and graphics within the content to make it quicker to the point.
On Tuesday, Scott offered to take me to a Communications meeting between different city department representatives at the Metro Archives building. There, we met to discuss different events in the city and which ways to properly communicate them to the public through different methods on the central Metro website. This was important to me because it addresses the communications aspect in an ICT degree. In addition, we were provided with a tour of over 7,000 books and 15,000 boxes of stored historic files from the merge of the county and city governments. We even got to hold the original land surveying book of George Rogers Clark from 1779! Although the tour wasn’t necessarily relevant, it was very interesting to see history of the city!