9/29/08
Homepage thoughts
I seem to get bogged down in the initial choosing of a subject and finally decided on a family website. I’m going to focus on my mother’s family. My mother’s ancestors were the first women doctors in Utah and their story would be of interest to more people that just my family. I’d like to make the homepage friendly to both family and medical historians.
The title would be at the top in a big font and navigation would be just under that with buttons labeled: search, contact us, events, links, family history, contributions to history
A cool, pale pastel would be the background color with black print. I’ve found other colored print and heavy backgrounds to be difficult to read on webpages and hope to make mine easier on the eyes.
A picture of my grandparents would go right under the navigation bar with photos of their four daughters offset to the right and left. In the middle would be a text introduction of two or three sentences. Clicking on the photos would take you to another page specific to the life and family of each person.
Under the intro could be an old photo of the women doctors.
My intention is to create a design that is gentle and symmetrical enough to guide the eye, but not so completely square that it leaves the observer only with the impression of lines and angles.
October 1, 2008 at 5:50 pm
Hi Holly,
So you’d like the site to be based on your female ancestors who were the first female doctors in Utah? How many of them were there and why Utah? what timeperiod are you talking about – 19th century? It sounds really interesting, but I’m wondering why you’d use a picture of your grandparents and your mother (?) and aunts rather than an image of the time? Or maybe I’m misunderstanding your note?
October 6, 2008 at 5:24 pm
You make a very good point about subject matter and target audience. My original thought was to have a site that was first for family, second for those interested in medical history. My idea would be more workable if Western Women Doctors were the primary subject and my ancestors the narrative. My own current family would be better as a link. I did plan to put a photo of the doctors at the bottom of the page, but in the middle would be better – right under the title. My reason for picking this subject? There is the family tie, also, I think that the West still has a reputation for being a bit backwards and feel like Utah was particularly forward looking in the 19th century and deserves a spotlight.
October 25, 2008 at 7:57 pm
Hi Holly,
After our session on copyrights, I’m envious of your decision to avoid those problems by pursuing a family topic. My topic, however, seems frought with copyright difficulties. But my problems notwithstanding, I’m curious if your family members were Mormons. Along these same lines, did the female doctors in your family administer health care to the Mormon community in 19th century Utah? And did the women in your family receive medical training in Utah, or was Utah a destination they chose after medical school? Based on your comments about Utah being perceived as “backwards,” I assumed their was an aspect of 19th century Utah that you feel is responsible for, or at least enabled, the women in your family to pursue medical careers. So, if you choose to present Utah as the historical backdrop to your family story, defining the particular aspect of the environment (Utah) that makes your story possible (female doctors) will be key to addressing modern perceptions of backwardness and “forward looking.”