The Problems Encountered by Black Men - Essay Example

1. The website allows membership by signing up. The members can interact by logging in and engaging in the various forums.
2. The website allows members to share their experiences by blogging.
3. The website provides a means of contacting the administrators. This helps to get feedback from the users about the quality of services received through the website.
4. The website has an appealing page once the user logs in.
The Weaknesses
The website has several weaknesses that need to be addressed urgently. Some of the weaknesses in the website include:
1. The website has a “Site Error Page” once the home page loads.
2. The titles of the pages do not coincide with the content. Instead, all the pages have “Site Name (From the Settings)” as their title.
3. It lacks content on the original home page.
4. All the links of the websites on the home page happen to be dead links and hence cannot be used to access other pages of the site.
5. The original home page before a user signs up can discourage a new user since it has an unprofessional setting.
6. A random user cannot know the purpose of the website due to a lack of description. Instead, the description of the website can only be accessed once a user has logged in/Signed up.
7. The website requires a plugin to be installed into the user’s computer to access some of its content. This may not fare well with some users who are keen to protect their computers from malicious programs. Some will opt to leave the website rather than risk the safety of their computers by downloading unfamiliar plug-ins.
Changes that can be made to the website
The website has the potential of capturing the attention of new visitors. However, achieving this requires a complete makeover. To start with, the links found on the homepage all need to be followed through to make sure that they lead a user to a new page. The main reason for doing this lies in the fact that some users may be discouraged from going further if the links cannot function. It may make a visitor assume that the website in general does not function. It came as a surprise to me that you can log in and find that the website has content. Other new users may not have the time, patience, or adventurous nature which may lead them to discover other parts of the website that happen to be operational.
Another point of concern revolves around the titles of all the pages. When logged in and with most of the content available, the title of most pages happens to be the same. This questions the seriousness behind the website and the level of professionalism involved. Every page of the website accessed by the user should have a title coinciding with the topic. For example, if a user clicks on a link called “Blog”, the user should be directed to a page that has blogs with the title “Blog”. In a case whereby a user can be using different tabs and the main tab happens to be other than the one accessing pages in this website, a lot of misinformation can occur. The main reason for making this statement lies in the fact that when the page accessing this website loads, the Title bar will read “Site Error” or “Site Name (From the Settings)”. The user may end up concluding that the website is broken, or the page is redirected to other pages other than the website. A busy visitor may end up neglecting the website for other businesses. A serious visitor with real problems that need to be addressed may end up concluding that the website only happens to be a joke.

The other issue that needs to be addressed by the designers of the website spins around the content of the website. Other than the workability of the links, the content also needs to be up to standards. For instance, the homepage has a picture called “calendar.png” which never loads. Other parts of the website do not have content and when the links become clicked on, they redirect the user to the homepage. This problem can be addressed by having the destination of all the links monitored. If the destinations of the links do not match their purpose/name, then they should be edited accordingly.

The content should also be clear and well-defined to make the website more comprehensible. For instance, the titles should coincide with the content. The links should lead to pages related to them and should not be dead like most of them.
The choice of joining should be visible so that every visitor to the website can notice it. Joining the website should be optional and not mandatory since some may not want to join. Read More