| The major application of Internet on botanical gardens is to show the unique scenery and ample botanic resource. Establishing a website is the way to achieve this object. Domestic and foreign botanical gardens all have websites of their own. Domestic botanical gardens may have established their homepage. However, they are not all so professional. Yet, research on construction of botanical garden websites does not already exist. This article dedicates to analyze the page-style, construction, homepage sections, navigation bar and other aspects of 20 domestic botanical gardens. With comprehensive, pertinence and expertise analyzed as well as running, maintenance and publicity also considered, we will reach the conclusion of the advantages and disadvantages of domestic botanic gardens. It introduces and sum up whole development and construction process of Shanghai botanical garden website, including feature, orientation, programming procedure, choice of design software, website layout, webpage's' design, acquisition of materials, website maintenance and etc. The sections worthy of recommendation or with unique creative spirit would also be pointed out.First section:Diagnoses of websites of domestic botanical gardens(1) Their design styles are all the same with little changes between multi-stage pages. Among the websites witches are studied, 'Guo' type is applied to 70% of them.75% of them use blue or green as their theme color.45% were in more than 2 languages with professional visitors distinguished from common guests.(2) 95% of the homepages are designed with navigation bar and scenery display. Over one-half consist LOGO (65%), tourist guide (75%), friend links (85%), daily/weekly/monthly plant information (50%) and online botanical garden (55%). Only 50% of the botanical garden websites pay attention to the profession news while 80% of them broadcast news about itself. What's more, services such as in-site search (45%), online survey (25%) and BBS (20%) are not valued enough. Some website beard unique sections. For instance, there are "Newsletter" section from Beijing Botanical Garden, "Green Service" section from Nanjing Zhongshan Botanical Garden and "Ancient Plant Museum" section from Shenzhen Xianhu Botanical Garden.(3) Navigation bar usually consists of garden introduction (95%), science research (75%), tourist guide (70%) and education (75%). Navigation bar and homepage are can support each other. Some sections such as news, tourists guide and BBS may be repeated in the needs of website construction or emphasis.(4) The tourists guide usually consists of basic information of garden, notification of plant exhibition, specialized garden and garden introduction. In addition,3D virtual scenery is provided by Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Nanjing Zhongshan Botanical Garden. Visitors can enjoy the beautiful scenery without being there. In accordance with the tendency of future development, Science research is quite valued by all the gardens. The education sections differ one from another with introduction in picture and words in all the gardens, education information in 65% of the gardens and tourists guide in more than one-half. There are individual education sections in the websites of Huanan Botanical Garden and Xishuangbanna Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Both of them are with plenty of contents.According to the conclusion above and the feature of Shanghai Botanical Garden, the writer will introduce her work from design plan to selection of design software, construction building, page design, information collection and website management in detail.Second section:the advantages and disadvantages of Shanghai Botanical Garden(1) The flash navigation page features its unique design with season changes. Pages in different styles and with different contents are in keeping with different seasons. Instead of ordinary 'Guo' type design, the homepage use the names of sections as the navigation link which making the contents clear to the visitor and leading visitor to the focus. However, there are some steps to be taken to improve the websites such as making a link to allow visit skip the flash animation and version in English.(2) The whole construction is reasonable, easy to understand and quick loading. Site maps and multiple link guides make visitors to reach the page he wants quickly. The contents are plenty. The update is in time. The research and education are both emphasized on.(3) The individual education pages follow the feature of season changes. However, details such as pictures, page layout and fonts focus on interests, popular and easy understanding. It is a pity that we haven't completed the database of plants. Now the introductions are only in pictures and words. GIS function is also absence. Compared with the foreign botanic garden websites, we are lack of educational audio and visual resources,3D virtual introduction and flash animation.(4) Focusing on promotion of the website. Expanding the influence of the website through links and exhibition.In the end, we come to the conclusion about how to building, design, maintenance and expanding the domestic botanical garden websites.(1) It is important to own individual server space and different version in different language.(2) It is important for content to be plenty. It's a tendency to design column of popular science for an independent webpage. Establish a sole creative column on Shanghai botanical garden website.(3) Other sections are in need such as mail list. Pay attention to declaring the copyrights of pictures, audio and visual resources while pushing on expanding of the website. |
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