Valley Aids Website Suggestions

Since talking to Gary I had been contemplating the task he had asked of me for the summer of helping the Valley Aids Network redesign their website. Obviously, I could not stay for the summer and help them, plus staying over the summer to volunteer would be above and beyond the scope of this project. Before I completely threw out the idea, I told myself I would look at their website and come up with some ideas or suggestions and compose them in an email and possibly send it along to the VAN. I figured anything could help, and having an outside "consultant" may prove beneficial to them once they began their website design.

My first reaction when reviewing this website was that the "half book" style theme they have going on is rather appealing and takes away from the credibility of the website as a whole. They would be better off making the page full spread throughout the screen rather then limit the information to the left portion. AS for the wealth of information I believe the site does a great job of including all the necessary information that audiences would want from this site. I think that a consistent theme with a nice neutral color scheme would be more appealing however and would give the organization the "professional" credibility they are looking for. I recommended that they include some pictures of past events or of volunteers doing work to show a "humanistic side" to the organization. I backed this up by saying that audience would rather associate organizations to actual people rather than seeing the organization as an "entity", this would make VAN much more friendly and approachable.
I included a couple more desoign ideas and drafted this email. I made sure my tone just right so I didnt come off as "cocky" but more as a suggestive volunteer. I outlined some of my previous knowledge in web design and technical comm so that I would have some credibility sent it into the VAN organization. I have yet to hear back form anyone, but Im hoping they atleast saw my email and were thankful for some of the suggestions I laid out.