Portals: Give the Users Only What They Need
 | PORTALS: Design, Layout and MenusAs the image at left implies,clicking on any of the "portal images" sends the user to a different "landing page". [A "landing page" is designed to stand alone. If CHAHEC were placing a link to its site on a directory of health resources for schools, it would link to the Students and Teachers landing page.] The students & teachers page is themed in green, the professionals in blue, the community members orange. There is also a different photo on each page, reinforcing the user's identification with content designed for them. If you were to "zoom in" to each of these pages, you would find that the menus on the left are also different, with the majority of options available to professionals. This site is very information-rich. Without a portal structure, the user would be overwhelmed with choices (if all were offered always) or lost without cues to find what they need (if choices were hidden behind links to other sections). |
PORTALS: Tracking Visitors, Improving Services, Justifying Funding
Beyond the problem of "too much content for too many different needs", portals also help an AHEC know how well its website is serving the community, and perhaps identify areas for improvement.
If one were to analyze the behavior of visitors to this site, those who click onto a portal and then click back to the home page are probably doing general exploration, while those who click a portal and then stay within those options are most likely members of that portal's target audience.
How well is your website serving each of these segments? What pages do they prefer, and what is the last page they visit before they decide to leave your site (presumably because it does not lead to anything they would value at the time)? Without portals, you cannot know.
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