Webpage Design

The template we are using for presenting information on the web is a separate subject from any issues related to how information is gathered, improved and stored. In order to make this point, on February 10 we changed most of our archive webpages so that they look very similar to the template used on the USMS.org website. On February 13 our on-line archives were changed back to the template we have been using (at the request of the USMS Webmaster). But, in this experiment we learned a few things.

One thing we learned is that there will be some adaptation required if we wish to make the USMS template work for our archives.

Here's how our experiment went. Our digital archives are organized in 35 folders. 26 of these folders readily accepted the USMS.org template. 9 folders will take a little more work to accept the USMS.org template because they have many pages and all pages are at the same level in menus. This can be solved by organizing swims by gender and age group, LMSC's by Zone and Clubs by LMSC to form two levels of menu structure.

We are gathering data in forms that do not require any particular presentation style or technology. The fact that it was easy to convert from the SwimGold style of presentation to the USMS.org style of presentation should establish that archive gathering & cleansing and archive presentation are different subjects, though we care deeply about both subjects.

Here are some specific requirements for the template we can use for presentation on the internet.

1. USMS archives need two exploding or dropdown toolbars, one "global" (to the site) and one "local" to the folder. Our "global" menu is top right; our "local" menu is horizontal and under the larger smiling sun logo. USMS.org achieves two by placing a "local" menu on the the right when it is needed; the vertical left menu in the USMS.org template is a "global" menu.
2. It's better to store the javascript in an "assets" folder rather than add it to the html page. We believe this reduces bandwidth, at least for websites organized like SwimGold is organized.
3. Horizontal toolbars are better than a left menu because the left menu complicates printing. We believe printing is very important for archives webpages.
4. The javascript we are using can be improved to work better on the Mac, to work better with older versions of Netscape (v 4.7), and maybe for other browsers as well. The javascript we are using is an older version and could be made more modern.

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