With an unlimited budget and of course the time to create such a website, I would take a very hands-on approach. In my opinion, the most important thing to any website is how user friendly it is. Easily accessible material as well as aesthetically pleasing pictures and videos are just as important as the overall content I would be trying to display and teach. Links and order would be the key to the success of my website.
In terms of how the site would look, I would do my very best to tell the immigration story with as many pictures as possible. On a school-related trip to Ellis Island a few years ago, I was able to hold on to various facts of information that would have normally escaped my mind through the help of visual aids and images. I feel this same approach would be best for a website about such a significant influx of immigrants.
While constructing the educational content of the website, I would try to incorporate both Chudacoff and Binder in the development. I would like to implement Chudacoff’s approach to using a chronological, step-by-step approach to the explanation of the “wave of immigration.” This is a reader-friendly way of telling this story. I would definitely make sure to include the different types of immigrants that came into Manhattan during each wave (especially their monetary situations and what they went through). While using this “Chudacoff approach” I would also try to use a Binder method as well and incorporate the ethnic and tolerance side of the spectrum. This is when Manhattan Island was known as the biggest melting pot known to man combining and stirring many different cultures together.