4 Step Website Evaluation:
1. Strategy
Good website design is backed by strategy. Is the site achieving its purpose? It can look pretty but if you can’t figure out what to do with it, the audience won’t use it. So ask yourself: Does the design direct visitors to do what you want them to do? To evaluate the effectiveness ask these questions:
2. Usability
Usability is all about the practical considerations of what goes into a good website design. Ask these questions:
3. Style
Beauty may be relative, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t clear aesthetic principles to guide your website design. The best designs will create positive impressions for visitors, be clean, and complement the content they’re communicating. To test the effectiveness of your website’s eye appeal, consider the following:
4. Content
The two main considerations regarding content are readability and usefulness. Readability is important because if your visitors can’t make out your content, whether that’s because it’s too small or in a pale color or in an unreadable font, there’s no way for your message to get across. Usefulness is just as important, however, because if your content doesn’t matter to your reader, you lose them.
Good website design is backed by strategy. Is the site achieving its purpose? It can look pretty but if you can’t figure out what to do with it, the audience won’t use it. So ask yourself: Does the design direct visitors to do what you want them to do? To evaluate the effectiveness ask these questions:
- What is the purpose of this website, and is the design accomplishing it?
- Who is the target audience, and how does the design take them into consideration.
- What do I want my audience to do, and is the design encouraging that action?
2. Usability
Usability is all about the practical considerations of what goes into a good website design. Ask these questions:
- How easy is it to find information?
- Is there a search button for visitors?
- Do all the links work?
3. Style
Beauty may be relative, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t clear aesthetic principles to guide your website design. The best designs will create positive impressions for visitors, be clean, and complement the content they’re communicating. To test the effectiveness of your website’s eye appeal, consider the following:
- Is the style consistent throughout the website?
- Will the style suit my target audience? (i.e., cartoons on a toy company website, elegant layout on a legal website)
- What feel does the website give—Orderly or messy? Sparse or crowded? Playful or formal?—and how does that align with my goals?
- Are the photos and graphics adding to the website or taking away from the point of it
4. Content
The two main considerations regarding content are readability and usefulness. Readability is important because if your visitors can’t make out your content, whether that’s because it’s too small or in a pale color or in an unreadable font, there’s no way for your message to get across. Usefulness is just as important, however, because if your content doesn’t matter to your reader, you lose them.
- Are the fonts I’ve chosen readable?
- Is there enough contrast between background colors and font colors?
- Is all the text big enough?
- Does the design make content easy to find?
Personal Website Assignment
You will be creating a 4 page website. It will need to include: Home Page, Foods, Animals, and Location Spotlight Page.
Once you begin your website structure there will be checkpoints assigned for each page. At this point you will fill out peer evaluations on each others websites to help with the final assessment made by Mrs. Van Kley. Follow the Personal Website Expectations listed below.
See Example Website: avkwebsite.weebly.com/
Once you begin your website structure there will be checkpoints assigned for each page. At this point you will fill out peer evaluations on each others websites to help with the final assessment made by Mrs. Van Kley. Follow the Personal Website Expectations listed below.
See Example Website: avkwebsite.weebly.com/