How a Good School District Web Site Can Create Ethos For Your District
Those of us who use the internet to find information know how important good Web design can be. As consumers, we are constantly judging the advertisements, print media, flyers, signs, and Web sites of businesses to determine whether or not we trust them and the services or products they offer. If a business’s ad in the yellow pages is simple, or looks unprofessional, we tend to overlook that business, and gravitate towards the ads that are larger, and perhaps contain images and logos. You drive past the restaurant claiming to have the best brunch in town, but who advertise this with a spray painted sign on butcher paper. You don’t patronize the local dry cleaners who advertise by sticking a photocopy of a coupon in your screen door.
Today, the internet presents the same equation. People judge the quality of goods and services before they ever actually experience those goods and services, based on the quality of the business’s Web site. Ethos-using text and visual language to build credibility and trust between an organization and the user-can make or break an organization. Does that mean that all organizations with fabulous Web sites offer extraordinary goods and services? Not at all. Just like that restaurant with the spray painted sign may really be the best brunch in town, but the sign does not encourage or support trust by the consumer.