Summary of Guest Lecturers, February 13th 2017

Cici Dadisman spoke on a very interesting topic that carries great relevance in today’s technological age. Her lecture was on “Winning Websites,” which contained plenty of great ways to get the most possible traffic on your website. I found the heat maps she gave to be very useful, as it showed just where users’ cursors were when they were on a web page. Much like one would believe, the top of the page, skewed slightly to the left, had the most “heat”, or traffic. We were taught to “Learn to Love The F.” This means that the traffic on the majority of websites resembles an “F” shape, so you want to be sure to put your most engaging content towards the upper left of your page. One of the statistics on the powerpoint stated that 70% of viewing time on websites is on the left side, so I took a note to ‘stick to the left’. Ms. Dadisman also spoke about typography, and how it can transform your entire webpage. Headlines should be dominant on the page, and sub-headings and body text should never be near the same size as your heading. The last major feature that she spoke about was Google Analytics. Although the hard data can sometimes feel intimidating, utilizing the information that Google Analytics provides can show you what is working on your website, and what needs altered. It tracks and reports all aspects of website traffic, and you can even become certified, which makes you more marketable as a professional.

Matthew Marco’s lecture dealt more with the design side of making a website. A company’s website and navigation should reflect the brand, and also establishes credibility. Any visitor of your website automatically gets an impression of your company, so it is very important to keep the style of your website simple, but creative enough to establish credibility. While a website may contain a heap of useful information, it is useless unless it cannot be accessed, just another reason why a navigable site is vital to a successful company. When building your site, asking the simple ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘where’, ‘when’, ‘why’, and ‘how’ questions can help in your endeavors. Although these questions may seem a little fundamental, they can help define your target audience, company goals/missions, and how you will design your site in general. Both of these guest lecturers provided helpful commentary that will certainly aid me as I start to build my website.