My Misadventures in Website Creation

So, as you learned from my previous post, I had to create a mock library website for the 2nd assignment in my Emerging Technological Trends in Information Access class.  I went into the project with very limited experience in website design and development, only having created one other mock website in my Media Productions class over the summer.  For that assignment, we used Google Sites, which I found to be fairly intuitive and user friendly, although I do remember having some difficulties getting my pages in the correct order.  In my opinion, the biggest drawbacks to Google Sites are user limitations on customization and personalization and the lack of added features (like social media buttons and mobile device plugins).  It is difficult to make a professional looking website specific to your needs with Google Sites.

For our website project in Emerging Technological Trends in Information Access, we used a host site... a concept that I was totally unfamiliar with.  Basically, WordPress is an open source blogging/website software that has to run on a server.  A web hosting service provides a user with space on their server and hosts the user's website in this way.  I also learned that WordPress.org and WordPress.com are two very different sites.  WordPress.org (which is what we used via BYET Host) is the website where the open source WordPress software is hosted along with thousands of free themes and plugins that you can use to modify and customize your website.  WordPress.com is a commercial website where a user can host a website for free, however there are limited themes from which to choose, no custom plugins, and limited storage space.  Also, your website created via WordPress.com will contain advertisements.  Blah.  WordPress.com does, however, relieve you from having to set up and maintain WordPress on your own server or through a web hosting site.  A library, small museum, or other such organization would want to use WordPress.org to power their website, either on their own server or through a host site, in order to take advantage of its increased functionality.

I created a mock website for the Edoras Community Library, with 5 pages including a library blog page.  You can check out my site here.  There is not a ton of content, but the point of the project was not to actually create a viable site but to simply master the skills needed to create a working website.  Here is a screenshot of the top part of the home page:

I can't stand websites that are too busy and chaotic; they just give me a headache.  So, it was important to me that my site be visually appealing but not so full of content as to scare potential users away.  I used lots of photographs and images because they add color and interest without creating a disorderly or jumbled page.

Although things went quite smoothly in the creation of my site, I did run into a few glitches in the process.  I had a difficult time selecting a theme, as I wanted a look that would catch the users attention (ie. not be too boring or generic) but that would also meet my specific needs.  I finally decided on the Two Thirteen, however I did change the heading design to another offered option.  I wanted the photo of the library to appear in the heading area as well, but after experimenting unsuccessfully with a heading widget, I had to settle for having the photo just below the heading in the right side widget area.  I didn't have any trouble inserting images via the Image Inserter plugin.  I did have some trouble getting them placed exactly where I wanted them on the teen page.  For some unknown reason, although there are spaces between the images when I edit the page, the hunger games image slightly overlaps the zombie image when I publish it.  I tried to remedy this for quite some time and finally gave up.  As I was moving widgets around, at one point, I inadvertently removed the Meta widget in the footer area, which left me with no way to login to my site!  After a few minutes of panic, I went to work trying to figure out how to access my site.  I finally realized/remembered that if I added /wp-admin to my website URL, I could access the login page to reach my dashboard.  Whew.  As I said in my earlier post, the most time consuming part of the process for me was experimenting with plugins.  I attempted to install the WP Smart Mobile plugin, but was unable to for some reason.  I ended up using the WP Mobile plugin instead, which seems to be working well when I access my site with my iPhone.  What I don't like about it though is that all the information in the right side column is displayed below the main information.  This means that the user has to scroll way down before getting to the photo of the library, the social media icons, and the library hours.  It is nice that the content fits on the screen though, and no sideways scrolling is necessary.  I also like that the pages are listed in a drop down menu, so the user can access the various pages but the menu is not always open and in the way.  I also used a business hours widget to display the library hours of operation.  I definitely wanted to have these shown on every page, but I wish that the widget presented this information in a more compact manner.  I do like that the hours for whatever day it actually is are listed at the very top. 

All in all, although I could have spent many more hours experimenting with and perfecting my website, I'm mostly pleased with my end product.  I do think that this was a valuable assignment, and I enjoyed getting a bit of experience with WordPress.  I do believe that I could now design and develop, through WordPress, a useful and aesthetically pleasing library website!