This presentation outline is a condensed version of the Overview outline, Assignment #2A.
BACKGROUND/MOTIVATION
· Passion for chocolate, world culture, and history
WHY THE WEBSITE, CHOCOLATE JOURNEYS?
· The intersection of chocolate, world travel and culture, and history
· Website as a treasury of information on world history of chocolate
· Website as a one-stop portal for chocolate lore all over the world, catering to various interests and degrees of curiosity all in one place
· Website is appealing, easy to navigate, and entertaining for the mainstream Web user
PROPOSED CONTENT AND FEATURES
· Front page with introduction, clickable world map
· Featured countries and histories with individual sections on sidebar
· Special Features
o International Chocolate Recipes
§ Facilitate user input and interaction
o Multimedia, Chat Forum, Contests
· Related Links
· About
o Miscellaneous Information/Planning, CS73N Assignments
TARGET USERS, APPEAL, AND USER BENEFITS
· Intended for English speakers with interest in chocolate, culture, history, or all
· Appeal derived from vivid visuals, ease of navigation, functionability
· Education, fresh perspective, and entertainment as user benefits
DEVELOPMENT
· Development Stage 1
o Rough outline of site's features and navigation composed
· Development Stage 2
o Initial research and information for featured world regions and histories
· Development Stage 3
o Formal collections of texts and analyses for featured world regions and histories
· Development Stage 4
o Consult experts in chocolate, history, and related social science disciplines for content
o Visit featured countries, consult native citizens
o Finalize content
o Add and finalize special features for website
o Compile related links
· Development Stage 5 (Maintenance)
o Updating content with news, trends, and developments every 3 weeks
o Update special features for website
o Seek and maintain partnerships with related or complementary interest groups, websites
o Consider expansion and new content
RESOURCES
· Grant money to cover domain, research/travel costs
· Technical support
COMPETITION
· Differentiation from competition:
o Material is targeted solely toward chocolate, world culture, and history with minimal skewing toward other interests/motives
o Special attention to chocolate’s international history, with sections for individual countries
o Includes discussion of chocolate's current influence around the world
o Multimedia and interactive features, i.e. chat forum
ADVERTISING
· Search engines
· Partnerships
POTENTIAL OBSTACLES AND RISKS
· Questionable dependency on funding and technical support
· Wide scope of historical topics to address
· Historical content compiled from Western point-of-view, bias present
· Featured countries do not represent all regions of the world
· Effective advertising
· Difficult balance between informational and user-friendly appeal
· Lack of frequent content updates hindering repeated visitation, potential problem of stale content
ANTICIPATED TRENDS
· Changes in chocolate’s usage/role paralleling societal changes and advances
o Political, economic, sociological changes in countries
o Evolving cultures and heritages
· The influence of cultures on each other
o Potential culture fusions
· Other general trends
o Technological advances pertaining to chocolate
o Nutritional and medical findings relevant to chocolate
o Artistic trends and chocolate as a means of expression