As a web designer, I like to discover the TSPRA Gold Star performers each year and I regularly check out other district websites to see how the "competition" is doing. So the sessions on branding and connecting to your audience are of interest to me because of the public relations component of our jobs in education.
In my opinion, most school district websites are not connected to their target audience in any way. The website is just a placeholder for sharing information and no one analyzes the data about what the audience is needing from the district in the form of information or the flow to find that info. If a district is able to afford it, they will hire a public relations staff who have the training to not only develop press releases but also manage a variety of social media outlets for sharing information.
In most districts though, the webmaster is usually a technical person (usually a person who is known as being able to use technology without committing physical violence against it). A template is chosen and this person adds information to it. That person usually has no training or experience with design, usability, responsive design, branding, or managing multiple mediums for information sharing. There is no analytic tool in place for seeing where the visitors go, how much time it takes for them to find information, or where the drop-off occurs. Usually the only analytic for the webpage is the one question in the biennial survey to parents asking them to rate the effectiveness (1-5) of the website. Can you tell I have strong feelings about this topic?!
Session Notes:
Teeny Tiny Video, Great Big Impact was a great session on the power of short videos (6-second Vine videos) to engage the audience in a story. It was a type of Maker session inviting participants to group up and to develop a story with construction paper, Legos, and markers. Videos were then posted by the groups online to share.
The short-form video is something I find to be interesting beyond webpages as a form of professional development and engagement. Why not formulate groups of teachers with support staff to develop a six-second vision for what they hope for the future of the kids in their school? Or get all the leaders together with construction paper to make a six-second video of the real goal or mission of the district? Use these videos to share with the visitors of the site to help engage the audience beyond the press release.
OMMA and Wearable Technology
A few years ago, the SxSW buzzword was "transmedia" or the idea of telling a story over multiple devices to connect the audience to the story and storytellers. A great example of this was found in the Bravo TV channel which was one of the first channels to provide a blog for their casts to post about that week's shows and then have the audience interact with the casts. It was profound for the time because no other channels or shows were doing that.
OMMA or Omnichannel is a growing field of connecting viewers to the content they are viewing but viewing this content on multiple screens. For example, I may be watching a show on TV but at the same time, I can view production notes on my iPad on the show app while connecting to other viewers watching the same thing on my computer. I am immersed in the story and part of a growing connecting to other viewers at the same time.
But OMMA is expanding beyond the physical devices with screens for viewing. OMMA is expanding to wearable technology and the data that is gathered and shared online. Examples of wearable technology and user experience:
1. CocaCola's Movement is Happiness campaign to get reach kids who aren't moving and exercising (80% worldwide obesity rates).
2. PGA sensors in clubs for gauging movement/swing
3. Devices recognizing you ran 10 miles, auto delivers Gatorade to your door.
Wearable technology is still separate based on the iOS for each piece of tech but systems are in development to combine all our wearable data points into one place. The idea is for taking the audience from viewer to experiencing life in another person's shoes = Immersed storytelling.
Wow!
Originally, this post was about web design and now I am talking about immersion storytelling using wearable devices? Freaky, right?!?
But the concept is so similar. We need to be connecting to our stakeholders and sharing more about the community of education and schooling taking place. What if through wearable tech, we could share that story more clearly? What if our parents or community members could walk in the shoes of a teacher? a librarian? a custodian? an 8th grader on the first day? a 5th grader finishing a test?
Businesses and non-profits are looking for ways to connect their site visitors to an emotional aspect of their product because emotion guides engagement. Are we not looking for the same in education?! What can we do to target better to share with our stakeholders?
Further reading from sessions:
For help with website usability, I want to recommend this link Usability resource and maybe downloading the full Excel workbook for determining your website usability areas where you can work better.
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