Evaluating and Designing a Web Site
Table of Contents
The following sites provide guidance on designing and evaluating Web sites and pages. Knowing how others are evaluating your Web pages will help you decide what types of information you should include when you plan the content and design of your page.
Evaluation
- Evaluating Information Found on the Internet (Elizabeth E. Kirk, Library Instruction Coordinator for Milton S.Eisenhower Library at The Johns Hopkins University)
"This document discusses the criteria by which scholars in most fields evaluate print information, and shows how the same criteria can be used to assess information found on the Internet.
- Evaluating Quality on the Net (by Hope N. Tillman, Director of Libraries, Babson College, Babson Park, MA)
Tillmann also writes from the standpoint that "we need to use the same critical evaluative skills in looking for information on the Internet that we would do in a book, . . . " She addresses: relevance of existing criteria for other formats; continuum of information on the net; current state of evaluation tools on the net; and key indicators of quality (a checklist).
- Teaching Critical Evaluation Skills for World Wide Web Resources (Jan Alexander and Marsha Tate, Wolfgram Memorial Library, Widener University)
The authors provide quick checklists to help evaluate different types of web pages: advocacy, business/marketing, informational, news, personal.
- Testing the Surf: Criteria for Evaluating Internet Information Resources (Alastair G. Smith; The Public-Access Computer Systems Review 8, no. 3, 1997. Refereed Article.)
". . . many Internet sites that select and review Internet information resources rely on subjective values of style and 'coolness', instead of focusing on information content. This article will survey criteria that have been published on the Web and in the print literature and propose a set of criteria (a toolbox) that can be used by librarians and users to evaluate Internet information sources."
Design/Standards
- Writing for the Web: A Primer for Librarians (Eric H. Schnell, M.L.S., Instructor and head, Automation Services, Prior Health Sciences Library, Ohio State University)
"This document discusses basic concepts and terminology associated with creating documents and resources for distribution on the Web. It is not an in-depth HTML guide, but a general introduction on Web resource creation."
- Yale C/AIM Web Style Guide (by Patrick J. Lynch and Sarah Horton)
Detailed, comprehensive guide that approaches "Web page and site design as a challenge that combines traditional editorial approaches to documents with graphic design, user interface design, information design, and the technical authoring skills required to optimize the HTML code, graphics, and text within Web pages."
- Bandwidth Conservation Society
Does your page take too long to load because of the graphics you are using? The Bandwith Conservation Society, a group of web developers, provides tutorials in working with your graphics to help you reduce their size and optimize performance.
- Guide to good practices for WWW authors (Margaret Isaacs, Glasgow University, Department of Computing Science)
- Hints for Web Authors (By Warren Steel)
Usability
General Resources
- Information Quality WWW Virtual Library (WWW server maintained by Dr. T. Matthew Ciolek, Coombs Computing Unit, Australian National University)
This resource contains a wealth of information. It "keeps track of online resources relevant for evaluation, development and administration of high quality factual/scholarly networked information systems . . . All links listed in this Virtual Library are inspected and evaluated before being added to this Virtual Library."
Design/Standards from Other Universities
- WWW POLICIES AND GUIDELINES (Stacey Kimmel, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina).
This site provides a large list of links to policies and guidelines established by other universities.
If you have any queries or concerns about this page, please contact .
June 23, 2010
