Principles and Practice of Web Design †Home Page Evaluation Free Essays

08. 04. 2013 INT1022 Principles and Practice of Web Design [THE EVALUATION OF WWW. We will write a custom essay sample on Principles and Practice of Web Design – Home Page Evaluation or any similar topic only for you Order Now EXPERILAND. COM/] URL: http://www. experiland. com/ Introduction: The website experiland. com is published by and part of the JB Concepts design media group and was founded in 2010. The urge to create the site developed because the JB Concepts design media group felt that there was a need for a science website for students, teachers and interested young people which helps them understand science and encourages them to experience science through own, by the website guided, projects and experiments. Furthermore the website gives the opportunity to increase the knowledge provided online through the availability of e-books. The creators see themselves responsible for educating and improving the learning experience for students while providing the necessary information concerning safety and emphasizing the sense of responsibility by the young scientists. The science projects are divided into different target groups ranging from the first to the eighth grade. Description Evaluation: The home-page of the website is divided into four main parts. It also introduces the texture of the website and reflects the general design for every sub-page. The texture is divided into two parts which are differentiated through different colors. The head part is metallic neon green and gives an association to the topic science as it is usually considered nature based while green reflects this nature aspect. The other texture is a rough to smooth going dark grey metallic look which reflects the human involvement in the topic science. It makes sense that green is the head as it is the ground for the researches and the metallic artificial looking part is the content part of the website because it reflects what human found out so far. Thus it is a great choice of general design for the website. Furthermore the subtitles in the content part have a special pattern which gives the user the impression to see through a microscope on the subtitles. It thus keeps the topic science consistently over the complete page and uses patterns effectively to suggest the theme. Furthermore the head of the website provides a character and the logo design of the website which includes the other colors that will be used on the website. The colors are identification colors for the five different main themes of science the website provides. These topics are chemistry in blue, which resembles liquid, earth science and astronomy in violet, which is commonly associated with science of the universe, electricity and magnetism in yellow, which resembles the light of a light bulb, life science as biology in green, as green is commonly associated with the nature and finally physics in red, which differs strongly from the other colors It thus slowly introduces the user into the color way of the website and helps the user to rediscover the already known colors later in the content parts. The great and harmonious mix of colors also entices the user to spend more time on the website and thus provides the positive effect that a wisely chosen color way should have (Shenkman Jonsson, 2000; Nielsen, 2002; Tractinsky et al, 2004; Tractinsky et al, 2006; Valdez Mehrabian, 1994). The website uses the typeface -Trebuchet MS,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif- consistently on every page and just differs in the color for titles and subtitles, content and links. The Titles and subtitles are in bold, white and in the size of 1. 8em to be easily identifiable as titles. The content is regular, black and in the size of 1. em while the links have the same structure they are in light green. The website uses the em size of font because it is easily scalable and mobile-device friendly. The font choice of the website is efficient and logical. The titles and subtitles have a slightly bigger size without being too place containing, while the content is held simple and easily readable. Titles in t he running text are emphasized by using bold font and 1. 6em as the size. However the choice of the color for links is not suitable even though they are easy to differ from the rest of the text, they are sometimes hard to see because of the green color way and theme design. It seems more fitting to the design than the commonly used blue but however is harder to distinguish from the text. The texting of the website is held easily understandable for students of any age. Moreover the website provides an online glossary that can be used to understand specific scientific terms. It thus delivers exactly what is needed to the target group of young students. The pictures used on the website are generally held simple but are however efficient and easily recognizable and understandable. The simple use of the pictures lets the website work fast and without long loading periods. It is thus easy to browse through and find a topic of interest. The first part is the head of the website which provides the user with links to the five main parts of the websites which are the Home-page, the Books-page where the user can purchase e-books, an about us-page on which the company provides further information for the drive to create the website, the most important page Projects and the possibility to get in contact with the creators for questions and inquiries. Additionally the website provides the possibility to search for topics on the website by implementing a Google-Search-Tool in the head. More over frequent users of the website can sign in with their account and a shopping cart tool is implemented. The Head of the page thus serves exactly what is needed from a head. It gives the user the opportunity to easily navigate in between the main pages of the website and search for specific topics more easily. It effectively uses the space to promote the logo and introduces the user to the website. The only negative thing about the head is the choice of colors for the not chosen main pages, as they are depicted in a slightly lighter green than the background which can make them hard to read. Other than that all information are clearly readable and identifiable. The second part is the sidebar. The sidebar provides a lot of information and options for the user. Once understood it can be used to easily navigate through the website. The sidebar stays right to the content part through project and website based contents and only disappears in the books part of the website. It consists of different parts which differ from each other by the use of color and small graphics. Additionally the first part differs itself further by not being in the same design. This makes sense because this part is about the charitable function of the website, which donates 5% of their profit to charity and wants the user to vote for which charity it should be. The next part depicts the shopping cart of the users since it is possible to purchase e-books on the website. It thus helps to keep an overview if books are being purchased. The next five parts are designed to help the user understand the website and to browse through the website and find suitable information. It thus provides browsing by school grade, by occupation and purpose, and the nature of interest of the user. These bars are thus implemented to introduce first time users and help them navigate through the system. It’s very effective because the first time users don’t have to look for the detailed content immediately but can be guided by the navigation the website provides. Additionally the small graphics help the users, and especially young users, to identify the use of the bar quickly and recognize them later again. Experienced users can make use of the sidebar as well, as it allows them to find their current project or their topic of interest effectively because it implemented the same color scheme and graphics design for the main topics of science as used on the content pages of those topics. That means that the colors are recurring and coherently used through the website and paint a complete picture. The sidebar allows the user a horizontal navigation through the different topics. Only specific projects must be found by navigating to the field of interest and finding the project from there. The third part is the content part of the website. It is separated in different colons which provide further information about before mentioned topics and themes. In the main page the content part basically gives more information to the points that are mentioned and depicted in the other parts. It allows the user to click on the topics and receive an even more detailed description of the topics. The content part always changes and contains the source of information and the reason for the users to use the website. It helps the user to find topics of interest and gives to every detailed subtopic a quantity of available projects in that topic. After deciding for a topic the user will be led to a different content page which is designed in the topics lead color and contains the different available projects. The different projects are then differentiated in different categories depending on the advised grade of the student, the difficulty, the time consumption and whether or not adult supervision is advised. The side then provides further information about the topic and explains how the project works. It is very effectively design because it shows briefly what materials are needed and then shows graphics and explanations on how to perform the project. It makes it easily understandable for students. It also draws a conclusion why the project works and gives the possibility to receive further information about the topic by purchasing an e-book. It is an effective way to present and explain the project, however the website is pressuring the user into buying the e-books because they only provide further information with these e-books. The last part of the website is the bottom part. It summarizes the main parts of the website in general main topics and provides a legitimacy check by showing awards the website won. Moreover it provides a free sample of one of the e-books. It is held in the same rough metallic grey design that is used as the texture of the site. Moreover this part also never changes and is provided on every content page. Bibliography Nielsen, J. , Tahir,M. Homepage Usability: 50 Websites Deconstructed, New Riders Publishing, Indianapolis, IN, 2002. Olsson, T. (2007, 1 10). The Definitive Guide to Web Character Encoding. Retrieved 1 14, 2013, from SitePoint: http://www. sitepoint. com/guide-web-character-encoding/ Schenkman, B. N. , Jonsson,F. U.. Aesthetics and preferences of web pages, Behavior and Information Technology 19 (2000) 367–377. Stemler, L. K. (1997). Educational Characteristics of Multimedia: A Literature Review. Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia , 6 (3), pp. 339-359. Tractinsky, N. , Cokhavi,A. , Kirschenbaum,M.. Evaluating the consistency of immediate aesthetic perception of web pages, International Journal of Human– Computer Studies 64 (2006) 1071–1083. Tractinsky, N. , Cokhavi,A. , Kirschenbaum,M.. Using ratings and response latencies to evaluate the consistency of immediate aesthetic perceptions of web pages, in: Proceedings of the Third Annual Workshop on HCI Research in MIS, Whashington, DC, 2004, pp. 1–5. Valdez, P. , Mehrabian, A. , Effects of color on emotion, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 123 (1994) 394–409. WhatIs. com. (2005). What is font? Retrieved 1 12, 2012, from Definition from WhatIs. com: http://whatis. techtarget. com/definition/0,,sid9_gci212137,00. html WhatIs. com. (2005). What is text? Retrieved 1 12, 2012, from Definition from WhatIs. com: http://whatis. techtarget. com/definition/0,,sid9_gci213125,00. html Wikipedia. (2012). Typography. Retrieved 1 12, 2012, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Typography Wikipedia. (2012). Unicode. Retrieved 1 13, 2012, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Unicode How to cite Principles and Practice of Web Design – Home Page Evaluation, Papers