Creation Museum Site

I've done a bit of work now for the improvement of The Creation Museum website. I must say that the group I am in is a very upbeat and efficient one. We did well in class on Wednesday to get a collaborative idea of what the site should end up looking like and how we're going to get there. The division of labor was painless, and everyone seems to know what is expected of them.

I threw together a template pretty quickly, and it's rough, but functional. I'm now working on making the landing page in google sites. The content is pretty much all there, but I'm not satisfied with the layout or organization yet.

Google Sites

After messing around with Google Sites a little bit, I feel reasonably comfortable with using it. The site editor is very user friendly and everything is somewhat self-explanatory. I didn't use it for too long, to be honest, so I'm sure there are many finer points that I'm not aware of. For the basic purposes of creating a simple site, though, I feel alright. It helps that we're exploring this in groups, as well.

I've had a decent amount of experience using forums and other mediums in electronic environments, and am good with computers to an extent. I still appear to be the only one who can't figure out how to space out sakai posts though!

Effective and Ineffective Web Sites

Good: www.fossil.com

The design is simple, effective, and aestethically pleasing. The graphics serve a purpose, and all of the information and data is well organized into well-defined categories.

Bad: http://thecreationmuseum.org/

The background and graphics serve only to distract and annoy the viewer. Information is strewn about, and barely organized, if at all. This web site is for a real life musuem. The purpose should be to attract and persuade visitors. However, searching for either a phone number to call for the musuem or hours of operation yields no results.

Palmquist Chapter 17

While reading Palmquist's chapter about websites, I couldn't help but compare and contrast the design of web sites with other forms of writing. Palmquist discusses how purpose, design, and audience all must be taken into account when desigining a website. This is also true for most writing. He also goes on to talk about organization, another important thing to keep in mind, no matter what you are creating.

Palmquist describes three methods of organization: hierarchal, inter-linked, and combined. I've run across countless websites which fit into these categories, but never took the time to realize the way that information is organized until now.

I was pleased to see that Palmquist is an advocate of simplicity in web design. I believe that too many people get too excited about graphic design and all sorts of different media, and in the end, their web site suffers. When appropriate, some flair can add a lot to a web page. Too much, though, will kill it.

3 Listings for Laconia, NH

‘’Patrick's Pub’’
*Ph. 603-293-0841
*Located at 18 Weirs Rd, Laconia, NH
Welcome to Patrick's Pub, Laconia's most happening Irish bar scene! Patrick's Pub boasts live entertainment several times a week, fantastic appetizers and entrees, and a formidable selection of beer and liquor. Whether you're looking to let loose and have a crazy night or just hang around and catch up with some friends, Patrick's is the place to do it. Visit Patrick's on the web at [[www.patrickspub.com]]!

‘’Funspot’’
*Ph. 603-366-4377
*Located on 579 Endicott St N. Laconia, NH
If you're looking for some good, clean fun, then Funspot is where you need to be. Funspot is New Hampshire's biggest and most complete place for classic family entertainment. Funspot offers a full mini-golf course, duck-pin bowling, bingo (for those 18 and older), and the best arcade around. It's entirely possible to spend an entire day at Funspot and still have things left to do. To learn more, go to [[www.funspotnh.com]].

‘’Sawyer's’’
*Ph. 603-293-4422
*Located at 1933 Lakeshore Road, Gilford, NH
In the mood for seafood? Head over to Laconia's best kept secret, Sawyer's. If you try to stay away from fried foods, it's advisable that you stay far, far away from Sawyer's, because if you try just one item from the menu, you're likely to be hooked. With the best scallops, clams, and shrimp around, Sawyer's is affordable, convenient, and absolutely delicious.

WikiTravel Manual of Style, etc.

After reading through the WikiTravel Manual of Style, three tips WikiTravel writers might be able to use would be:

1. Do not use HTML. I may be generalizing, but I believe many people who are accustomed to designing things on the web are used to using HTML. It's important to understand that when dealing with WikiTravel, WikiMarkup is used, not HTML.

2. Internal links. Much like in blogging, one of WikiTravel's central themes is linking to other articles to elaborate on things. Presenting links to other relevant information is extremely important, and it's a necessary skill to have for WikiTravel writing.

3. Section headers. From my limited experience with WikiTravel, I would say that the organization of information is a very important point. Section headers help to put each individual piece of content exactly where it belongs and is appropriate.

Three Potential Places

1. Las Vegas, Nevada
2. Laconia, New Hampshire
3. Atlantic City, New Jersey

I feel that I would be capable of writing about these three places because of my experiences in all three. First of all, I love Las Vegas. I consider it my town. I've only been there twice, but I feel like I know the ins and outs of the city like only the locals do. Some of my best life stories come from Las Vegas. I could add insight to getting the most out of your money and where to have maximum fun.

Laconia, New Hampshire is where my dad currently lives. He's only lived there four years, but it's been a family location for as long as I've been alive. We used to go to the lake there every summer, and I now visit my dad many times a year. Because of my extensive background in Laconia, I know pretty much everything there is to do there.

Atlantic City is a lot like Vegas for me, just to a lesser extent. I've visited AC a couple of times and again, I believe I know a lot about the city. Whenever I go on trips (to LV, AC, anywhere) I travel with the same two guys. When we're together, we know how to have fun and we know how to do it for the minimum amount of output. This leads to some ridiculous times and some (financially) smart travelling.

WikiTravel

After doing a little bit of research on WikiTravel, I must say that the concept is one of those "I wish I came up with that first," type of things. It makes perfect sense. For years, it's been entirely possible to find out about any travel destination in the world and plan an entire trip from start to finish using only the Internet, but it's never been as easy as it could be. To me, WikiTravel will serve to combine all of the separate anecdotal information about places in the world and present them simply and easily in one spot.

I also like the element of neutrality that WikiTravel is using, like Wikipedia. As is written on the goals and non-goals page, the purpose is to get accurate and relevant information about a given place, not opinions and promotion. This will solve perhaps the biggest problem that exists when trying to research travel destinations online. If you go to any one person's website and read their information about a place, then it will obviously be clouded by their biases, whatever they may be. WikiTravel will be a collaboration of many travelers' opinions, so these biases will be smoothed out to a large extent.