The Hawaiian Native Plant Propagation Web Site: Developing a web-based information resource

Abstract

The Hawaiian Native Plant Propagation Web Site (http://pdcs.ctahr.hawaii.edu:591/hawnprop) is a collection of organized propagation information for selected Hawaiian indigenous and endemic plants. It was designed to provide easy access to this information for university extension personnel, researchers, students, conservationists, and nursery and landscape professionals. Journals and newsletters published in Hawaii provided the most relevant data for this Web site. The first prototype was a database-driven Web site that provided sophisticated search capability and dynamically generated Web pages for each plant record. Subsequent testing of the prototype identified a number of usability problems. These problems were corrected by redesigning the Web site using a hybrid database-static Web page approach. The database software search features are retained, but each database record is linked to a static Web page containing the propagation information for a specific plant.