Web Design For Trenton District Golf Association
The College of New Jersey
Regina Bari
May 10th, 2002
Submitted in partial completion
Of the requirements of CMSC 493
Web Page Design for Trenton District Golf Association
Trenton District Golf Association (TDGA) is an organization composed of 15 golf clubs in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The TDGA has been serving members for 68 years through the promotion of a schedule of events, a scholarship program and other golf related activities.
The current President, George Becker III, thought it would benefit the members of the association if they were able to access pertinent information about the organization and their events via the Internet. Therefore, my task was to create a user-friendly web page that would allow visitors to the site to view important information. Although this web page is only in its beginning stages of development, a considerable amount of planning has gone into what the content of this web page will be as well as how this web page will be administered. At the present time, the President and his Executive Committee are in the process of deciding whether they wish to purchase a server or just regular web space. Once this is decided, I will begin to take the appropriate steps to acquire whichever web space they decide upon and begin to put the web page on the Internet.
Before doing anything, I went to the website gapgolf.org (the website of the Golf Association of Philadelphia) to get an idea of how other golf websites were created and what content they contained. After getting some ideas from that site, I visited various golf-related random sites to see how they were designed and to find out what parts were good and which parts could be improved.
The first part of the web page is the home page that allows the user to view what the overall web site has to offer. On this page they will be able to read the mission statement that has already been prepared by the association and will be able to see the 4 main links, which are the schedule, club information, historical information, and scholarship information links. The association’s logo will also be a prominent feature of the page. Also, Mr. Becker thought that it would be a good idea if other companies or websites were able to have some space on his website to advertise themselves. Thus, the home page will have some space designated for this purpose. While creating this page, I got a sense of how color contrast is an important aspect of web page development and that bright colors and fancy fonts aren’t necessarily the best option since they may distract or confuse the user. All this will be done in HTML, and once Mr. Becker is able to supply me with various photographs that deal with this organization, I will be able to incorporate them into the page for a visually pleasing affect.
The schedule link will take the user to a chart in which they will be able to view the upcoming events and will have the opportunity to find out any information that they may need. While creating this page, I originally decided on using frames. However, after some consultation and research, I realized that not every computer accepts frames and that it would be a better idea to use a chart instead. Also, through this page, the user will be able to click on a button that will allow them to fill out an entry form as well as submit it online. Although these forms aren’t created yet, I plan to use a scripting language, most likely Java Script, to create these forms. While creating this chart, I got well acquainted with HTML code and got a sense of what it was like to create a chart that would be visually appealing as well as beneficial for the purpose of the user.
The club information link will be a very useful link for the user since it will allow them to get contact information and directions to any of the 15 clubs that are a part of this organization. Eventually, they will also be able to see a picture of each of these clubs and perhaps the picture of the staff as well. In the process of developing this page, I began to look into the idea of memory and began thinking of ways that I could use to save as much memory as possible. Currently, I’m still in the process of determining the best approach to this problem.
The scholarship information link takes the user to a page that will give them complete information on the scholarship program. They will be able to see the purpose of the scholarship fund as well as the criteria, the entry form, which the user can fill out and submit online, and the current scholarship winners. The historical information link will take the user to a page that’s similar to the scholarship page where they will be able to view important information and fill out a nomination form online. These two pages will not be too difficult to create, but the complexity arises in how they should be designed such that they will both effectively incorporate pictures and advertisements and be useful to the user at the same time. I spent a considerable amount of time creating different designs and evaluating their effectiveness.
Aside from the overall design aspect of this project, I needed to look into the web space options and learn about the benefits of each option as well as what goes into maintaining one of these options. This is important because not only do I need to learn about this myself, but also I need to be able to provide my client with accurate facts that will help him in making the best decision possible. On page 5 of this report there is a chart that I created for Mr. Becker that outlines the costs, benefits, and weak points of both the server and the regular web space. While doing this chart, I had to consider what my capabilities were as well as the various aspects of the site such as how much traffic the site will receive and how much this site will progress in the future. Through this research, I learned a great deal about what goes into maintaining a server and how the database and security features operate. I’m continuing to learn more through books and information available online.
As this internship progresses, I will continue to practice coding with HTML and Java Script in order to learn more about the applications they make possible. Once the web site is put on the web, I will begin to increase my knowledge on the various aspects of maintaining a site, and hopefully I will be able to update as needed in the upcoming months. At this point, I feel that I have learned much about what creating a website entails, and I look forward to learning more in the area about creating which will be of the greatest use to its’ users.
The advice I would give to any Internee that would want to work for the Trenton District Golf Association, or any organization, would be to be diligent and willing to learn new skills on his or her own. I also strongly recommend that they keep an open dialogue with their client as much as they can. I believe this is helpful and saves time because it reduces the possibility of misunderstandings and allows the internee to get a clear idea of what the client really desires. Once this is established, I would recommend that the internee learn as much as they can about the association, and this way, they will be better able to serve this organization’s purpose. Thereafter, I think it’s extremely helpful to go look at other web sites and see how they are done. Before this internship, whenever I went to a website I never noticed much about it other then using it for my purpose. Presently, anytime that I need to go to a web page, I can’t help but get ideas from them as well as make note of what they did wrong, which helps me to avoid making the same mistake.
As an ongoing activity, I think it would behoove an internee to supply them with updated literature that’s relevant to web page design and begin to practice the coding requirements necessary to implement new ideas and improvements. I feel that the more I practiced coding, the more I began to remember certain idiosyncrasies of HTML (which will save time in the future).
Lastly, any prospective intern should research the many different types of web space options that are available so that they will best be able to provide their client with useful advice. Online, there are many different web sites that offer web space with different features, and its important for the internee to become familiar with these features so that they’ll b able to assist their client in making an educated choice. All in all, I feel that if an internee keeps an open communication with his client, put in time and effort for research and learning, and practice with code, they will have an overall successful experience
SERVER:
CONS PROS
The cost: Computer = up to $2000Cable Modem = $0-$100
Cable source = $50-$80
Setup Labor = $800
Upkeep = a professional person will need to be hired to make sure the sight doesn’t crash and fix it if there are any problems. Chuck is able to do this for either $40/hr or 25K/yr and he will be on call 24 hours a day 7 days a week. / All members can be issued privileges such as e-mail, web space, and advertisements, which can’t be done without a server.
Everything is controlled by you and if the sight crashes or is hacked, users won’t be able to access it for an indefinite amount of time. / Unlimited upgrades.
You control how much memory you have at any point in time whereas the mid-end web space has a fixed amount of memory.
You control what version of database you have which you can’t do without the server (database versions may change through time).
You control whether your server is up or down.
You control everything as you please. With mid-end web space the control is limited.
You can defray the cost of the server by renting out space to others. This may be for advertisement or simply for some web space since the server gives you unlimited memory capacity.
One of the benefits of a mid-end web space is that it’s reasonably priced at an average of about $49.99 a month. Also, it is maintained by other companies that are responsible for any of the problems that happen, which is good if the company has good network administrators (you have no way of knowing this). Also, if the company doesn’t keep up with the occasional upgrades, parts of the site will need to get redone.