1. Website Design for
FRC
Bob Goetz - FIRST Fare 2013
November 16, 2013

2. Who am I?
Mentor
Nine year veteran of FIRST
Robot Inspector
Former Board member for OregonFIRST Robotics
20+ year IT professoinal
OregonFIRST.org Webmaster
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3. OK – So what do you
want to learn?
(Audience Participation, please)
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4. What (I Hope) You’ll
Learn Today
What (and who) you should focus on
What successful teams do
What your next steps are
How to get help
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5. What we won’t Cover
Setting up a URL (AKA Hostname)
Technology steps to setup a website
See previous FIRST Fare presentations on
oregonfirst.org
Get a free blog at wordpress.com
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6. A little Terminology
This session is called
‚website design for FRC Teams‛
But we’ll cover design topics that can be used on:
Mobile
Facebook
Pinterest
Tumbler
Etc. Etc. Etc.
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7. A little Terminology
This session is called
‚website design for FRC Teams‛
But we’ll cover…
These are called
CHANNELS and
include things like
Print, Newspapers,
TV, Radio, Web
Mobile
Facebook
Pinterest
Tumbler
Etc. Etc. Etc.
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8. It’s All About
Communicating with your stakeholders to achieve
your teams’ goals
‚Stakeholder, an entity that can be affected by the
results of that in which they are said to be
stakeholders, i.e., that in which they have a stake.‛
-wiki
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9. Ah…but you ask?
Why do I care about this?
Why is this important?
What will this really fix?
Isn’t this just a waste of time?
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10. Who Are Yours?
(Audience Participation, please)
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11. 4
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12. Website Design for FRC Teams
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13. Website Design for FRC Teams
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14. Website Design for FRC Teams
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15. Website Design for FRC Teams
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16. So who are you
Stakeholders?
(Audience Participation, please)
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17. OK, Bob!
I GOT IT – I KNOW WHO MY STAKEHOLDERS ARE
WHAT DO I DO NEXT?
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18. Roll the drum….
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19. Stake Holder
Analysis
‚Stakeholder analysis is the process of identifying
the individuals or groups that are likely to affect
or be affected by a proposed action, and sorting
them according to their impact on the action and
the impact the action will have on them.
This information is used to assess how the
interests of those stakeholders should be
addressed in a project plan, policy, program, or
other action. ‚
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20. How?
Develop a categorized list of the members of the
stakeholder community.
Assign priorities across various ‚dimensions‛
Influence (high, medium, low)
Support (positive, neutral, negative)
Need (strong, medium, weak)
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21. How?
Translate the ‘highest priority’ stakeholders into a
table or a picture.
The challenge is to focus on the ‘right
stakeholders’ who are currently important and to
use the tool to visualize this critical sub-set of the
total community.
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22. Keys to Success
Answer WITFM (aka ‚What’s In It For Me!‛)
Map their needs and how they want to hear from
you
Give them Options
Push: (You send them information)
eMail Blasts, RSS Feeds
Pull: (They come to you for communication)
Website Updates, Tweets, SMS
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23. Remember
Just because you posted on the web or sent an email
DOES NOT MEAN THEY READ IT!
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24. So what and who
should you focus on?
(Audience Participation, please)
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25. What do Successful
Teams do?
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26. What do Successful
Teams do?
Team’s match the stakeholders needs with what
the team’s produce
The consistently communicate the Teams Goal’s
The have a broad market to hit the right Channels
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27. Think
Assembly
Line
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28. Wait a second..
Goals?
Yes, GOALS!
For each of your Stake Holders, create goals on
how you’ll reach them on each of your Channels
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29. Keep it simple
Stake Holders
Channel
Website
Goal
Create a special
Landing Page
(URL)
Ensure all
communications
to them refer to
that URL
eMail
eMail update on
Team Progress
Posters
Print Posters to
prior to KickOff
promoting team
and events
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School
Officials
Parents
Sponsors
Team Members
X
X
X
X
Monthly prior
to Kickoff,
Weekly
Thereafter
Bi-Weekly prior
to Kickoff,
Weekly
Thereafter
Monthly prior to
Kickoff, Weekly
Thereafter
Weekly prior to
Kickoff, MWF
Thereafter
X
X
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30. Stakeholders DOWN
I have my Goals
NAILED.
Now WHAT?
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31. Just do it
Follow up on your Goals
Track to make sure you are meeting them
Check in with Stakeholders:
Is what you are doing meeting their needs?
How can you change?
What is working?
What is not?
Adjust your methods and then repeat!
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32. Other Ideas?
(Audience Participation, please)
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33. Some General
Advice
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34. Timely
Post every 48 – 72 hours
And show your Twitter Feed
Give 4 to 8 weeks notice for major events
Post no more than 24 hours after a major events
Use google’s feedburner to promote your postings:
http://feedburner.google.com
Don’t post everything…keep them coming back
for more
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35. Accurate
Spell Check
Get the day & date right
Don’t forget to add the address information
Check & double check every URL, name, location
Get the basic facts right
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36. Relevant
Stay on topic - focus on your team
Target your four customers
Tell stories that impact each
Tie the pictures to your story
Make sure you can be found on the web (akaSEO)
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37. Simple
Consistent Taxonomy
Common colors and fonts
Clean and clear design – first impressions count!
No clutter
No popups!
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38. Speedy
People are impatient!
Speed is critical
Hosting has biggest impact
Use
Firefox’s Firebug
Yahoo’s yslow
Google’s pagespeed
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39. Typography
Text that is too small to
read
Paragraphs of type in all
caps
Text crowding against the
left edge
Paragraphs of type in bold
Paragraphs of type in
italic
Text that stretches all the
way across the page
Centered type over flush
left body copy
Paragraphs of type in all
caps, bold, and italic all at
once
Underlined text that is not
a link
Spelling erorrs …err…
errors!
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40. Images
Graphics
Graphics with no alt
labels
Large graphic files that
take forever to load
Missing graphics,
especially missing
graphics with no alt labels
Meaningless or useless
graphics
Graphics that don't fit on
the screen (assuming a
screen of 800 x 600 pixels)
Thumbnail images that
are nearly as large as the
full-sized images they link
to
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Blinking graphics
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41. Q&A
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