Rationale

I chose to create a website that represents the local community group of my cricket club Hutt District Cricket Club (HDCC). The club was founded in 1909 and for the past 100 years has fostered cricket in The Hutt Valley and Wellington. With over 500 members Hutt District is a leading club for men’s, women’s and junior cricket in the region. The club has twice attempted to create websites that encourage players to join, however both were disbanded and left outdated. It was my goal to recreate and redesign the website to a higher standard with easy navigation, critical information, interactive features whilst maintaining principles of good interface design and usability.

The program I have used to create the webpages was Adobe Dreamweaver CS6. Each page consists of a number of CSS style sheets attached to an html file. To add an element of interaction and meet the Clubs requirements, I have added a few CSS style sheets relevant for external resources and applications for example Google Maps and Show My Weather. I structured the website in a way that provides easy and logical navigation for the user whilst maintaining a consistent layout throughout the website.

The website consists of four overall sections- general club information, men, women and junior. This allows users of any intention to access the section they need, quickly and easily from the homepage. The men, women and junior links are displayed on the homepage and are represented by images to gain the viewers’ attention immediately. Their eyes are then free to diverge to the banners display menu hosting links to information about the club itself. All information I put on the site was negotiated with the HDCC committee and board members, as well as existing material on the other two websites. I chose to have a background image of the clubs ground for the website to help engage the users and act as a symbol of recognition.

The websites visual layout was strongly influenced by the clubs existing logo and branding. HDCC has an official blue hue displayed beside white, and their font is always Helvetica or Arial. To keep the branding consistent and true to the HDCC image I decided to integrate these colours and fonts into the website. This will help users recognize the website belonging to the HDCC, which is ideal for the target audience which is the clubs existing players. It reflects the tone and aims of the club, whilst maintaining an appropriate sense of professionalism.

If I had more time to complete this assignment and continued the project, there are a few extra elements I would explore. Firstly, I would have looked into adding a zoom in feature for the 'honours' page imagery, allowing viewers to read the names on the boards clearly. Also I would add an update feature that allows coaches and managers themselves to access and edit the news feed and content themselves.