Characteristics of an Effective Version of a Website - Assignment Example

Characteristics of an Effective Version of a Website Evaluation The heading of the website must not be an elusive feature; considering that a basic principle in website design is for information to be quickly and easily accessible, the heading must feature in a conspicuous position, so that users of the site may know immediately what the subject matter is about. The heading must not be hidden away. Hence in this particular scenario, it is desirable not to have to look for the title on the website page. Users of the site need to be able to see the title, and this naturally leads and guides their understanding of the subsequent contents of the website. This website, with many distributed icons all over the main page, exhibits a feature that is not too desirable. This is because it generally results in a cluster problem. The usefulness of all the icons will be diminished, on such a website. Icons may be valuable as a quick or short-cut indicator to navigate the website, but they are however not to be spread all over the web page, which may lead to confusion for the user, due to the inevitable clutter that results from the usage of too many icons. With a main page that is divided into small boxes and information linked to other pages with greater information, this is a generally acceptable configuration, for the website. The use of such links is a valuable website concept, as it enables the user to navigate to the page or web location where detailed information may be found, concerning what they require. It is much better than having information scattered about piecemeal, on different web locations. It is also useful to have such a configuration on the website, because it enhances the speed of navigation, meaning that users can quickly find what they need. This is desirable as it affects the efficiency of the website. On this particular website, however, there are too many small boxes on one page. There is an undesirable effect of trying to put all the items on the same page even though links are used. It would be better to minimise all written words on this main page, and then have one or two lines capturing the essence of the message of each box, followed by application of the link to direct the user to the page containing all the details. With no tool bars at the main page to sort or categorise information, this does not augur well for usability and efficiency of the website. Absence of tool bars on the main page severely hinders navigation of the site. This means that the user faces a website where information is lumped together. It is undesirable because so much effort has to be made by the user to sort the data or information, in order to find what is needed. This reduces the value of the website for the user, because quality and user-experience are drastically diminished. Furthermore, value is diminished because there is greater likelihood of failure to obtain the necessary information- even if it is available on the site- due to the acute difficulty of sorting or classifying the material or data. With this website having no sequence between the background of the boxes’ colour on the home page, the issue here is that there is poor contrast for quite a number of boxes on the page, which makes reading the contents difficult. Because there are too many boxes, greater need arises to seek colours that will provide contrast between the different backgrounds. The site has not been able to manage this successfully. There are too many bright colours (for instance the box on the topic “Hominoid Skull…”) in some cases, and in others, rather dull colours. The bright colours are hard on the eyes; the dull ones, even when they have reasonable contrast, are not very appealing (instance in the case of the box with title “Additions and…Dating Lesson”). This website, having its introduction and objective not being made clear on the main page, where it is actually linked to the second page, can be evaluated as a poor strategy. As far as website design is concerned, the first page should contain the introductory material the website subject. A first page that fails to introduce is no first page! Even with the attempt to introduce while failing to achieve clarity, it is effectively as good as non introduction to the user. The user needs to be able to see, read and understand properly this website’s objective, as they land on its first page. Clearly, this has not been achieved on the site in question. It would have been quite possible to summarise clearly on the first page, the objective of the website, and then link it to a later page that elaborates. It is therefore a clumsy effort. Having the wording and meaning of its objective being so long, this is an example of lack of simplicity. It is not a good feature to have on a website. Information must be simplified, and easy to understand. Otherwise, the usefulness of the written content, and the extent to which it has user value, are compromised or jeopardised. The display of a logo which is actually a link to an empty page, on this website, reflects lack of thoroughness or professionalism. An empty page contains no information for the user! When a link takes the user there, it portrays carelessness in the design of the website. The logo has failed in the purpose of its inclusion. Its presence will tell the user very little, apart from the information contained in its design. With a main page of cossets 2197 HTML up to 22nd October, and quite obviously considering the more information added the more lines will be added to the HTML codes, it can be opined by way of evaluation that HTML lines, although ideal on a website, should be used appropriately. This web site has too many HTML lines on its first page. Any modifications to the increment of this, will compound an already choked situation on this first page. A change is desirable considering the use of HTML text on this website. Such a change should be targeted at reducing, and not increasing, the text on the page. On the 22nd October (or whatever change a change is effected), HTML on this site should reflect such. The fact that, inside the boxes, the words (text) are not well laid out, is quite true on this website. This website’s page actually contains boxes of information that need to be properly aligned. As rightly noted, this has not been observed. There is no consistency in the alignment of text inside the boxes. Comparing, for instance, boxes dated 24 November 2010 and 9 October 2010, one finds that the former centred, while the latter is left aligned. This decreases the quality of presentation, in addition to lack of consistency. The box labelled 15 September, is another case in point. There is a need to properly align all the box contents in a regular, consistent manner. All the contents should actually be static left aligned, in the boxes on the website. Having duplicate information, such as has been observed in the case of WEBMASTER and Talk to us, leads this evaluation to opine that such repetition is unnecessary. WEBMASTER could have been simply described or referred to as Talk to us, in the place of second mention. The repetition, although an attempt at user’s optional access route to the same information or link, is not the ideal configuration. Alternatively, WEBMASTER could have been inserted in the place of Talk to us, and simply referred to in the later space. Repetition, except it is absolutely necessary, should not be incorporated on a website. The effect is negative on the user, because it puts too much of the same information before the user when the latter is actually expecting to see something different! With some instructions written in two different colours, evaluation posits that this occurrence is not helpful to the website. The normal user expectation, with the use of different colours, is that there is some activation or at least some vital contrast being created. On this website, there is a reasonable attempt to create or highlight some important contrast and attention to information, through the use of different colours. However, there are cases on the page where the different colours have also been used as links to other pages, which may be appropriate. However, there are instances where the nature of the colour contrast is not too ideal, for the average user’s vision.( an example is the box dated 25 July 2008, with title “Four-Winged Dinosaurs”). Website Development The development of this new website entails putting together a number of features on the site, that enhance its functionality, content, appearance and usability, with respect to the user. The website must be properly or well organised, and efficient. As noted by anon (2007), layout consistency is vital for this website’s usability. Part of the organisation must include the placement or location of conspicuously at the top or at the sides of the site, for easy and quick access. The elements of the site must also be kept simple; the user should be able to easily read, understand, and navigate the site. Link-texts, and also back-links, should be used to facilitate user-navigation of the website. There should however not be too many links on the site page, so as not to clutter or congest the page. In particular, links that are repetitive, which yield the same information- as have been observed on the evaluated website- should be carefully avoided. Created links should serve on the site, particularly on the first page, to direct users to other areas on the site containing the needed information. Links should be descriptive. The website design should, as much as possible, employ the use of HTML for written content. Further, the website content must avoid grammatical or spelling errors. In addition, vital keywords should be used frequently. Their use, however- as noted by this source- must not be irrelevant, but appropriate. In creating content for a new website, Robertson (2002) notes that there must be separation of presentation from content. This means that both should not interfere with one another. Hence, presentation should not hinder the message of the content. The website under consideration has apparently not succeeded in doing this. Its presentation interferes with its content usefulness. Content management must be properly applied to the design of the new website. This is quite important, to facilitate a website’s extensibility, as noted by Robertson (2002). This refers to the availability of a system which affords continual improvement of the website interface. It is also vital to design the site (through content management or CMS) to permit usage of additional formats (the evaluated site appears incapable of additional formats beside HTML and graphic characters). In the new website design, authoring tools should be applied to facilitate the provision of alternative text on the web page. There must be the back up of evaluation tools and user agent agents which, as anon (2008) notes, make available a mechanical and human interface to the alternative text. The website must be designed to be visually appealing. The use of colours or graphics must not hinder the usability of the site. Colours that are too bright must be avoided. The colours used need to blend well (the colours applied on the evaluated site are too bright, and not well blended). The tone of the website will derive from the use of colours. The colours must be applied or used so that they contrast within an acceptable range. The content of the website must have information, and not unnecessary, irrelevant or frivolous text. The content must contribute towards helping the user to make a decision. As Tarafdar (2005) notes, there is need for depth in the content, in addition to scope. Designing the new website entails, first and foremost, clearly defining its purpose. The information provided on the site must always be presented such that it is relevant to the website’s purpose or objective. The website must have, in addition, its information arranged to facilitate navigation. Adequate white space must be incorporated in the new website design (by contrast to the evaluated website, which did not have ample white space). In addition, there must be constant left alignment in the presentation of the content. The text should be of size 10 to 12. The site should be designed to load fast. The appeal of the website being designed will also depend on proper use of primary colours, which ideally should not be more than two or three. Tarafdar notes that website design entails the arrangement of its information to facilitate navigation. This, the source further notes, also involves sequencing (in addition to layout). The new website design needs to incorporate hyperlinks in a manner that enhances its effectiveness. The website design should include the concept or principle whereby there is minimum use of tables. Usage of image-only objects should, furthermore, be avoided, for enhanced navigation on the site. The usability of the website by physically challenged persons should also be taken into consideration. Thus, design elements of the website must make it assistive-technology- friendly. Therefore, the website should lend itself to navigation or browsing by means of components such as scanning software, alternative keyboards, switches, and screen readers. The website should be able to capture metadata. This include (among other elements such as subject or topic), the keywords appearing on its page, by means of keyword indexes. Other feature the design needs to take into consideration, include, as Robertson notes, subject taxonomies and topic maps. Cross-links between pages must be created; these should be designed into the website such that they would not be rendered unstable when any form of restructuring is constructed on the website. Bibliography Anon, “Characteristics of An Effective Website” (2007) 28 October 2010 Anon, “Essential Components of Web Accessibility” (2008) 28 October 2010 Robertson, J. “How To Evaluate a Content Management System” (2002). 28 October 2010 Tarafdar, M. “Analysis of Critical Website Characteristics: A Cross-category Study of Successful Websites” (2005) 29 October 2010 Anon, “Web-Design-Blackburn” (nd) 27 October 2010 *Plus Lecture Notes. Read More