Course
Safety
Accidents
Remington.com
Colorado Division of Wildlife: Hunting
Massachusetts Safe Turkey Hunting Tips
About Hunting
Minnesota Hunting Regulations Handbook
BSU Home
Site Report
Safety is an issue for hunters at all levels, so our goal was to create a site where both avid and novice hunters could learn useful safety information in a simple, get-what-you-need-and-go site. Hunting jargon can often make new hunters feel unwelcome or intimidated, so we have attempted to create a site that uses simple language and diagrams for those new to the sport, yet offers more advanced tips and background stories for seasoned hunters. Since many people who might stop at our site would have already taken a hunting/firearms safety course, we have attempted to build on that knowledge and bring up some safety issues that their manuals may have ignored.
Audience
Beginner Hunter
An individual who has taken, or is looking to take, the firearms safety course. He or she may not have had much experience in the field.
Design choices:
- Glossary: To explain the terms of hunting so that they can understand the other pages in the site, and to give them the knowledge to communicate with other hunters confidently.
- Pictures and Graphics: Visual aids are helpful to someone who is just learning to hunt, and adds to the understanding of the safety tips.
- Language: We have attempted to use the simplest language possible
so users aren't confused by the safety information we present.
Advanced Hunter
An individual who has already completed a firearms safety course and has been hunting for a number of years.
Design choices:
- In-depth story: A story which illustrates how seasoned hunters have been injured has been included to show that even people who have hunted for many years are no exception to the practice of hunting safety.
- Tree Stand Safety Page: We have learned that even veteran hunters
do not often practice the safe method of getting into a treestand so
this is an important issue for them.
Parents or family of hunters
Parents of would-be hunters might be looking for information about how to keep their child safe.
Design Choices:
- Hunting Safety Course Page: This page is useful because it talks about the importance of the hunting safety courses and will hopefully encourage parents to have their child take it. It also has contacts in order to find a class in their area.
- Blaze Orange Page: All of the reasons why children are most
often injured is because they are so small and they aren't wearing blaze
orange. This page explains the requirements and why it is so important
to wear this color.
Design Objectives
We chose these topics for individual pages because we found they were the most important safety issues since many hunting accidents have resulted because hunters have disobeyed these rules.
Site Specifications
Our site begins with a homepage to welcome hunters to our site, and to introduce the objective of the site: That all hunters should practice safe hunting. We explain that we are not experts, but have gathered our information from credible sources in the hopes that users will refer to these sources as well.
We included our picture to lend credibility to the page. We aren't big, burly outdoors men, but rather normal people who enjoy the sport of hunting, since those are the people our site is aimed at.
All pages have been linked to make navigation as easy as possible.
The reason that some pages have picures and that others don't is because certain concepts are easier to explain when they are accompanied by a picture that illustrates them. For example, the hunting regulations page does not have pictures because it would be impossible to illustrate the concept of tresspassing laws or arms restrictions. The Gun Handling page has pictures so hunters can mimic the picture if they don't necessarily understand what the text is telling them to do.
The links we have selected have shown to reflect the qualities that our site follows: Simple, safe hunting tips. Their information compliments ours nicely.
The layout has been kept the same from page to page to give the site uniformity and familiarity, and to make it easier for the users to follow.
Design Responsibilities
We tried to split resonsibilities down the middle by doing most all of the work on the site together. We have each other's numbers on speed dial.
Problems
Most of the problems we encountered were problems with the technology. When something wouldn't work (example: scanner, digital camera, or stupid computers) we kept trying until we got it right, or called you and whined.
Copyright©Lindsey Johnson,
Jessica Delos Reyes
Last Modified December 2001