October 2007 More Details with a template can be found at Communications, Societies and Membership page (password protected area) http://www.nadfas.org.uk/default.asp?section=198&page=853 of Nadfas main website (www.nadfas.org.uk)
Website Development Information
Website Development
The following is a very basic step by step guide to setting up a Society or Area website.
Why would you want a Society or Area website?
2 main reasons:
1) To keep your members informed – let them know about news & events within your Society or Area.
2) To attract new members & to publicise your Society or Area’s activities to the outside world e.g.; the courses and study days that are run in the Area.
You need to decide if a website is the best use of your Society’s resources.
If you don’t think your Society has the resources both in terms of finances or man-power to set up and maintain its own website you might want to consider having an Area site where you can pool your resources.
Getting started:
If you decide that you want a website you will need:
A website designer – this could be:
· A professional web designer – prices will vary from designer to designer and will depend on what you ask for. Shop around.
· A volunteer from your Society / Area.
· You could approach your local school / college to see if they have a student looking for a website project.
· Do it yourself! It’s fun; it’s challenging at times but not impossible if you’re used to using a computer.
Website software (if you decide to do it yourself):
If you decide to do it yourself you’ll need website software. The most popular seem to be Macromedia: Dreamweaver or Microsoft: Front Page but there are lots of packages on the market so the best thing to do is look around. A fairly new product on the market is ‘Mr Site’ which claims to be jargon free and easy use with all you need to set up a website in one box. Visit www.mrsite.co.uk for further details. It is sometimes possible to get free trials on the internet of many of the software packages available. Also ask other people what they like to use.
It is possible to download free software from the internet but beware these can come with hidden ‘nasties’ which you don’t want like pop up adverts.
Prices vary from about £80 - £250 and more. Again, shop around. Use websites such as www.amazon.co.uk or www.kelkoo.co.uk to find the best prices. Some sellers offer a discount to not for profit organisations so do ask for these.
Web hosting and registering the website address (Domain Name or URL):
You will need to buy the web address for your site. Prices for this vary and as before it pays to shop around.
NB: Area websites – domain name must be registered with the Area Chairman as custodian.
The cost of web hosting varies enormously and with so many companies to choose from it is a good idea to do a bit of research to find the best deals. Some companies offer registration of the domain name as part of the deal.
Prices range from about £15 incl. VAT per year.
Other hosting options:
Hosting with advertising options: Free (or nominal fee) hosting with advertising – good as a starting block but do you want adverts or other potential ‘nasties’ on your site?
Local authority sites: many local authorities now offer web pages for local Societies and if your resources are limited this is worth pursuing. This is a good idea if you’re hoping to get more members as many people new to an area will look at the local authority site first to see what’s on.
www.communitykit.co.uk – an initiative launched by BT and ik Software Limited to allow charities, non-profit organisations etc to set up and maintain their own very basic websites. A couple of societies have used this. Have a look on their website to see if you meet their criteria or if they meet your requirements.
Web Design:
This is the fun part.
Have a look at other websites for ideas. The links page on the NADFAS website is a good place to start. Look at other (not necessarily arts based) websites that you like.
Text – be concise and to the point, people won’t want to read through lots of text on a website. Writing for the web is not the same as writing for the printed page.
Choose fonts and colour schemes that are easy to read and easy on the eye. Plain fonts such as Arial or Sans-Serif that don’t have extra squiggles on the letters as these are easier to read. Use the same font throughout.
Make sure the background colour and the font colour contrast strongly for ease of reading.
Keep the design simple and avoid lots of gimmicky graphics – they take too long to download and can be quite irritating.
Images – Pictures really lift a website but choose these carefully. Images need to be good quality and in jpeg or giff format. Beware of copyright – there are some websites that offer copyright free images. Some museums and galleries will allow not-for-profit organisations to use their images for free or at a reduced rate. Type ‘copyright free images’ into Google or your usual search engine.
Some ideas for images:
Decorative and Fine Art that ties in with your current programme – ask the lecturer to see if they have an image you could use.
Pictures of the local area or local landmarks – these can be taken by yourself or one of your members.
Pictures of you and your members ‘in action’ – at a study day or on a Society tour or other event or working on a volunteer project.
Your committee.
Navigation - Make the navigation of the site simple and easy. Research has shown that many people will give up on a website if they can’t find what they want in 3 clicks of the mouse. Avoid drop down menus, these are tricky to use especially if you are not adept at using a mouse.
Some ideas for content:
Contact details & how to join – essential if you’re hoping to attract new members.
Programme details.
Church Recording, Heritage Volunteering or Young Arts
Society news & events (past & present).
An introduction to NADFAS (with a link to the NADFAS website)
Remember!!! Once the site is up and running it is important that you have person/people and procedures in place to keep the site up to date and fresh. An out of date website is worse than none at all. People will soon turn off from a site if the content isn’t regularly updated.
NB: NADFAS is not endorsing any of the websites, products or services mentioned in this leaflet. Societies should make an informed decision before purchasing any of the goods or services mentioned.
For further help and advice, please contact the Communications & Membership Manager at NADFAS on 020 7430 0730 ext. 240 or jwilkins@nadfas.org.uk who will be happy to assist wherever possible.
Website Template:
The following is a basic template for a Society website. This template is designed to be a guide to Society websites only and not a hard and fast rule of how they should look. The template can be adapted to suit your own circumstances. As you become more used to creating web pages you may wish to expand on this template and have additional features to those included.
As there are so many different website software packages available on the market, we have decided that a paper template would be more useful. Please also see the links page of the NADFAS website to see what other Societies have done with their websites.
This template is designed to be used in conjunction with our leaflet ‘Website Development Information’ which can be obtained from the Communications & Membership Manager at NADFAS on 020 7430 0730 ext. 240 or jwilkins@nadfas.org.uk
Notes on site plan, content & design
The website plan shows the different pages for the site and how they link up. The shaded boxes are those that we consider essential for any website as they contain the most important information about your Society i.e.; who you are, what you do and how people can make contact if they’re interested in joining.
The white boxes although not essential, allow you to expand in more detail about your Society and its activities.
Individual page templates:
The shaded boxes should appear on each page for the sake of continuity and to avoid your website looking disjointed.
The shaded boxes on the left hand side marked N are for navigation around the site. Each box is a link to the page named.
We have provided templates for three pages but the layout can be repeated for as many pages you require.
Please refer to Nadfas website (see above) to go to the templates