PRESENTATION NAME

Beautiful TrentonA Global Proposal

Project OverviewBeautiful Trenton is looking for a site to generate interest and educate voters in the 2014 mayoral electionIn recent mayoral elections there has only been 26-28% voter turnoutThose who do get to the polls may be subject to vote buyingWe plan to motivate residents to vote withEasy-to-read candidate profiles Outlines of the major issuesVoter education information

Beautiful Trenton is looking for us to create a site that will generate interest in Trentons 2014 mayoral election. The group is also in need of a website that will educate residents about Trentons political system and how to vote in the coming election.

Voter turnout for Trentons recent mayoral elections has been alarmingly low. Only 26-28% of voters came out to the polls in the last mayoral election, as compared to the roughly 60% of voters that participated in the last presidential election. People are not making the effort to vote, and some of those who do make it to the polls may be victims of vote buying. Our site seeks to motivate citizens to vote in the upcoming election and educate them about the legal ways in which they can do so. We intend to provide as much relevant information as possible about the election on one website, so readers dont have to comb through different sites for the details about the race for mayor. The site will feature easy-to-read candidate profiles, outlines of the major issues, such as crime and education, and voting information so our readers can be fully aware of Trentons political process before heading to the polls.2

Audience AnalysisThree personas this site will consider:Hispanic citizens, ages 18+Young adults, ages 18-25African-Americans, ages 25+Two purposes: 1) to educate, 2) to informKey Messages: 1) to understand the significance of voting 2) to feel inspired to do so

Our website will target three personas while writing and developing content. The first is Trentons Hispanic community. Since Trenton, NJ currently has a Hispanic population of over 20%, our website must bear in mind how voting and accessing information may present unique challenges for this group. Content must reflect a consideration for the Spanish-speakers of the city. The next persona our website will consider are young adults ages 18-25. Since education reform and unemployment are ranked high on the political agenda, it is important for groups most immediately affected to be informed, and inspired to vote accordingly. This persona will also account for differences between young adults aged 18-25 living in Trenton versus those living in other parts of the state. Since Trenton citizens face greater financial difficulties than those of most other cities in New Jersey, it must be considered how this burden might affect individuals of this age group differently, or adversely, than those in other parts. The last persona this website will target are African-Africans, ages 25+. African-Americans compose over half of the population in Trenton, and since the median age of Trenton is greatest amongst 25-44 year olds, targeting this group will result in the greatest reach, and potential for voting outcome.

The two purposes of our website will be to educate the city of Trenton about the upcoming Trenton mayoral election of 2014, and to inform those eligible to vote about how, when, where and why to vote. Therefore, the audience will need for the website to display this information clearly and concisely with consideration for those who may have no previous experience with voting.

The key messages of this website are for the audience to understand the significance of voting, and to feel motivated to do so. It is not the intention of the website to convince the audience to vote for any specific candidate. Rather the purpose of this website is to provide the audience with quality information and resources able to empower them to connect with the cause, and participate. 3

Special ConsiderationsFor our tech-savvy user...Mobile FriendlyRSS FeedsSocial Media Links

For the Latino audience...Summary page in Spanish

Since we are targeting adults between the ages of 25 and 40 years old, the users of our site are likely to be more technologically savvy. This generation is becoming more and more conditioned to consuming information from a newsfeed format and using the internet on a smartphone, so our site will cater to those needs. WordPress is mobile ready, and we will feature RSS feeds on the website.Members of our audience may also speak English as a second language. To accommodate these users, we plan to include a summary page that highlights the most essential information on our site that will be written in Spanish.4

This is a wireframe of what our home-page would look like. We want it to look simple, basic and easily navigable. We want to stay with the black and red color theme as well as a basic, universal font that is available on all types of operating systems. For the title of the site in the upper left-hand corner, we want to create an eye-catching logo. We are going to have the four tabs at the top on every page that lead to the General Elections page, the Major Issues page, the News page, and back to the home page. The sidebar on the right, which will be on every page also, includes advertisements, sponsors, a short description of the site at the top, a social media section, a Feature Article section as well as recent discussion posts. The slider underneath the tabs will rotate between photos of Trenton and the candidates. Underneath the slider will be a real-time, updated feed of recent posts on articles and other sources of news on our site. Our main goal with the site is to be simple and easily navigable.5

Sitemap

This is a sitemap of how the navigation will work for our Trenton Elections website. On each page will be tabs that will allow the user to get to each page from the page theyre currently on. The major tabs include: Home, General Elections, Major Issues, and News. The side panel on the home-page that includes the short description of the site will lead to the About Page. The about page will talk about Beautiful Trenton and their goals and origins and possibly a FAQ page included to answer basic questions about the organization. Subpages of the General Elections page include a candidate bios tab and a Voter Info tab.

6

Resource RequirementsKnowledge of web-design fundamentalsNo need for extra resources-Wordpress allows easy editingAdvantages to WordPress:SimplicityFree publishingDisadvantages to WordPress: RSS feed may be difficult to accomplishRadical changes to designs are challenging Dashboard

Knowledge of web design fundamentals will be needed, as well as a solid foundation of HTML and CSS. Resources for sample content should be only the sources of information sought after to develop the site itself in order to increase sustainability. WordPress as a platform comes with many advantages and disadvantages. One strong point for Wordpress would be its simplicity and it is easy to use even if one does not know HTML and CSS. Its a free website publishing domain and is easily formatted for the web. An argument against using WordPress would be its rigidity in its predefined themes. Without going into the actual HTML and CSS, its is difficult for the average administrator to radically change aspects of the design. Other possible limitations might include an added difficulty to implement an RSS feed, advanced themes and applications are unavailable through a free account, and the dashboard for WordPress will need to be introduced to each new editor of the content. 7

Developement TimelineOctober 23rd: Learn to manipulate Wordpress template and begin implementing site design

October 30th:Begin uploading contentNovember 6th:Fine-tune content and design. Update RSS feeds and aggregated news content

November 19th:Be prepared for user test

We are hoping to be able to fully manipulate the Wordpress template by next week, so that by the end of October we will be able to begin uploading our content to the site.

The beginning of November will consist of a lot of fine-tuning and updating of our content and site design. We will be making sure that our news content is relevant, any RSS feeds are updated, and all of our links are still functioning.

We hope to be prepared for user testing by November 19th. The rest of the semester will be dedicated to making changes based on the user test and continuing to update our content.8

SustainabilityMaintained through Wordpress

Easily navigable interface

Google Analytics -Site performance

The site will (as of now) be maintained through WordPress, with multiple members collaborating on the overall project to achieve a dynamic site. Certain sections of the site will be dedicated to general topics with subheadings that allow for flexibility in the content. An easily navigated site normally corresponds to an easily navigable interface for the administrator. Google Analytics would be a complementary supplement to the site so that traffic can be monitored. The results could influence changes to site performance and inform the client as to what parts of the audience are being targeted appropriately and which ones are not. 9

The EndThank You

Blues32026.387