When I first launched the ICT in Education website (since renamed to the ICT and Computing in Education website), it was hard going. Despite using Microsoft Front Page, and experimenting at various times with various HTML editors (Arachnophilia in particular comes to mind), it was hard work, in two respects.
Firstly, it was time-consuming to add new content. It is so much easier with a blog or a proper content management system.
Secondly, it was a nightmare tring to fit new content in without hiding older content or making the page look a mess. As I couldn’t bear to hide older stuff, the page looked like a mess. And that was depite reading, and to the best of my ability following, books on good web design.
But still, as you may be able to glean from tjhe screenshot below, it was a vibrant mess!
The old ICT in Education website
And if I say so myself, despite this being around twenty six years ago, I was ahead of the curve, given that the site contained, for example:
Links to free utilities.
Walk-throughs on various topics.
Link to a free newsletter.
An interactive quiz.
A free ebook based on the freemium model (although I didn’t know about that term at the time).
Articles on various relevant topics.
I think on reflection that front page was too busy: there is far too much choice offered to visitors before they’ve had a chance to even get their bearings. Nevertheless, I still miss it!