Web consulting for FIRST teams

[Dan Zollman]

Hi teams,

I'm a FIRST alum (team 1712), a design student, and a freelance web guy who focuses on usability, interaction design, and design strategy. I haven't had much time to keep up with CD over the past couple years, but this year I've got some time before the spring semester starts. I recently remembered that Amanda Morrison offers her assistance every year to those submitting CA/WFA entries. Taking inspiration from her, I'm going to do something similar for team websites and offer my consulting services to those submitting (or, those working on but not submitting) websites.

Until January 22, I will be available by email, phone, and web to critique your website, answer questions about web design, help guide you through the website design process, and help you find resources for solving problems. When giving you feedback, I'll focus on the following areas:

• usability
• content strategy
• communication
• interaction design
• accessibility and readability
• information architecture (i.e. site organization)

While my strengths are not in the highly technical aspects of code (which, in most cases, are much less important than usability and effective communication), I can still answer questions about standards, compatibility, semantic markup, etc. if you're stuck.

If you have any questions, or if you'd like me to critique your website:

• Reply to this thread, PM me, or email me at dan.zollman - at - gmail.com.
• Let me know what kind of feedback you're looking for--that is, an overall review, or feedback on a specific issue.
• Send me the website address and any passwords I'll need in order to look at it.
• And, let me know if you want to talk by email, talk on the phone, or set up an online chat (especially if you want to have a chat with more than one team member at once).

I'll get back to you within a day (a little longer if on a weekend or holiday). If you ask me to review/critique your site, I'll write a basic "audit" of the site. In general, I'm not going to tell you how to do something and I won't solve a problem for you--but I'll do my best to make sure you have what you need in order to solve the problem or to learn what you want to learn.

I know the timeframe mostly overlaps with build season, but that's what I've got--I hope I can be a help!

Dan