Assignment #2, Day 3 PM Session

Technology and the Tourist

 

 

Step One:        Open your home institution’s web page.  In light of your experience as a staff member, is the home page an honest reflection of the visitor experience?  Is it an honest reflection of the institution itself?  Are visitors provided with realistic expectations of a visit, should they choose to come?  Does the home page provide more resources for people who don’t come to the zoo (such as donors or students working on a paper) than for those who do?  Make some brief notes on your impressions.

 

Step Two:       Meet with your small group and share these ideas.  Discuss what your institution’s forwarding message is—does it differ from other zoos and aquariums, or is there a unifying message across all AZA institutions?  Should there be?  Look at other students’ home pages and compare them on a practical (size, colors, patterns, amount of text) and theoretical (images, mission/ideas, content) level.

 

Step Three:     Using the grid attached to this assignment, fill in the boxes according to your critique of your home institution’s web page.  You may want to go deeper into the website for this piece of the assignment.  If you work in an animal area, critique what is included, and not included, in the web page for your work area, and why this might be.  General staffers might want to choose one area to examine in depth.

 

Step Four:       Write up an assessment and commentary about your institution’s page.  For those who work well in digital space this can be in “comment” form on a copied page; or, if you prefer, you may write a summary in Microsoft Word.  Think of this as the first suggestions for change you might make in your final presentation, and be thorough so you don’t have to spend time reviewing the site again.