Stigma

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Hello everyone, I was diagnosed with Asperger's as an adult several years ago and have found WrongPlanet to be a powerful source of support in times of confusion and distress. For that reason I wanted to notify the folks here about my emerging new website about stigma, trauma, and invalidation. I would really appreciate any comments or feedback and hope some may even find it helpful. Please feel free to check it out at http://www.sociophenomenal.com.
Thanks for the peer support over the years as I struggled to manage my social blundering and move towards greater self-acceptance.
Keep the discussion alive!

Adirondacks or Maine? in your banner photo. Some of my favorite places. All the best for moving your vision forward. I would just suggest that white text on a gray background is difficult for some people to read (including me.) I was advised, when I set up a website and advertising in general (business cards, etc), to make sure type was black or dark green against white so that it could be read. And...my husband is a drummer too.

Thanks for your reply. The banner photo is actually Lake Temiskaming in Ontario, Canada. I changed the background colour and text to make it easier to read as you suggested. 41 people read my post and you are the only one who responded. No one engaged with the site. Sound like you have a lot of media experience...can you give me any other suggestions?
Gord

Members are wary of clicking on http links (particularly without the 's' safety suffix) provided by members who haven't made many previous posts no matter how long ago you joined. There are obvious safety reasons behind this reluctance, and particularly so at present as we have had unwanted interference with WP earlier this year causing malware, pop-ups and phishing scams which have been removed. No-one wants any repeat of this.

So if you want to share excerpts (as Posts, not links) then perhaps you will get some responses. I think your topic is always important and new discussions/threads on it are welcome.

There is also a rule about not posting links to your own site until you have made substantial contribution on the forums, and if you haven't read the rules and terms of service, or have forgotten them, please read them now.

Thanks for that information. Although WrongPlanet is an old friend to me it makes sense that I'm a new stranger to everyone here. Things are crazy with rapidly approaching deadlines for my book but when it all calms down I'll take some time to share an idea about stigma folks may find interesting rather than just giving a link and hoping for feedback. This is a lively forum with such a diversity of viewpoints I look forward to being a more frequent participant.
Keep the discussion going!

In addition to what B19 pointed out, most people active on WP spend considerable time here and may not have the time or energy to start something new. It takes a long time to build up readership on a website or blog. There are a kazillion of them now competing for eyes. I don't know a lot about media. I built a couple of websites back when it was simpler. And most of what I know about business came from SCORE advisors. They will advise nonprofits too. It is a US program, don't know if there are Canadian affiliates.

What drew me in was the banner photo. I was also going to say eastern Canada as another option. I love that country. You have to find something that will draw in other interests and I don't know what that would be.

I would suggest cutting at least 90% of your home page content. Not even NT's like walls of text. It's overwhelming. Just state what the site's about. Like a mission statement. ONE sentence that says what the site's about succinctly as possible. Walls of text like that are roadblocks to further exploration by your visitors. Don't design and organize like a site owner. Don't get overly absorbed in what YOU want people to know. Get absorbed in what you think THEY want to know and design from that perspective. Start by pretending you know nothing at all about your own site, and build from there.

Personally, I'm confused as to what you're trying to accomplish because it isn't clear to me.

But, that's the beauty of web design. Changes are pretty easy to make!

EDIT: Don't mean to be harsh. I happen to often be far too wordy myself and that is the most common criticism of my own work so it just happened to be easy for me to recognize.

EDIT: Good golly man! THIS should be your home page!

Thanks for the no-nonsense feedback that gets right to the point. I had wondered about the "wall of text" thing myself but the message is so important. I already feel like I'm using as few words as possible so I guess I have lots of work to do.Changing the homepage so the pending release of my book comes first a great idea, except I want the message about stigma, trauma, and invalidation to come before my own "thing." As you say, I need to find a way to blast right off with clarity about who the page is for but I'm not exactly sure. I do know a lot of people suffer because of trauma. Maybe that's the key.

Have a great long week-end

I think you're missing an important point though. It's not about what you think is important for your visitors to know. It's about what THEY think is important to them. Your site may be about stigma, trauma and invalidation, but it's about those things in relation to autism, and the home page doesn't make that clear at all. Your book cover does though. Titles are incredibly important to portraying what the topic actually is. Autism should be the biggest and most prominent word on your home page because that is what your topic really is. The other three are incidental to autism.

These are just my opinions, but what I want to see, already knowing what your site is about from this post, is AUTISM, (thinking...) "Okay, what about Autism?"

Oh! It's about the stigma, trauma, and invalidation that can come with Autism. That's something I can wrap my head around. When stigma, trauma and invalidation are the first words that I come across (without having first read this post), I think, "From what? What are you talking about?"

There are so many things that can cause the three things you want to talk about people aren't going know what it's all in relation to unless you tell them straight up.


AUTISM
stigma
trauma
invalidation

Right off I know whether I even want to bother reading further. If it were me, I would incorporate a "read more" link as well so that the entire text wall isn't visible unless users want it to be. Putting that much information up front doesn't make the user understand that it's all important, it just makes them think you think they think it should be. Choices matter. When it's the user that has the choice it makes them feel in control. You want that.

If they leave they leave. They're not your audience. Your audience are those that feel they want to read what you have to say. Give them that choice and they will make it. Throw it all in their face right off the bat and they are likely to just leave. It's too much too soon. Web site design in like angling. Put your bait out there and wait for bites. Toss out a net and you may catch a lot of fish but they aren't willing participants. They are captive, and that's not what you're looking for when it's as easy as a click and they are gone for good. Leave bread crumbs. Let them follow the trail. Not too much.

By the way, when I said the book page should be your home page, that isn't exactly what I meant. I meant the home page should LOOK like that. Not too much. The biggest thing on that page (your book cover) gets right to the point, and the biographical blurb is just right for further reading. I'll be honest, I didn't read the whole home page simply because it is too much and I would have to read it all before knowing whether it's worth my time. Frankly, that's not fair to your visitors. Put the bait out there, then if you get bites, tease them. Only when you get a solid yank on the line should you start reeling. Even then you still have to play them.

Last thing, and this is just a pet peeve so you can do what you want with it. I hate centered text except in special circumstances like banners and teasers. Centered text as an article is the kiss of doom for me. I won't read it.

Much success to you!

Hello, thanks again for your feedback. I pared down the "wall of text" and added pictures to break it up more. Now I'll take a much needed break before getting more active on WrongPlanet.
Thanks again, Gord