Teacher Education, eCoaching Support Blog

This is a site that I developed using the WordPress platform. The purpose of this site was to serve as an information repository and an online meeting places for a group of e-Coaches that I was coordinating.

This was the first site/blog I had created and it went through some rather terrible incarnations. Early on in the process I tended to overclutter the site making it unattractive and challenging to use. One of the e-coaches directed me to the Apple website and asked me to consider what design features it employed. The Apple site is exceptional for its simplicity. The images stand out because of the extensive white space that has been included. In additon it is usable and makes it easy to understand exactly where to go to find the required information.

With the e-coaching site I tried to engender this simplicity by using a simple theme and through choosing a header image that was simple and stood in contrast to the white space behind it. In subseqent sites I have developed I have steered away from even using an image in the header and instead use even more simple themes. This emphasis on simplicity and usability is more apparent in the design features of this e-Portfolio

This site has only been the beginning of my exploration of design. I belive that design is an integral part of education in the online environment and that if the learners do not find a site aesthetically pleasing it will result in them using it less.