A Letter from the President



A Letter from the President

Standardizing the ASEP Webpage

Jesse Pittsley Ph.D., EPC

The internet is the primary means of the American Society of Exercise Physiologists (ASEP) to communicate its mission and services to the public. Fortunately, in its short history, ASEP has been very successful in establishing a strong presence on the web. A quick search using a variety of search engines demonstrates how easily one could find him- or herself reading something on the ASEP. In fact, I would argue ASEP is well ahead of the curve in regards to the information it offers for free over the web. Since the ASEP home page is so important to the organization I consider one of my first goals during my presidency of ASEP is to implement a standard webpage format through the entire ASEP web presence.

Before I go on move further, I feel I need to state that there is nothing wrong with the current web page. The site is clean, wonderfully functional, and easy to use. This is all very amazing considering it was made and has been maintained by a man who taught himself HTML code in his late 50s and early 60s! Those who design and manage websites with today’s sleek and efficient web-design programs know how far those software programs have evolved and simplified. Despite the clear quality of the current webpage, I feel it is time to implement a new look and diffuse this design through the entire ASEP website.

Making a New Logo

The first step in changing the look of an organization is to create a new logo. Since March I have been working with a graphic designer to modernize the ASEP logo. I knew I wanted the logo to look classy, different, dynamic, and professional. The graphic designer started by showing me about 20 pencil drawings of the letter ASEP in different forms and formats. We knew we needed the image to be functional in both black/white and color forms to anticipate letterheads and copying. Once we narrowed this down to about 4 potential winners, it was time to look at different colors. After tossing around different greens, shades of burgundy, and blues -- the designer took those ideas and presented three designs based upon a blue/orange color scheme. I knew this was going to be a significant change from the present theme, but the organization was ready for a change. The final three designs were sent to the ASEP Board of Directors for a vote and the logo shown here was selected.

Making a Homepage

Once the logo was selected we took those colors and started evaluating new formats for the web page. The new design needed to look professional and be very functional. There is too much information on the ASEP site, (e.g., the ASEPNewsletter, two major journals (JEPonline and PEPonline), a forum, and numerous other documents), that needs to be easily accessible for the page to be difficult and cumbersome. For functionality, one of the best web designs is a three column format that displays the primary content in the middle and has links on the sides and across the top. This format has become very common over the past couple years. It allows for the sides and top to be permanent links, news items, and potential spaces for sponsors regardless of where the consumer has traveled to in the site. Furthermore, it promotes “branding” by always reminding the reader of which site they are using. After kicking around these ideas, the graphic designer presented several ideas with slight color differences and the Board of Directors voted on which it preferred. This is the design chosen by the Board.

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A Consistent Look:

This has been a lot of work. Unfortunately, the migration to a new ASEP has only begun. Scaling for the future is always a challenge for web designers. Organizations must plan for the increased growth and use of their websites. When ASEP was formed, almost a decade ago, it was hard to imagine the page accumulating issues of journals and newsletters every month. Over the past few years, to deal with this problem, different individuals began to edit and monitor their respective sections of the site from remote locations. From a functional perspective, this kept ASEP above water! But, from an aesthetic perspective, this caused the different sections to gradually morph in color and format. Different parts of the site were housed on different servers and this was exaggerated when the organization switched from being nestled in the College of St. Scholastica server to the that we know today. I remember spending the summer of 2001 back in Duluth, MN probing Dr. Tommy Boone to switch from the St. Scholastica server to . Each time I mentioned the idea he would grumble, shake his head, and remind me of how much work that would be for a 60 year-old man who was doing this all for free. After about 20 gallons of diet coke and a lot of headaches, most of the task was completed. Now, it is time to finish the job.

The ASEP of today no longer belongs on several servers. Space is cheap and secure access is too convenient for ASEP not to be on one consistent site hosted by a single service. The newsletter, journals, and other documents, need to have a consistent format and color scheme. This is my most important goal of the early phase of my presidency.

The Future of the Web: Keeping ASEP Ahead of the Times.

In this section I would like to take a few paragraphs to write about where I think the ASEP page could go in the future. I want an ASEP page that can anticipate the progression of the internet. As I have admitted before, I am a bit of a “techie” and I love to follow the evolution of hardware, software, and the new “web-based applications.” The web is transforming from a passive place to retrieve information to a place where one is actively involved in the information. Sites of the future (and some of the present) will allow the user to tailor the content for their particular preference. Imagine if you wanted the title and short description of each new article from the Journal of Exercise Physiologyonline to appear down the right-hand column of the web page. But, another user wanted the titles and short descriptions of the newest articles of the Professionalization of Exercise Physiologyonline there instead. This would cause a problem with the web of the past. But the web of the future will allow this form or user modifications and much more.

Another trend common with web 2.0 is having material sent to your browser without having to visit the source site. Podcasts and blogs are great examples of this technology called RSS feeds. Imagine if you subscribed to the Journal of Exercise Physiologyonline RSS feed and the new articles of JEPonline were sent directly to a drop-down menu on your Firefox web browser. You could simply click the link of the title from the menu and be brought directly to the article without ever having to surf through the ASEP page. Furthermore, imagine if that feed also included a 5-minute audio interview with the first author of that paper. You could simultaneously listen to the interview and scan the article. Or, imagine little audio files describing the different tables and figures in the article! All of this would enhance the understanding of the article, and are all very possible today.

Finally, after reading the article you could write your comments in a thread on a discussion board regarding the article. Or there could be discussion board threads following each section of the paper (e.g., Introduction, Methods, Results, and Conclusions). Some traditionalists think this is a bad idea. But they are failing to see the future where research articles are no longer static but instead include video clips, interactive figures and tables, and direct links to the raw data gathered for the report. I have heard these same people talk about how online journals will never “catch on.” These same people will gradually watch as our newspapers be replaced by single sheet of e-paper and every textbook of that semester will be help on a single electronic tablet. The purpose of a scientific article is to disseminate knowledge and to initiate a critical analysis of its findings. This type of interactive format promotes and facilitates critical thought far more than the stationary and static journals of today. ASEP could lead the way in this evolution.

Summary

With that rant for the future aside, it is time for the ASEP site to evolve to its next phase. This phase is about centralization and consistency. The ASEP site should look the same and have consistent urls through entire site. The ASEP site is one of the primary sites for Exercise Physiology. For the ASEP web presence to keep pace with future changes of the internet, the site needs to move to a single server and have an agile, professional, and clean format.

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“The ASEP of today no longer belongs on several servers…The newsletter, journals, and other documents, need to have a consistent format and color scheme.”

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