Ok - so I wish I was a feeling a little more obligated to do a piece on something totally relevant and significant on a global level, but being the truly practical person that I am, I have elected to have this latest project work for ME. This is something that I wanted to and planned on doing anyway but now I will actually have the tools to do it myself instead of paying a third party to make it happen for me...BONUS.
So, as you may or may not know from my ramblings in class, my son, Jake is being Bar Mitzvah'd on May 3rd. Instead of making the assumption that you already know what this is, I will tell you. The literal translation means "Son of a Commandment". Loosely speaking, in the Jewish faith, it is the time in a boy's life when he becomes a man and this happens (with a great deal of formal training) when they turn 13. Girls can and do go through the same thing - but they become a BAT Mitzvah.
OK...so since my son has been working for several years learning the hebrew language, jewish customs and many prayers that he will have to recite in front of the entire congregation, we, like many others before us, have decided to make him a party to celebrate this great accomplishment.
We have tons of family and friends who are coming from all across the country for the weekend and I thought it would be a great idea to create a website to post pictures to share with everyone when it's all done.
In doing my research to ascertain how this will all flesh out, I came across some interesting sites:
http://thebarmitzvahblog.com
I uses the term "interesting" loosely.
The jonathan site is the one that most closely reflects what I want to create but it's not how I want mine to look. There's no real life to it but here's my reverse sitemap:
Jonathan.justrites.com
Sitemap
Hosted
by Justrites.com
Created
by Bonnie & Eric (parents)
Objective
of this website:
To share
memories of Jonathan’s Bar Mitzvah celebration with his family and friends
including photos and feedback from visitors to the site and thoughts of his
parents.
Target
Audience:
Friends
& Family of the Bar Mitzvah Boy (and people who just happen to stumble
in….like me)
Similar
Web Sites:
I haven’t actually found any similar to this one through
Google or Yahoo searches. Many hits for sites selling Bar Mitzvah
entertainment, invitations, rabbinical services etc.
Menu (runs down left hand side of page) Options:
1. Home Explanation
of site, note from parents, Bonnie & Eric
2. The Service Explanation
of the Bar Mitzvah Ritual, no clickable links
3. Bar Mitzvah Blog
3.1
Clickable link to Dad’s email address for end-users to email feedback
4. The Party
4.1
Clickable link to “the Service” (sends end-user back to #2)
4.2
Photo Gallery clickable links
5. Photo Gallery
____________________________________________________________________________________________
I found this website to be pretty rudimentary and basic, which is fine but I have a different vision for mine. I have no idea how my vision will be hampered by my limited skills so, my site may just end up being not much more interesting.
With regard to the navigation, it seemed pretty straightforward. The clickable links got you were they were supposed to, but there wasn't much meat there. But choices were clear and they executed with no problem.
The Information Architecture was again, rudimentary. There is so much that goes into the planning of these events and so many more links that I can think of to add. What the problem amounted to for me was not enough choices and the same 5 paths all basically leading to the same road in the end. Other choices they could have made include adding a link to the photographer's website, a link for some video footage, a link to see photos from the party (which are not up as yet) and links to the various vendors that they used.
it seems as though NO INFORMATION is really given to the user other than a BRIEF explanation of the site and the promise of things to come. Not even a mention of where they live or where the party was held or the days, weeks and months of preparation that led up to the Big Day.
Design Quality was not interesting to me. Bleak color and the overall look seemed quite dated and stagnant.
No substantive content to speak of as I described above.
