ULTIMATE ALUMNI RESOURCES WEBSITE

A website for alumni of American Councils for International Education programming

Observe

RECOGNIZING A NEED

I decided to build this site in the spring of 2017, after working for several camp programs and consequently receiving a deluge of requests from alumni for resources for their continued work on projects back in their home communities. 

I already had collected a number of resources to use for my lesson plans, but it became quite time consuming to continuously try and connect alumni with sites and ideas that would be useful for them.  I also prefer to empower students to do their own research and find resources for themselves.

Ideate

HOW TO BUILD A WEBSITE

Having never before put together a website, I began to read articles and blogs on the subject.  I used Google Sites to build the website as it seemed quite straightforward and was free.  Right away I recognized the need to create a sitemap to organize the navigation and content areas.

I then began to put together the different components, occasionally using Canva to develop graphics.

Test

GETTING FEEDBACK

I sent the site to a graphic designer colleague, who kindly wrote back with a number of recommendations regarding the visual design.  It was from him that I first heard the term "Gestalt Principles", learned to select only one font, create symmetry on a page, and keep the choices I made consistent throughout the site.

Iterate

KEEPING IT ALIVE

One area of the site, the Project Gallery, highlights projects developed by alumni.  They have to submit a form and get in touch with me in order to submit a report and photos that I then post onto the site. 

Initially I had kept the search engine settings on private, but in 2018 changed them to public and purchased a domain name.  The site is an exploration for me in all of the nuances involved in front-end website development, from visual design to information architecture to accessibility considerations and search engine optimization.