Question

Topic: Website Critique

Website Critique Of Calendar Of Events

Posted by saratogahiker on 1/28/2017 at 11:55 AM ET 50 Points
Hi,

A non-profit organization has decided to link their website to a 3rd-party calendar of events for the region they're located in. However, the calendar is extremely non-user-friendly. Do you feel it is better to link to a very bad user experience or have no experience at all? Do you feel this calendar may negatively effect people's views towards the organization linking to it?

Non-profit's webpage linking to the calendar:
https://www.hilltowns.org/seven-town-hound-community-calendar.html

Calendar:
https://www.calendarwiz.com/calendars/week.php?crd=seventownhound&&PHPSESSID=e0fd3264a1dab3acc94103a27d963d90&jsenabled=1&winH=694

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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 1/28/2017 at 12:16 PM Accepted
    First, the title of the page in question:

    The Hound's & The Helderberg Hilltowns Association's Calendars

    —the first word does NOT need an apostrophe.

    Second, as the site is powered by Weebly, why not use a Weebly calendar plug-in.

    https://www.weebly.com/app-center/events-calendar

    It's $4.99 a month: a small price to pay for a better experience.

  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 1/28/2017 at 5:13 PM Member
    Have you contacted the association to see if they'd provide you a way to access their calendar (just the relevant posting) so you can use a different/better interface?
  • Posted by saratogahiker on 1/29/2017 at 12:02 PM Author
    Hi - thanks for the extra comments, but the organization doesn't want to do any work to maintain a calendar, which is why they are linking to the 3rd party calendar. I have my own opinions about this situation, but am curious what others think...

    Do you feel it is better to link to a very bad user experience or have no experience at all?

    Do you feel this calendar may negatively effect people's views towards the organization linking to it?

    Thanks!
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 1/29/2017 at 12:48 PM Accepted
    How significant is the web traffic from your site to the other calendar?
    If the information in the other calendar can't be obtained elsewhere, and having a calendar is important for your visitors, something is better than nothing.
  • Posted by mgoodman on 1/29/2017 at 4:14 PM Accepted
    My $0.02 worth:

    Do you feel it is better to link to a very bad user experience or have no experience at all? No experience at all.

    Do you feel this calendar may negatively effect people's views towards the organization linking to it? Yes, though perhaps not in a major way.
  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 1/31/2017 at 10:30 AM Member
    " ... but the organization doesn't want to do any work to maintain a calendar, ..."

    Calendars that don't get maintained tend to be blank, rendering them useless.

    Your client may want to question their motives for having a website in the first place.

  • Posted by asterixcreative on 2/20/2017 at 8:24 PM Accepted
    Hello,

    I had a few comments for you, mostly in the way of design.

    Do you feel it is better to link to a very bad user experience or have no experience at all?

    I believe the calendar is usable, just not ideal. A great improvement would be stylistic... e.g. first thing would be to get rid of Comic Sans in the header, and change the colors up a bit to something more modern looking. E.g. Dark green could be dark bluish gray, and light green could be white. Also perhaps enlarging the general font, and choosing link colors that complement the dark bluish gray (or whatever color you decide on). Then again, who is your target audience? Perhaps they prefer an outdated look!

    Do you feel this calendar may negatively effect people's views towards the organization linking to it?

    Yes, I do think it would affect people's views towards the organization because it looks very outdated. The first link you posted (non-profit's web page) gave a 404 error, so I can't compare the style of the page and the calendar. They should definitely look related and match in style as much as possible so that the user doesn't become disoriented when clicking on the calendar. If the main web page also needs updating, this could be a much bigger project than you planned. There are always small CSS changes that could be made to make huge improvements. It's like adding a new coat of paint.

    I hope this helps!
  • Posted by Shelley Ryan on 2/22/2017 at 11:23 AM Moderator
    Hi Everyone,

    I am closing this question since there hasn't been much recent activity.

    Thanks for participating!

    Shelley
    MarketingProfs
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