After reading through the "tips" portion of the Digital Directions article about school district website design I went to the Fayette County Public Schools website to see how their site measured up. I was happy to find that, for the most part, the site administrators have done a good job creating an easy-to-use website. Their website is organized in a way that speaks to how parents and teachers would want to navigate rather than organized by district hierarchy. I especially liked the section to the left entitled "How Do I..." This is a great feature for parents trying to get a quick answer to a frequently asked question. There are no garish colors used, and where there is color it is in muted tones that are not too distracting. The news stories that are published and linked to in the middle of the page are up-to-date and changed almost daily. The tabs at the top of the page make it easy for teachers and parents alike to find what they need quickly.
The only thing that this website fell short on are the links to the schools in the district. Each school's website is designed by and maintained by a staff member at the given school. It seems that there has been little direction given to these web masters as to the design of their page, making it seem like the FCPS brand has no continuity in individual schools. Looking at several school websites one would not necessarily know that they are all part of the same district. This is one area where FCPS might re-imagine their website-offshoots.
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