This is a common question that those new and experienced club webmasters ask themselves. Good design has its basis in approach and design philosophy not in any single element. You want your club's site to be the best you can make it. You want it to be a resource for your club. It should and can be a significant resource to attract new members. Additionally, good website design puts the website user first above all else and this will be reflected in the traffic it has.

A well designed website has three features:

1. It has what visitors want.
2. It's intuitive to use.
3. It's easy to find.

All of the above are dependent on each other. Removal of any single item above results in fewer visitors and poor visitor satisfaction. The starting point and focus is making sure the site has what the visitor wants.

Giving Visitors What They Want

The club website has to provide what visitors want with content. Your website visitors will be for members and non-members alike. The content must be:

1. Complete
2. Easy to understand
3. Current.

The above three are not multiple choice; all are required. Yes, it can be very time consuming to collect content and make sure it is complete and current. A common mistake of many webmasters is that they initially collect content with the intent of completing it later, but "later" never arrives. Make sure it is the best it can be. Check for spelling. Check for grammar. Many websites let content to become obsolete or don't fix obvious problems. This can be interpreted as being representative of the quality and value of your club.

The three items above may sound overly simple but it is amazing how many club websites fail to accomplish them. Look at any reason you visit a club website. It's usually either you are looking for information about the club, its officers and activities to information about Jaguars. Use your reasons for visiting other club websites to give ideas as to what to add to yours.

Basic club information is a must. At a minimum, a membership form, points of contact and a club calendar should be provided. Make sure that information is provided in useful way. A membership form should state explicitly what is included in membership, period of membership and who to contact in case of questions. This may sound trivial but some don't even say who to make out the check to! Too may sites will list club officers but don't show of how to contact them - include either a email address or telephone number or both. Many club's calendars are frequently left without sufficient details to be meaningful to a visitor. For example, a site may list "18th British Car Show" but provides no information on location or who to contact for more information. A club calendar will be useless unless you can provide information of who to contact for more information. Be sure to include it.

Most visitors to your website that aren't club members will be looking for information about Jaguars. What content the website has about Jaguars should be the focus of your site. That content could be picture pages, stories, technical tips, etc. You can make the information anything you want and it doesn't need to be the same as another club. However, make sure that it is clear and easy to understand as this will reflect on image of your club. If your site doesn't have any content other than basic club information, you should consider adding some. A good source could be your club's newsletter.

Making it Easy to Use

Having great content means nothing if the visitor can't get at it. An easy to use website can differentiate between a great site and mediocrity. Ease of use consists of:

1. Intuitive navigation
2. Fast page loading
3. Legibility

Navigation is how the different pages in a website are accessed. Precise use of language is preferred over trendy or slang titles for navigation buttons. This is because of the vast diversity visitors have that can visit your website. Even you local club's website will have visitors from around the world. Making navigation terminology precise and clear will allow visitors to find the website's content… before they become impatient and leave.

Nobody wants to wait for a page to load. Pay attention to how much content including graphics is on a page (see Website Seminar for more information). Try to keep the root page small and fast loading. Some pages, depending upon conditions, can be larger but do try to be considerate of your visitor who is likely to have a dial-up connection that is much slower than a rocket on rails. It is especially annoying to wait a page to load only to find out that it has something the visitor isn't interested in. The key point is that the website already has the visitor's attention. They are already at your website because they believe website has content they want. The need to impress them with cutting edge graphics is minimized because the website already has their attention. Their attention will be even more strong if content is best quality. Most important is content accented by style and graphics. Style and graphics should never be emphasized second to content.

Not everyone uses the same browser, has the same screen resolution or, even the same type of computer. Even different versions of the same brand popular browsers don't display web pages the same. Use of textured backgrounds, color combinations are frequently misused with the thought that the page should "jump out at you." Attention to an awful design is the only thing that "jumps out" with heavy background textures or weird color combinations. The basis of a website's visual design should never be of the philosophy of "to grab their attention." When a visitor arrives at your website, it already has their attention. A dramatic appearance should never impede the ease in legibility of the page. Good design is where visual style emphasizes the image of your club and Jaguar cars.

Finding Your Website

People typically find websites three ways.

1. Search Engines.
2. Links from other websites.
3. Being told the address.

Search engine knowledge is probably the hardest to learn and most won't have the time to learn it. They are becoming increasingly complex and some requiring payment even to be listed. There are many freely available tools and techniques available to designers to improve listing position. However, effective use of these tools require more than a casual knowledge of how the different search engines work. The amount of detailed, concise content is the primary key to have your site highly visible in searches. A simple approach is to consider what words might be used to find different pages of your site. Make those words, in order part, of page's title, make sure those words are included in the text of the page. This simple guideline will help significantly. For more help and tips on this, visit the editor/webmaster forum and post a question.

Getting another site to link to yours is a good idea. It is another source of visitors, even if the other site has few visitors of its own. This is because some search engine results listings are partially determined by how many other sites link to it. The more that link to your website, the better. If the other website is well visited, you benefit again! Most other clubs will gladly list your site if you ask them. It is considered polite to add their site to yours.

The website should be an integral part of your club. It should be mentioned all printed items, e.g., newsletters, event announcements forms and even stationary. If you advertise as for a concours, make sure it is mentioned prominently in your advertisements too. Make your club's site easy to find the website even if it is a small one.

What about graphics?

Why did you visit this website? It would be a safe guess that it wasn't because you were interested in some cutting edge graphics. Graphics are important to the extent that they extend and complement the image of your club. Graphics should never be the focus of a website nor should they detract from its content. This can be hard to believe for many new to website design with their desire is to impress the visitor... or the stronger desire to impress their club! This misguided desire can clutter a website with inappropriate graphics and animations. Good website content will positively impress the visitor. Appropriate graphics will reinforce that good impression.

Is it tuned?

Every good website is under continuous development. Pages are constantly tuned because items become outdated and you find errors or items what could have been done better. Frequent review with tuning will insure that visitors find your website and easily find what they want. This will be reflected by the new members your website attracts and the members your club retains.

---

About the author - Tom Kopke is the JCNA webmaster and president of a website and Internet consulting company. This article is copyrighted by TC Kopke, Inc., and was modified from the original to address JCNA club websites.