by Fred Leise

One of the important new tools of information dissemination is the World Wide Web. Using that tool properly is as important to your chorus as designing your season brochure or choosing the music you perform.

But how can you ensure that your website is the best it can be? I will explore a number of ideas in this article; you can use those ideas whether you are building your site for the first time or are considering a major overhaul or upgrade.

What do I mean by your website being "the best it can be"? I mean that it is a true reflection of your chorus's image and identity (see article in previous issue) and that it allows the users of your website to (1) easily navigate the site, (2) find the information they need, and (3) become more closely involved with your organization. I strongly encourage you to think of the user at every step of this process.

Web Site Mission Statement

So where do you begin? Just as with your entire organization, you start by establishing a mission statement for your website. Yes, a mission statement. Why do you have a website? What is it supposed to do? Just because some computer-happy volunteer is madly spewing Web page after Web page, doesn't mean the job is being done the best way possible. Most importantly, if your website doesn't help further the mission of your chorus, you shouldn't have a site at all. It's only eating up valuable resources of time and money.

Establish the purpose of your website through the mission statement. I think site mission statements should begin with the words "The ______ Chorale's website will support the mission of the ______ Chorale by. . ." That clearly states up front why the website is important to you: it is directly related to your overall mission.
Then continue with statements that encompass specific goals. Some examples are:

   . . . informing users of the ______ Chorale's activities
   . . . promoting attendance at ______ Chorale concerts
   . . . expanding membership in the ______ Chorale
   . . . fostering increased financial support for the ______ Chorale
   . . . expanding performance opportunities for the ______ Chorale

You get the idea. Developing this mission statement is a process that mirrors the creation of an organization's mission statement. You might assign the task to a team of board members, or to a staff/board/singer team. Don't be afraid to go through several iterations of the mission statement before you have one that everyone agrees to. Perhaps to get things started, one individual can develop a first draft for everyone else on the committee to respond to.

When you finally have your website mission statement, it should be approved by your board of directors. After all, the board ultimately has authority for your organization, and they should approve the plan for what will become an important part of your public face, your identity.

Once the mission statement is approved, you have a strong document that will guide you as you develop or expand your website. When you brainstorm about what your site should contain, you can filter those ideas by matching them against the goals of the mission statement. Should we include a concert calendar? Yes, because it "informs users of the ______ Chorale's activities" and it "promotes attendance at ______ Chorale concerts." Should we include sewing patterns for our concert attire? No, because we're not in the uniform business.

Or you can take each goal and brainstorm about content that would help you advance or achieve that goal. For example, considering "expanding performance opportunities for the _____ Chorale" might lead you to include in your website information on touring availability or touring fees or tour programs.

However you do the brainstorming, develop a list of three to five ideas that will help you achieve each goal. These ideas will form the basis for what will actually appear on your site, although not necessarily organized in exactly the same way. (More about organization later)

You may have twenty to forty ideas for pieces of information that should eventually be included in your website. Notice that I say eventually. You don't have to build or reformat your website all at once. It can be an ongoing process that takes several weeks or months to complete, depending on the human and financial resources you have to devote to the task.

Now it's time to begin the development of the actual website. To assist in that process, I like to think of websites as having three interlocking aspects: (1) architecture, (2) page design, and (3) content. We'll take a look at each of those in turn, although in real website development, you can work on those three areas almost simultaneously.

Web Site Architecture

First, architecture. Architecture is the structure, the organization of information in your website. Research has shown that the most user-friendly architecture is a tree structure. That is, you begin with a single page of information (called the home page), which leads users to a number of other pages, each of which may (or may not) lead to a number of others.

Keep in mind that users typically can grasp seven to ten choices on a single page. More than that becomes confusing (although I have seen good home pages that have twenty or more choices, for example, Columbia University's home page at www.columbia.edu). Fewer choices means that users have to follow a long trail of pages to reach the information they need. The information becomes too deeply buried in the structure.
Your top-level site architecture might look like this:

Again, you will probably go through several iterations before you get a structure that best serves your users. As you develop the architecture, do it from the user's point of view. Note that your website architecture probably shouldn't be modeled on your organizational structure. Users of your website don't care what your internal structure is, they're only interested in finding the information they want. It doesn't matter to the user that the development office organizes your gala and that the concert manager produces your concerts. They're both events, so they should both be in your calendar.

At this point, it might make sense to do some Web research. Have the members of your Web team look at many examples of websites, especially of other performing arts organizations. What sites do they like? What don't they like? Share both good and bad examples. Perhaps one aspect of a site is worth emulating and others you want to stay away from.

Page Design

How will the information on your page be displayed? You want to keep several things in mind here. First, you will need a good navigation system. Especially in large websites, it is easy for users to lose their place and become confused about how they got to where they are, or what the information they are looking at relates to.

The navigation system tells the users where in the hierarchical structure they are. Many websites, such as Amazon.com, use the visual device of folder tabs to display the structure. Others, eBay.com, for example, use a simplified tree diagram. You will want to work closely with a good graphic designer so that the navigation structure is clear, yet doesn't overwhelm the page. After all, you still have to display the contents of the page.

Your page design should reflect your image and identity. Do you use a distinctive typeface on your brochure? Maybe you want it repeated in the headlines on each page. You also need to balance visual attractiveness against the loading time for your pages. Pictures are nice, but if their files are large, they will take too much time to download to the user's computer. Users may very well get tired of waiting and leave your site. That's not what you want.

Consider developing a series of templates, which allow pages at similar levels in your structure to have similar looks. That's another way to keep the user oriented.
Whatever your page design, be sure to keep it readable. Follow the same guidelines that you do in creating print material. Don't use fonts that are hard to read. (Users' browsers will probably translate them into something else anyway.) Make the text and illustrations flow with the direction the eye moves on a page (upper left to bottom right). Don't overload the page with confusing illustrations. (Unless, of course, that's your image.)

Content

Each page on your website will be either a navigation page or an information page. The former directs users to appropriate information . The latter may contain text, illustrations, music files, or other material that users need. For example, in the site architecture given above, all the level 2 pages might be navigation pages, directing users to specific level 3 information pages.

Even on navigation pages you should probably include some information, such as a brief description of what is contained in each of the categories the user can choose. On your home page, you should include your conductor's name, your address, and contact information.

Whether you are developing a new site or redeveloping an old one, someone needs to be responsible for the actual content on each page, so assign specific responsibilities. Some assignments are obvious. You probably want your volunteer coordinator to help write the content describing volunteer opportunities. And your fund-raising committee should write the ask-for-money page. (Be sure you include such information on your website; make it easy for users to contribute.) But who should be responsible for keeping the staff roster up to date? The manager? The administrative assistant? Whatever you do, write down all the assignments so you can easily keep track of the specific responsibilities.

If you are re-organizing a website, you have a more complicated task. You need to examine every page in your current site. Where does it fit in the new structure you have established? Perhaps part goes in one place, part in another. Large sites will probably need a correspondence chart showing exactly where each page or section of the current site will end up in the new structure. You will also, as when creating new sites, have to identify information that needs to be written and assign responsibility for it to specific individuals.

Summary

Like all important tasks, building a first-rate website depends on having a good plan and on executing that plan. It also takes much thought and lots of time. You didn't build your chorus in a day, so don't expect your website to appear overnight. But you can have lots of fun along the way, and when you are finished, you will have a product you can be proud of, one that is user friendly, that reflects your chorus's best qualities, and that is an important ambassador for your ensemble in the world of the World Wide Web.

© 1999, Fred Leise