what what would you like to see in a team website?

[fimmel]

hello,
what would you like to see in a team website? i am working on prepping the green team 885's website for the season.

so far i have:
-forums
-a gallery

on my to do list:
-file share just for the team and maby a separate smaller one for the public
-sponsors page redo
-calendar
-redo all the current pages there with updated info
-news ticker
-contact us (possibly with a map)
so what needs to get added?

the general pages ive thought of so far are:
-student bios/why there on the team
-mentor bios
-sponsors (description / logo etc)
-about the team
-awards/achievements
-goals
-parent bios
-history
-our motto explanation/story


so have i forgot anything?
thank you
/forest

btw team 885's site is www.thegreenteam885.org

[Dan Petrovic]

Pictures!

I go to other teams' websites to look at pictures of their stuff.

We... don't have pictures on our website... they are all loaded onto one of our mentor's personal fotki page...

[fimmel]

ill try to work some in

also what about themes what do you guys prefer (i personally like the black backgroung with the lime green and the flames)

thanks

[Jeff Rodriguez]

History - Game info, pictures, past events attended, event results, etc.

[AdamHeard]

I always like it when teams have a robot section with each of the years' robots, how they worked, how well they did, what the game was, etc...

[psquared89]

The question you have to ask is who you're making the website for? Are you just making the website for outside visitors to enjoy, or are you making it for your team to use as well. Our website is a Wiki, and serves both purposes, containing information on our team, photos, videos (okay, embedded GooTube players) as well as another section devoted to information for team members. Calendar of events, daily build schedules (sorry guys, you have to be a team member to see these...) etc. Remember, your website should be just as useful to your team as it is to everyone who visits it from the outside.

IMO, the best way to create a good website is to check other people's out. See what you like, what you don't like and build from there.

[Josh Goodman]

Our webpage team has done A LOT with our website. You should check it out. There is still work to be done but it's still a REALLY good information source.

[BandChick]

Everyone keeps neglecting a MAJOR part of FIRST websites.
THEY TELL YOU WHAT JUDGES WANT TO SEE.
As a 2-year website judge, I encourage EVERY FIRST kid to do this, it makes a big difference if you just READ.

If you look at the Website Award section of the manual, they give you the grading process for the judges from last year. The outline of the award basically explains what FIRST is looking for.

9.7.2.1 General
The ideal website is a genuine reflection of the team, its participants, spirit, and goals. It should not be just a bulletin board with information accessible via a menu. It should tell an individual story and also detail how it is part of the larger FIRST community.

9.7.2.2 Content and Design
The content (text, pictures, music, etc,) and design of a website should work together to provide a pleasing user experience. Good content with a confusing interface, or vice versa, will not be scored as highly as a site
with better balance.

They want to see content, that's the key of any team website. They want the inside, human perspective of a team, and to see how this team interacts within both the FIRST community and their own local community. They want multimedia, pictures, video, flash animation is a nice bonus. They want up-to-date information, maybe even what the team is currently working on and how it's going.

Here's what I explained to my kids when they were looking for examples of websites:

To be honest, the web criteria is more about the content of the site than the presentation of it. Looking professional and good is a plus, but it is not what counts.

Here is 555's website.
They won the Website Award at the NYC Regional in 2005. http://www.montclairrobotics.org/

Here is 103's website.
They have won the website award multiple times, I believe.
http://www.cybersonics.org

Chiefdelphi has won the Website Excellence award two years in a row
2004: http://team2004.chiefdelphi.com/
2005: http://team2005.chiefdelphi.com/

This is the kind of stuff judges look for:
team success stories
appreciation and recognition of sponsors
resources for other teams
photos of members/mentors/coaches


One thing FIRST is big on is letting people know about the impact its had on teams. 358 has a list of where their graduates have gone and what they're considering for majors. That's awesome! They also have a schedule up as far as their upcoming events are concerned. They have a nice archive of the newspaper and other media spots they've had too. Seriously, the content of this site is awesome.
http://www.team358.org

One of my favorite things to see is an alumni page. Unless you're a rookie team, you've had kids graduate from your group. So, what have they gone on to do/study? Are they working in science, engineering, or technology fields? It makes SUCH an impact to people in FIRST if they realize just how much progress your team is making in inspiration.

Team 1089 (my team) won the website award at the NJ Regional this year. If you would like, please feel free to stop by our website and compare/contrast with ours (http://www.mercury1089.com ). I worked with the students this year to supply a massive amount of content and work with the fluidity and interactivity of it as well. If you would like to talk to me more about what I personally think is important in a FIRST award-winning website, feel free to PM me.


I know this post is long, I'm sorry.
But I hope it was informative.
2005 NYC Website Judge | 2006 NYC & Philadelphia Website Judge

[GRaduns340]

I think that last post hit it on the nose. Pictures and media are good for attracting students, but when it comes to anything involving mentors, sponsors, or of course the judges, you want to focus a lot on content. I'll be the first to admit that the design of our team's site last year was only so-so, but content and organization play huge in the judging and also in winning potential sponsors. The sponsors weren't an issue for us, but I'd still rather have a well-developed site than a site that throws out some information on a cool design.

[fimmel]

thank you very much.

about the content, my mom and i along with a few other team members have been working on som very good content and desctiptions for stuff. so thats getting ther

also our site is going to be split into a public/team only site. the only problem is getting the team to actually use the site......

i am familiar with the website guidelines and last year just met all but a few of them. so this year i hope to fix the little tings that stoped us from getting the best website. (ew did achieve the excellence award though.)

ill let you all know when its done (bout 2 months im hoping for)

again thank you..

[Ricky2443]

Tell you the truth I think forums and P2P services are practically useless in the long run. The point of a web site is to appeal to a potential client, in this case our clients are the judges. I must admit my site last year won only a excellence award but that was my fault for using frames . I digress, the must important thing about a FIRST website is that it shows the judges what they want to see, just like it says in the guidelines, and that you do it with the greatest amount of class. Flash is not a good idea, and neither are frames. Pictures are very nice and so are little articles about events. I've never had log-ins or forums and I don't plan on putting them in this year. Check out my site I'm still doing a little bit of work on it, let me know what you think http://www.wolvcatrobotics.com

[fimmel]

Originally Posted by Ricky2443

Tell you the truth I think forums and P2P services are practically useless in the long run. The point of a web site is to appeal to a potential client, in this case our clients are the judges. I must admit my site last year won only a excellence award but that was my fault for using frames . I digress, the must important thing about a FIRST website is that it shows the judges what they want to see, just like it says in the guidelines, and that you do it with the greatest amount of class. Flash is not a good idea, and neither are frames. Pictures are very nice and so are little articles about events. I've never had log-ins or forums and I don't plan on putting them in this year. Check out my site I'm still doing a little bit of work on it, let me know what you think http://www.wolvcatrobotics.com

looks great i like the simple design and the flow of the site. the navy and yellow look good together. do you mind if i borrow some of your ideas?

[Ricky2443]

Originally Posted by fimmel

looks great i like the simple design and the flow of the site. the navy and yellow look good together. do you mind if i borrow some of your ideas?

Go right ahead, message me if you need any help

[RoboJedi75]

One thing to keep in mind, the website scoring. My dad was a website judge last year and he says it hasn't changed much from this scoring sheet.

Also, you may want to include a page of some good descriptions for you subteams. It can help new members decide if they want to join.

If you want, you can have something like a Flash intro. It does help draw visitors in, makes it much more fun, and you can add a link to skip it so people don't get annoyed.

[artdutra04]

Originally Posted by RoboJedi75

If you want, you can have something like a Flash intro. It does help draw visitors in, makes it much more fun, and you can add a link to skip it so people don't get annoyed.

Actually, there are a lot of people in the web design community who frown upon using Flash/Splash pages, even if there is a "Skip Intro" button. The reason behind that is if a "Skip Intro" button exists, then it's obviously not necessary to view the Flash/Splash page. If it's not necessary, why bother? All Flash Intro/Splash pages do is get in the way of people and Search engines wanting to access the content on your website.

Flash Intros/Splash pages are now generally regarded as a fad of the 1990s, which is why most websites nowadays do not have them.