Hogg Middle School Robotics Website

[jcsalinas]

Hey everyone. This is the Hogg Middle School Robotics Website. The kids do all of the work. It isn't as advanced as some, but they do a great job. Be sure to drop in and leave the kids a message. They are working hard on their FIRST robot, and love hanging out with you guys at the competition. Your words of encouragement means a lot to them.

[Stuart]

ok just some constructive criticism. lose the dancing robot background . . and the music.

[Compnerd]

I agree. The Robots are really distracting. You guys have great content, but i would consider taking them off

[Astronouth7303]

Welcome to the ChiefDelphi forums!

If you want a more useful response, you may want to look at the Website Design/Showcase forum.

(Also, you DON'T NEED TO YELL AT US. Normal capitalization is fine.)

[JaneYoung]

Guys, as we post, let's keep in mind this is a middle school website, not high school, and it is done by the students. I say bravo for the effort.

[Kyle]

I like the content on the site there is a lot of information about your team and FIRST. The dancing robots and the music really should be tamed down or just taken off it distracts from the content of the site and that is what you want prospective sponsors, students and outsiders to see. I love the hall of fame and the ranks pages. You should put the logos of your sponsors in one location not all over the page The blog of your FIRST activities is also a great idea and can show perspective sponsors and students what you actually do.
Be careful with the team roster page having personal info about students can be risky online.

I like the site in general best of luck to you, good job.

Here is a link to their site www.hoggzilla.com so you don't have to copy and paste it anymore.

Edit: Welcome to FIRST and to CD please visit here more often and bring your students with you.

[jcsalinas]

I agree with Jane. It is best to encourage the kids at this age! They are doing their best! At this age, they love music and dancing robots in the background! In order for them to even focus on a screen, they need music and a dancing robot! They are looking to you for compliments and encouragement, I believe in my initial post I did state that they looked up to you. Think of them as you younger brothers and sisters. They will get their chance to be critiqued when they are a little older and mature enough to not take it personal like you guys.

[Scott Ritchie]

I think your content is so good that you could stand to lose the dancing robots. Love the logos and the indepth research of the page. Great job guys.

P.S. Great Logo also.

[wendymom]

I think these students did an excellent job. I wish your team number was somewhere on the site. I would also check to see if you are the ONLY middle school team, there might be one other.

I think the content is great, and I really liked the "what will we win" poll.

Keep up the good work

[Billfred]

The dancing robots might not be everyone's cup of tea, and I will admit that it is distracting...but it also kinda works here. (puts on the asbestos underwear)

I'll also agree about the music. Music is a wonderful thing, but people generally get irritated as heck when it's forced upon them loudly. Even if you just made it not play upon loading and left the viewer to press the play button, it'd be a great improvement.

Overall, though, I'm feeling the website. Keep it updated, and have fun with it.

[Joe Matt]

Originally Posted by Billfred

I'll also agree about the music. Music is a wonderful thing, but people generally get irritated as heck when it's forced upon them loudly. Even if you just made it not play upon loading and left the viewer to press the play button, it'd be a great improvement.

I play music when I'm online, usually my music, so when I come to a site that has music playing in the background, it annoys me. Here's how I deal with that issue on my site. It's free, open source, and a great tool.

[jcsalinas]

The following question is on the website grading rubric on www.usfirst.org. What the students are not understanding about your comments is that they are following the rubric, but you are telling them otherwise. They have added music, sound, animation, and video with the content because according to Website Award Scoring Sheet, it is one of the criteria.

Does the website contain interesting non-text
content such as music, sound, animation, or video?

[Joe Matt]

Originally Posted by jcsalinas

The following question is on the website grading rubric on www.usfirst.org. What the students are not understanding about your comments is that they are following the rubric, but you are telling them otherwise. They have added music, sound, animation, and video with the content because according to Website Award Scoring Sheet, it is one of the criteria.

Does the website contain interesting non-text
content such as music, sound, animation, or video?

Originally Posted by 5.28.2.2Content 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.

The goal is to find the virtuous and harmonic ballance between all the different elements. Take for example MOE's site

http://moe365.org/downloads.php

Here are sound files of their cheers, songs, and a download of their animation. They offer them to download opposed to pre-loaded into the site and automatically playing. Same with my team's site...

http://sparky384.com/sparky4.php

As you can see, we have videos on the site, but they are downloadable links, so if a user wants to download the video, they can, but when they visit to see what that year's robot was like, they won't be forced to see it.

Here's some sites to check out, see how they impliment the criteria...

http://www.sparky384.com/index.php
http://www.moe365.org
http://www.cybersonics.org/cybersonics/
http://marsbot.org/
http://www.team1065.com/

Hope that helps!

[Reyner]

There's only one way to describe this website.

BALLIN'!!!

[jcsalinas]

Thanks for all of your help guys! Thanks Joe Matt. I see where everyone is coming from now. Your advice clears up a lot. I will suggest this to the kids. We will also take care of the names and personal info. I have informed the students not put detailed information before. Thanks for the help.