Part A- Conceptual Analysis
Audience and Function-
The community selected for project five is Covenant Village of the Great Lakes Residential Retirement Community. CVGL is a community of 200 (and growing) seniors located on Grand Rapid’s Northwest side. The community sets itself apart from other retirement communities by way of its active social calendar and programs. The average resident age is 82 years-old. 69 percent of the residents are female. 31 percent are male. All are retired and spend their time actively participating in life at CVGL. Roughly half (89) seniors have wireless internet in their apartments and personal computers. There are also computer work stations located in the common areas of CVGL for resident use.
The current residents at CVGL are the primary target audience for the website. Hard copies of monthly activity calendars and weekly dining menus are provided to the residents but there is currently no online information center for residents.
Upon meeting with residents at CVGL it was determined that many would like to have a common place on the web for posting news, birthdays, and event information. Other residents expressed an interest in having webpages specific to resident organizations, like the village choir.
It is also anticipated that a webpage announcing the events and activities of Covenant Village life will serve a useful marketing function. CVGL recently underwent an expansion which added 100 additional units, 50 of which are still vacant. CVGL employs four fulltime staff who work daily to fill the remaining units. The marketing department has expressed enthusiasm at the idea of having a website to immediately refer inquiring callers to. Such a website would give a prospective resident, or family member of a prospective resident, an immediate feel for the active lifestyle residents at CVGL enjoy.
Further, it is anticipated that the website will serve as a useful function to the family members of current residents. Adult children of CVGL residents often wish to have an inside scoop about what is going on from day to day at the village. Some new residents to CVGL are reluctant or apprehensive to participate in programs; the website will provide family members with a tool for encouraging participation.
Function II-
The Covenant Village website will be the one-stop place for any resident inquires. CVGL has several resident service businesses such as a general store, a bank, and a beauty shop. The website would post the hours of operations of such places. Also, the website will list names of those celebrating birthdays and anniversaries.
Staff and residents at CVGL work together to produce a monthly newsletter called the Lighthouse. Ideally, an online website will be an extension of the Lighthouse. Much of the material on the website will be similar to that of the Lighthouse. The website will feature resident birthdays and activity calendars; however, the website wll have the unique advantage of being able to update instantly, thereby allowing for the posting of important information that develops in the interim of the Lighthouse’s publishing cycle. For instance, notices from the Environmental Services department could be posted as necessary. Notices might include things such as, water will turned off on a certain day for a specified amount of time, the fire alarm will be tested on a certain date.
As a Christian community, prayer is an integral part of life at CVGL. Residents are added to the prayer circle as illness or hospitalizations occur and although medical privacy laws prevent any medical information from being disclosed, names of those to pray for could be posted. The prayer circle is currently maintained through word of mouth; however, the website will allow residents to check daily for additions to the prayer circle as need arises.
The resident organization pages would showcase specific groups in a way that is not currently being done elsewhere. The organization pages would provide a brief history and purpose of the group as well as a posting of regular meeting times and information regarding upcoming fundraisers.
Part B- Content Analysis-
Cotacts:
To get started the residents at Covenant Village had to be surveyed to determine exactly what type of material was most desired. As noted in part A, the residents desired an online extension of the Lighthouse newsletter where birthdays, anniversaries, and resident writing would be featured. They also wanted news updated frequently and expressed the desire for specific resident organization pages. In order to assemble the material necessary to meet the residents’ desires, several contacts had to be established. First, I had to meet with the Lighthouse editor to obtain basic information like hours of operation, resident birthdays and anniversaries.
I also had to meet with the resident leaders of organizations such as the Village Singers and the Village Knitters to gather an understanding of the organizations purpose and what they felt should be prominent on their websites. Additionally, in order to obtain pictures for the site, it was necessary to meet with a resident who maintains a scrapbook collection of CVGL life.
Theme:
A popular theme at CVGL is the celebration of life. Upon moving into CVGL residents are given a “guide to life” booklet. Staff meets weekly to discuss “Life Connect,” (a way of ensuring that residents are getting proper care.) Residents meet once a week for a “life stories” memoir class. So, in keeping with this theme of life it was decided that the website would be called “Covenant Village Life Portal Page,” signifying that the purpose of the page is to keep residents connected with life at CVGL.
Photography:
Photography was definitely the most difficult part of making the website set for CVGL. There were no digital photos of the facility or of the residents available for use. Photographs had to be obtained from a resident’s scrapbook, then scanned, and formatted in Fireworks before being suitable for the web. The process was painstaking because the photos were part of a scrapbook collage and had to scanned as part of the book and then cropped as so desired. I even took a few pictures myself with my digital camera to help the process along. At one point I considered searching the web for stock photography of active seniors as I thought I could find better quality photography; however, I ultimately decided that the marketing function of the website was secondary to resident use and enjoyment of the site, therefore the photographs of the actual residents of CVGL, although lesser quality, were more appropriate.
Logo Use:
Covenant Village’s company logo is readily recognizable to the residents at Covenant Village and I knew that it should definitely be prominent in the main portal page banner. The blue of the logo was matched in both the navigation menu of the main page and the photo background. The logo was also edited to match the color scheme of the organization pages and placed accordingly. The page background for the Village Singers page was made by editing the logo with a picture of a music note.
Navigation-
Although the senior population at CVGL is much more tech-savvy than most people would give them credit for, they still have some special needs for navigating the web that needed to be considered. The text for instance was sized at a larger size than typical to make for easier reading, yet not too large to look unprofessional. My biggest concern with the site design is that some of the residents might not recognize the links as links. Therefore, I explored several different options with the link style. I took several options to a group of three CVGL residents. One option included text that read “click here for link to…” the residents that was too wordy for a link. (I happened to agree.) Another option was having the link style a:hover change color. The residents weren’t wild about that either. The third option was having the link a:hover enlarge the font as the mouse rolled over the link. This one was the winner. We settled on an a:hover that increased the size of the link by four pixels. This, the residents decided, made the active link obvious.
Content Writing-
When writing the content for the website pages I had to keep the main objective in mind: keeping residents engaged in life at Covenant Village. With that in mind, the main objective on every page, with the exception of the memoirs page, was to give the residents/prospective residents the information necessary to join in on the upcoming activities at CVGL.
Because the marketing function of the site was secondary, we didn’t decide to put Covenant’s mission statement or any other marketing information on the site. It was very important to me that things be kept simple and not crowed on the site. Too much content and writing would make navigating the site and finding information too difficult for the senior population. When structuring the design of the resident organization pages, I debated whether or not all the organizations should be listed on one webpage. After presenting my ideas to the residents we decided that having a separate page of each organization would help to showcase each organization and help users find the information they were looking for.
Most of the writing that I did on the website was simply the listing of events, locations, and times. Occasionally, like on the Village Knitters webpage, I wrote a brief description of the organization and what they do. Overall, it wasn’t the most challenging writing I’ve ever written but it served its purpose; it was simple and direct.
Content Selection-
In order to determine what content should be placed on the main portal page, and what content ought to be placed in its own page, I surveyed a group of residents. I asked them what information they were most likely to visit the website for. They responded that they were most likely to check the site for daily events, prayer chain information, and general store hours. As a result, that information was placed on the main portal page. “New” was posted at the top of the page because it was information that residents likely need to be aware of but may not necessarily look for. Pictures were added to that page for aesthetic quality.
It was also requested that the weekly menus, the monthly activity calendars, and the optional services pricing be included on the website. Accordingly, PDF files were made of the requested documents and links to each were put on the main portal.