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Projects Re-Vision
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Notes towards the final 10% of your grade. All questions can be applied to the entire site and to individual projects within the site. As you go through the site, try everything… imagine yourself as the user who says "What happens if I do this?" What problems do you notice? What needs to be changed?
- What is your first impression of the site? What is your holistic, overall impression?
- Comment on layout and design. Does the site use repetition of elements and design details/mood to contribute to its arguments? How could the site improve its use of repetition and detail?
- Do all pages have titles that contribute to the understanding and argument of the project? What changes need to be made to the titles? Also, would it be helpful to add a search feature? (see syllabus for April 12)
- Consider structure (of the site, of individual projects). Does the structure make sense? What problems do you see? (Jumps or illogical sequence? Orphan pages?)?
- Does the main page include information about the author, including name, email link, link to the class syllabus (not the CLC main page), and general statement about the purpose of the site? Or, is this information on a separate "about page" or FAQ (frequently asked questions)? What information is needed?
- Are there at least two forms of navigation for the site? Navigation includes: links within text, links on photos, menus, breadcrumbs, etc. Individual projects can vary the mode of navigation, but there should always be at least two ways to get around. Is there a way to get to the main page of the project on every page? Also, every page should indicate where you currently are in the project. What can improve site navigation?
- Consider the use of images on the site. Are the images a viewable size – big enough for you to see detail but not too big to dominate the page? Are the photos well-edited or are they pixellated or otherwise unclear? Are the images made part of the argument of the project – are they discussed, their details examined, and their meanings integrated into the argument? What changes need to be made in the way images are used?
- How is text used? Remember the principles of "scannable" web writing: 1) highlighted keywords (hypertext links serve as one form of highlighting; typeface variations and color are others); 2) meaningful sub-headings (not "clever" ones); 3) bulleted lists; 4) one idea per paragraph (users will skip over any additional ideas if they are not caught by the first few words in the paragraph); 5) the inverted pyramid style, starting with the conclusion; 6) half the word count (or less) than conventional writing (linking replaces large blocks of text). How can the site’s text be edited to meet these principles?
- Look at the use of links. Links should always be on content (image, text) and not simply through a "click here" button. Links should add to the meaning of the projects. What and how needs to be changed in the links?
- Resize the browser window. How does this effect reading the site? Is the key information – author name and project name – available “above the fold,” i.e. towards the upper left of the browser?
- Go into the computer Settings > Control Panel > Display and change the screen to 800x600. Does this effect the site and projects? What can they do to make the site more readable at lower display resolutions?
- Go into the computer Settings > Control Panel > Display and change the colors to “16 Colors.” Does this effect the site? What can they do to make the site and projects more readable at lower color settings?
- Are there other technical problems: broken links, inconsistency in layout, problems with javascript, slow load times, etc.?
