Semester Project Self Review

The Project

I visited Upland Hills Farm for the first time in September, as the fall semester—which has somehow already come to an end—was just beginning. When I learned we’d need to choose a direction for a semester project for web writing, it seemed like a great opportunity to practice web-writing in the professional realm, and maybe even create something the farm could really use: a new website to replace their very armature, comic-sans-splattered website.

Site Map

The Purpose and Content 

My main goal in the creation of this website was to quickly, effectively, and somewhat charmingly communicate the services offered at Upland Hills. The content, which includes information about the farm’s services, activities, and facilities, was to be reworked in the form of a “traditional” website (as opposed to a blog or digital story, which didn’t seem as appropriate for this business). There was a lot of information sort through, and their current website offers little in the way of organization. I started by creating a sitemap to categorize the content, which would serve as my own road map for creating pages and subpages. This map guided me, but not surprisingly the final structure looks a little different than it did in my initial plan.

My Dissatisfaction with the Structure

Too many unnecessary options

The structure is the one area I feel dissatisfied with. It seems that there are too many pages for things that could probably all fit onto one page on one clean canvass. For example, under “Kids & Family” there are three drop-down options. One of them is “Storybook Trail” which leads the user to a pretty ugly page with very little information on it. This information would’ve been easier to find and better looking if grouped with the rest of the “Kids & Family” content.

The Audience and Tone 

The audience for this site is the people who live in and around the Oxford, MI area and don’t know about Upland Hills. Or maybe they do know, but they’re looking for more information about it or one of its services. In short, I wrote for typical the Midwesterner simply seeking information about Upland Hills.

My Satisfaction with the Audience-Aware Writing

The writing for this audience is something that I believe was done successfully. After many drafts of many posts and pages, and a few slaps of my own forehead, I still struggle to carve out all the deadwood to leave behind perfectly lean writing. However, I'm confident that the writing—if not always as tight as possible—definitely hits the right tone for the audience. Once piece in particular I feel proud of is this intro I wrote for the homepage:

“We are 240 acres of family-owned farmland and animals. Nice to meetchya.”

I think this is easily-digestible, informational, and friendly. And it’s only 13 words. The tone is
inviting and shows personality without adding too much deadwood. If I found this website and read those two sentences, I would have a pretty good sense of what this business is about, and I’d feel invited to continue exploring the site.

Final Reflections

I’d like to add that everything I learned and everything I’m currently dissatisfied with in the Wordpress version of the Upland Hills website will inform this version of the Upland Hills website that I’m currently designing and developing myself. It’s not finished yet, but hopefully you can already see the differences between the Wordpress site and this. I will be refining the structure and navigation and executing a much more original, professional design. This is the site I'll present to Upland Hills Farm, in the hopes that they’ll want to use this instead of their current site.

Overall, this project was shockingly difficult for me. To be frank, I left the first class thinking to myself This is going to be a walk in the park. But I was totally unprepared to, as Jeff put it, “unlearn” much of what I was taught about writing. While there’s still a lot to learn and practice, I feel much more confident in writing for the web after grappling with the beast that is the Upland Hills website.

Summary

Embarassing

• Visually cluttered, nonsensical, and ugly
• Way too verbose
• Not responsive (isn't easy to use on tablets and mobile devices)
• Unorganized navigation
• Not audience directed

Decent

• Tighter and cleaner graphics, yet still not quite balanced in all areas, and looks like it began from a template
• Leaner writing
• Usually responsive though has been dysfunctional in some tests (theme issues)
• Navigation is more logical, yet still more complicated than it needs to be
• Very audience directed

Professional, so far...

• Beautiful, original graphics and photography (if I do say so myself)
• Lean writing
• Fully responsive
• Simple, clean navigation
• Very audience directed
• BUT...it's not done yet (as you may notice in some of the effects and links).

Online Form Assignment

Overall Explanation:

My direct goal in making this online form was to learn what kids ages 6-17 years old want out of a summer camp. The ultimate goal is for Upland Hills Farm to modify their camp program based on these findings, to offer a uniquely fun and fulfilling experience to its campers (and attract new campers).

While making the form, I tried to maintain a light and conversational tone throughout, so as not to bore the young readers with dry, proper language. I also paid attention to the flow, doing my best to ask questions in an order that seems natural and comfortable. I chose the green argyle form theme because green is reminiscent of nature and summer, and because it’s clean yet playful.

Individual Question Explanations:

1. This question is essential, as it will help Upland Hills (UH) organize the answers based on age group, and modify the camp activities accordingly.

2. Next I felt it was important to note who already spends time outside, and who doesn’t. That way UH can recognize readers whose answers might be skewed based simply on the fact that they prefer to be indoors.

3-4. These questions are hugely important, as some of these activities are offered at UH summer camp and some are not. Based on the form results, UH can rethink their offered activities based on what is most enjoyed. For example, they may be missing out on a huge audience by excluding “camping in a tent” from their offered activities.

5. Currently UH doesn’t offer a sleepover camp. This question is to get a sense of whether or not there’s a strong desire among kids to attend a sleepover camp, and if so UH can restructure accordingly.

6. This question is to learn what size groups is most-preferred for kids in summer camp so that UH can group their campers in sizes that are

7. This question is simply to get a sense of which readers are new to the concept of a summer camp, and which have past experiences to help them answer all of the above questions.

8. This is to learn about UH’s competition.

9. This question will help UH’s decide whether they can expect younger campers to eventually want to serve as camp counselors.

10. This question is not required, but it gives the reader a chance to offer any additional information that may help UH restructure their summer camp program.

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Looking for a kick of energy and amusement? Consider attending a Cornhusker's football game.

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• What you'll find: the state's highest waterfall
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Nebraska is a canvass of natural beauty, history, and culture.

Find plenty of fun in Nebraska, indoors and out. Nature trails, history museums, shopping malls, and horse ranches are only the beginning.

I will outline the attractions that make Nebraska vacation-worthy—wildlife, history, football—in a total of four posts. Enjoy!

This post and the upcoming posts on Nebraska Vacations is brought to you by Eavan Wallner, travel coordinator on behalf of the state of Nebraska.