When I first started using Weebly for the class, writing, research, and technology, I adored the easiness of it. It wasn't until I found that I could not only easily design a site but also edit the html code on the sites I created that I feel head over heels in love with Weebly. I've made websites in the past using various sites such as Google Sites and Yola. Both sites did their jobs, although I personally found Yola to be a bit more user-friendly than Google Sites, but neither sites made creating a website nearly as interesting, and dare I say fun, as Weebly does.
For me, Google Sites was just a headache. It was simple but the fact that you constantly had to hit "edit page" then go to a drop menu for the widgets made editing more of a chore than anything. There weren't many drag down options with this site, only inserts which made customizing the website very tedious work. There weren't a large number of widgets to work with, most were just the basic text, image, video options which is great for a basic website but causes problems with more advanced website designs.
Yola on the other-hand, is a much easier to use website. I was able to drag widgets from a side panel which I could move around or hide completely. The downside to this was that a part of the website I was creating was always hidden. The HTML was also a bit more difficult to edit because it was more condensed. Sure, it was easier to find what I was looking for but this also meant I could not edit as much as I wanted to. There was also no blog option which was alright for the Gay-Straight Alliance website that I created but did not help me personally being that I enjoy blogging and tend to add a blog to most of the websites I create.
So in the end it was Weebly that won my heart. I was able to do everything I wanted to do in Yola but with a better HTML coder and a much better widget placement and options as well. I now have four sites that I have created with Weebly, my personal website that includes my resume as well as a few samplings of my writing, my roommate's DJ page where he can show off his work and have people contact him to DJ at their parties, a blog for what's going in in Glassboro that I have to create for my News Reporting I class, and this site. Each site took me maybe an hour to create, customize, and publish (although DJ Tröndle's page isn't published yet).
I had the total opposite introduction to Weebly! I thought it was so confusing and there were too many things for me to mess with. This was the first semester that I realized not only how easy to use the website it, but how many things you can do with your website once you know how to utilize all of the tools. Google sites really is a headache, and my least favorite one to use of all! I've never had any experience with Yola, but I like how you can drag widgets around on the webpage. I don't like the fact that it doesn't have a blog feature. My favorite part of using Weebly so far has been the blog!
Reply
Carissa Canzano
2/10/2013 08:54:34 am
I had a similar reaction to weebly as Lauren, it was very confusing and hard to move around from page to page. It could have been because of the computers in the classroom, but I mainly believe that it is becuase of my lack of computer savy skills. You have an amazing talent to be able to create numerous websites as well as photoshop and create videos. The only other website that I created was for my educational technology class last semester. I used Google sites and made a professional website where I submitted a resume, cover letter, vision, sample lesson plan, and resources. I never heard of the site Yola, but I will have to check it out. The idea of have assignments and student communcation online is a great way to demonstrate how technology is becoming a main tool inside the classroom.