Website evaluation

I think that requiring students to do critiquing of websites is a really important thing to do because, for whatever reason, kids seem to think that whatever is on the web is good. They often fail to look into design features, use of space, and reliability. In college I had to do a big project evaluating five different websites and I found the critiquing process so valuable and eye opening that I required it as part of a GED English class that I taught for three years here in Eau Claire. Surprisingly the kids really liked it. I had designed an evaluation critique sheet in the form of a table and students had to answer various questions about the sties and make comments on different things. Their responses were overwhelmingly positive and I heard over and over again that the assignment made them look at websites differently. I know I do. When I visit a website I always find myself looking for a creator and the "last updated" date because information is changing quickly and if a website hasn't been edited for several years, and I am looking for current content, I will look somewhere else. I often use websites that I know to be accessible for my screen reader, or easily navigable with a magnifier. Some people might prefer the flashier sites but they ae really not for me. That is not to say that I like scantly designed websites. I like usable websites that are informative, current and accessible.

In thinking about evaluating a website, I actually first thought about a Ning that I am part of, not this one but one for another class. It really drives me nuts. First, the "look" of the site changes given the mood of the creator (or at least I have come to believe this). As opposed to our class Ning, which I have become fairly familiar with because i find it to be laid out in a very linear, easy to understand, non-cluttered fashion. This other Ning though will suddenly have videos on the main page or a wordle. Sometimes there will be embedded cartoons, which my screen reader only recognizes as "graphic". The links to course weekly assignments are in a different spot each week. Assignments are sometimes part of the weekly agenda and other times found on the main page, or under a discussion tab. One week I missed an assignment due date because I didn't even know there was an assignment because the requirements were laid out at the bottom of a page, but my screen reader got hung up in a graphic isaster and I wasn't able to navigate through the entire page.

Our class Ning is so different in that it has remained, in appearance, very consistent throughout the semester. Once I came to understand the environment, I could count on knowing where to find agendas and class expectations. There were no unnecessary flashy things that would get in the way of accessing content. I had relatively few snafus with accessibility. Links were, for the most part, all active and when clicked on, led me to the places I thought I would go. There were a few that didn't always link correctly but that happens to even the best designers. It was, all and all a reliable, content rich site. I wish that I could share the link to the other Ning so you could marvel at the differences but, sadly it is a private sigte for our class only so you'll only have to imagine a chaotic, graphics rich environment that is very visually stimulating, but not always user friendly.