Redesign Application

[kvera001]

Redesign home page to reflect our mission and value statement. @lloan Please provide more details.

[lloan]

#138 Archived Directory Page

[lloan]

#168 Create a blog page

[lloan]

@HeyItsFelipe @VelazquezLuis @tonynguyen111997 @kvera001

Please help me come up with a list of features we need for this application (SPA?). Keep in mind #138 and #168, along with any other issues listed below.

This new application should allow us to better serve the community remotely. The current crisis has shown us that virtual meetings are just as successful as in-person meetings. What this really means in my opinion is that we can have both once we are able to meet in person. We can host meetings in person but also do things like stream our meetings, to users watching us from home.

As you think about the features we need, think about how they will help the community keep up with our events, communicate with other members, refer new members, keep up to date with what is going on at IESD, RSVP to an event, etc.

[davidnmora]

Super excited for this!

As we jump in, I think we can ground ourselves in a few key questions, which we can then derive features from: 🔑

1. Who are the 2 types of people for whom we want the website to provide value for? (If we want to provide deep value, I think we should really focus on no more than 2 user personas) What does it feel like to be them? Where are they coming from? What needs/desires do they bring? What are some that we can fulfill which they're not yet aware of?
2. ... What are the 2 most important actions we want these 2 user types to take when they land on the website? (particularly in light of having a slack channel)
3. What do we want them to feel on the website? We can pull in existing inspiration here. For example, there's a lot Cover My Meds' website which is missing in terms of our needs, but I love the feel of putting people's stories/videos at the forefront.

Larger picture, I'm excited to help distill our mission, which I think everyone did an amazing job pulling together and articulating. 🍺

I think our mission, goal, and "about us" is really just one thing. If you know our mission, our goals follow, and it's clear what we're about.

I'm going to posit a radical idea: most members don't really care what our mission, goals, or "about us" is. They just want to know, "Is this something meaningful, and will I find belonging here?"

We definitely need those sections. I'm just curious if we can get at a distillation of them as well.

Here's my quick take on the distillation:

"We have a radical belief: the inland empire should become the one of the most innovative tech hubs on the planet, and that transformation will be lead by diverse folks from every walk of life. When you join us, you'll find a community passionately learning, lifting each other up, and building in ways that include everyone. We're not just helping each other gain the skills to join the tech economy, we're fostering the community that is changing tech to include everyone."

If we really want to leapfrog to a site that's deserving of our amazing community, I think we should start imagine the site from these first principles... and then features will naturally follow. 🐸

Here's the action steps I propose we each take: 🏃‍♀️

• Write your own quick and dirty answer to points 1 through 3.
• Find 1 website which you feel like we is the direction/feel we want to head towards.

We can do this here on GH, then jump on a call to review in person.

[HeyItsFelipe]

@davidnmora Great example site that you posted!

1. For the two types of people, one would be those who are searching for people to talk to about software development. These people tend to be new to the field, don't know where to start, or bootcamp grad who don't know how to continue their education, grow their skills, and gain experience. The second type of people are those who want to give back to the community through technology and don't know where to start. These people have been in the field for a few years and are able to do mentoring and present on topics they are familiar with.

2. An immediate action I would like them to take is for them to join the slack channel and introduce themselves. After that, I would like them to engage with members and that will trigger them to be more engaged in the community, even asking questions on how to get started if they are a new developer. Joining the meeting is another action I would like them to take, but at the same time, in our current virtual meeting format, it's difficult to have our members engage with one another.

3. I want them to know that by joining us, they can ask any tech related questions. I don't want them to feel intimidated to communicate. I also want them to feel that by joining IESD, they themselves can grow.

The Squarespace mission statement page is a bit much with images but it is a good start. Link here.. We can add our upcoming events and slack invite closer to the header. We can also add the success stories to show people grow in this community.