Building a Site, Part 4: Adjusting the site

     This week I shifted my focus back to the website. When I had a meeting with the some of the lab team there was discussion of creating a new logo and also modifying the site to better suit the lab's wants and needs. Having taken a stab on creating a logo last week and submitting my results, I can now move back to to the site. During the previous meeting with the lab team I was able to get a deeper understanding of what the site's purpose is. From my understanding the site is to be a sort-of biotechnology hub for GCC. Students can visit the site to learn more about what the biotechnology program at GCC can offer, what they can expect from the program, the curriculum for a degree in biotechnology and description of classes, and it will also allow students to see the projects their fellow peers are working on. The latter focus (i.e. student research projects) will serve a few purposes. For one it will let potential students see that biotechnology is not as far reaching a goal as one might think, that individuals just like them are vital members of a lab and they to can explore science on a deeper level. Another use for the projects page is to showcase the hard work and dedication that students are putting into strengthening their lab skills and fostering their scientific curiosities. A final purpose for the projects page is that it will serve as a way for other academics to see what the biotechnology program at GCC has accomplished.

    Following the meeting I was able to make a list of what adjusts need to be made to the current site, and what is still needed according to the lab team. This week I was able to complete a majority of the changes that were asked of me. While some changes where cosmetic, others where somewhat of a full page revamp. 

    The first page that I made adjustments to was the site's home page. The original banner held an image that was to display the name of the site in large letters. However, the name I came up with was not descriptive of what the site's purpose is (i.e. Biotech Hub). I went back into my Adobe app and began to change the title. Given that there is not a definitive name for the site yet, I settled on just inputting, "Biotechnology," "GCC-AZ," for the title. I also adjusted the shape of the background for the title and lessened the background's opacity. 

<--Old New-->

Next I changed the site's tagline to "GCC's Biotechnology Hub." The lab also wanted the background for all pages to be white, so I attempted to change the theme style in Google Sites. Google Sites only allows for three main theme colors, and three variations of theme styles. Each of the three main theme colors also become the primary background color for one of the theme styles. While this simplified version of theme selection can make it easier to finish a site, mainly due to the lack of options, it makes adjusting for instances where certain colors, fonts, and font sizes do not work a tedious task. So while I believed by switching the theme I would be able to accomplish the task of changing page backgrounds to white, it was easier said than done. While revamping the home page I made adjustments to the "Welcome!" heading, added a couple of spacers and shortened preexisting spacers, and adjusted the size of some of the photos. I also changed the heading, "Class Overview," to something relating to the overall goal of the site, "Explore Biotechnology at Glendale Community College."

<--Old  New-->

    

    With the home page updated I moved on to the "About Us" page. This page required an total rehaul given that the lab team wanted the page to also include student lab members. Previously I had created a page entitled, "Student Community," that was to house current and past students, but the lab wanted to keep the amount of pages to a minimum and decided to remove this page and replace it with an academics page. For purposes of space I placed the containers for the lab's staff next to each other, and after I placed a divider I added the student section entitled, "Student Researchers."

 <--Old  New-->

    

    With the about and home page completed, I moved on to the "Projects," page and it's two subpages. The main page background was changed to white, spacers removed, the title enlarged, button color's changed, and heading font decreased. The two subpages had the same changes made to them. Additionally, the "Past" subpage had image carousels that were moving too quickly, so I had to change the setting for each of them.

  

    The "Publications" page was simple to begin with, but I did remove the colored spacers that where present and adjusted the font size of the title. The "Published Research" subpage had similar simply tweaks that had to be done given that its background was primarily white to begin with. The second subpage, "Posters," did require a few more edits. But I did change the background to white, removed spacers, changed font colors and sizes. 

  

    There were some other changes I made as well. I created a page, "Curriculum Guide," that will house the academic details I mentioned above, and I decreased the banner size on each page for cosmetic reasons. Next week I will work on the academic page, and time permitting, I will move the "Published Research" subpage to the "Publications" main page, as well as add a new sub page, "Sequences."