a dissappointment
On a recent out of town business trip I logged on to the Herald Web site to check my neighborhood news since I was unable to read that week's issue in print. What a disappointment! Not much of an archive of stories is there? Good thing I was gone for only a week. And, right there at the top of the page it says, "Updated As Warranted." Is that a statement of fact or a challenge?
Though not used by everyone, the Internet has become pervasive in our society and web pages have become equivalent to business cards. If a business is to demonstrate it is serious, it needs to have a Web site that doesn't look like it was done by an amateur as a boss's afterthought.
The Herald's Web site is boring! The hotlink navigation is clunky, there is too much white space on the page, the text is an unexciting font, an excruciatingly high amount of scrolling is necessary to navigate the On the Go page, advertisements on the right column reinforce the blocky and chunky appearance. It's as if the Web master was too lazy to come up with anything creative and elected to dump all the Herald content into some cheap, on-the-fly, template.
Come on, you guys! The Herald is a great community newspaper that answers a huge need in West Seattle - especially since local news is given such short shrift by the Times and P-I. Why can't the excellent work of the staff be reflected in a high quality, professional, website?
If your current Web master can't come up with something more creative, I can point you to many web designers who can do a better job for a competitive price. I hardly saw any of my local businesses represented on the Herald Web site. There must be a reason for that. If the Herald had an interesting to look at Web site, it would draw more visitors which, in turn, would interest more advertisers. Not many Web sites are able to support the time and money dedicated to building and maintaining them, but a well-crafted commercial site should be able to generate enough income to help defray the cost. What do you say?
Peter Stekel
Alki
