Saga of Faces
One of the challenges of running a website is making it visually appealing while also being useful to the visitor so that the visitor becomes more than just a casual onlooker but an active and returning participant. Astral Audio Productions has had a few themes since being launched; however, we would like input of not only those in the podcasting/blogging space but those who frequent our website in deciding how it looks.
Things that must be considered include: Accessibility (The easier to navigate and read, the better off for everyone), atmosphere (my associate producer and I are leaning toward something that has dark undertones with an artistic flare), genre specific (we give you music and audio drama elements of horror/scifi/fantasy so something that would make the old Hot Topic look tame compared to us), professional (while not a business per say, we do want to give off a vibe that denotes our dedication to you the listeners), involvement (make it easier for you to subscribe and spread the word about us since we believe in the “tell ten” philosophy), and if possible, volunteer created if a theme doesn’t currently exist. This last point is because it echos the free-flowing way we have come together; a bunch of audio drama enthusiasts who enjoy to entertain you. As always, such credit to the creator would be provided and given a prominent place on the website to showcase his or her other noted accomplishments in the designing field. I’m sure there is more, and if I forgot anything, my associate producer will mention it in the comments. Don’t hesitate to ask questions and bounce around ideas.
nlowell 2:59 pm on September 26, 2009 Permalink
Personally, I don’t visit websites any more. Well, not quite true. If something shows up that’s interesting in my feed reader I *might* click through to look at it. There are “places I go” .. like Ning communities (but generally only after an article shows up on my RSS feed) … but “websites” aren’t on that list.
I guess the question is “what’s the purpose” of the site?
My own work goes up on the web and into a wordpress blog. It gives me all the flexibility that I need to tell my audience what I want to share with them, and it requires a minimum of effort for me to maintain. I don’t have any “interactive” pieces beyond the comments, and I don’t have any dancing bunnies or anything like that. It’s a simple site, it has an RSS feed and, for those who do come to visit, content that augments the experience of my books — for example, maps and rosters, diagrams and some images. I added a guest forum last year at the request of my audience, so they could talk together, but I’ve kept all the rest to an absolute minimum.
When I started thinking about what my audience wanted to know it was “when’s the next book coming out?” and “what are you doing now?” I added some extra content — value added material — that didn’t work well in audio form, but I kept the site absolutely clear of anything that did not deal with the core interest of my audience. I don’t want them to be interactive. I don’t care if they never visit me. If they subscribe to my feed, and/or my email list, they’ll get the news that matters to them and I can get out of their way.
Don’t get me wrong. I love it when they care enough to leave me comments, but my website is not a place where I’m selling them anything. Neither literally nor figuratively. It’s a place where they can find out what’s happening with the Golden Age of the Solar Ciipper and the easier it is for them to get that information, the happier I am.
Your mileage and goals may vary and I like your items. Accessibility, ease of use, look and feel — those are all very important to be sure, but most of that doesn’t go into RSS and when I read an article in my aggregator, if the value of the content isn’t there — of if there’s no content feed for me to read — I’m not going to click thru to see whatever your theme may be.
Just my opinion.