Question about the design of a mentor portal

[qtnguyen]

Hi,

I’m new to the world of web design world and need some advice on how to improve a mentor portal for a bay area nonprofit. (You know what working for a nonprofit means; I attend community workshops for information and free muffins.) The nonprofit serves under-resourced high school students in the Peninsula and Oakland by giving them an education in entrepreneurship. We encourage our students to develop their own small businesses. Mentors provide guidance and facilitate teams of 3-5 students in their efforts to define a business idea and write a business plan.

The mentor portal will serve mainly as a place for mentors to obtain updates about their students. Presently the portal has basic features (e.g. links to mentor news, forum, reference files, resources, and a calendar of upcoming events).

How can I improve the portal so that more mentors actually use it? (In your response, can you also please mention how I would go about adding features you suggest?)

Thanks very much for your time,

Quynh

[kiwibrit]

This seems to be a question of web design, rather than Dreamweaver/FrontPage - so perhaps this thread should be moved. But in the meantime, I am sure folk would wish to help. Can you give us a link, so we can make suggestions starting from what's there already?

[qtnguyen]

Hi Kiwibrit,

Thanks. I will move the thread. You can check out the nonprofit at www.build.org. Unfortunately, I can't give out the password to enter the mentor portal because the portal has students' contact information.

Perhaps the question is too broad(?).

Quynh