Chapter 9: Evaluation

Characteristic of Good Websites: 

1. Original, Fresh Content

Content is king in the web world. People visit websites for the primary purpose of finding content, so make sure you deliver. Website content should be unique and up to date. Fresh content will keep visitors and search engines coming back for more. Don’t forget to proofread!

2. Target Audience

From a quick scan of your website, visitors should be able to determine what you offer and how you can benefit them. A good website will have headlines and text that speaks to the target audience’s needs and wants. Many websites simply list what their company does without saying how they can benefit their target audience. Keep your audience in mind when designing your website to be sure that it will appeal to them and encourage them to take action (whether that is to submit a contact form, signup for a newsletter or buy a product).

3. User-Friendly Navigation

A good website has content that is easy to find. Pages should be organized and named in a way that the target audience will easily understand. For instance, a services page would be better labeled “Services” than “Business Solutions.” Keep your navigation consistent from page to page to avoid any possible confusion. Double check all your links to make sure they are working. Make sure that your most popular content is no more than a click away from your homepage. If your website has a lot of content, provide a search box so visitors can quickly find what they are looking for.

4. Simple and Professional Design

A good website will have an attractive layout that is easy on the eyes. Be sure your colors contrast well and your text doesn’t require a magnifying glass to read. Personally, I can’t stand reading large amounts of content written in white on a black background. It strains my eyes. Reducing the contrast a bit can help (light grey text on dark grey background).
Lots of text can overwhelm a user. Breaking up text into subheads and bullet points will improve the layout of the page and make the text more scannable. No one has time to read every word on a page.
Use design elements to draw attention to or to enhance the content of a page. With every design element added, take a step back and make sure it serves a purpose and does not detract from the usability of the site. Put things where users expect them to be. However, do try to make your website look unique. Just remember that simple, professional design will be much more effective than flashy, overcrowded design.

5. Speed

How many seconds will you wait for a page to load before you give up and leave a website? Many factors can affect the loading time of a website including coding, number of graphics, the server speed, traffic volume on the website and the capabilities of a user’s computer.
Make sure your server has the proper amount of space/bandwidth for your website and that your website code is lightweight. Use large graphics sparingly. Use CSS styles in place of graphics where possible. Waiting for large graphics or a fancy flash animation to load on each page will surely turn away some visitors.

6. Search engine optimization

SEO is one of the most commonly neglected aspects of a website, but a website is useless if no one can find it. Think about the keywords that users may search for to find a product or service you offer. Do some research to see how often those keywords are searched for through a tool like Google’s Keyword Tool. Use keywords in titles, meta tags, headings, file names and in the content of your site. Search engine optimization can mean the difference between getting 500 visitors a month and 500+ visitors a day.

7. Link building

Links are an important factor in determining where your website appears in search engine results. Find as many legitimate sites as you can that will link you your website. Add your link to your business profile in directories like Google Local, Yahoo! Local, Merchant Circle, Insider Pages, Yellow Pages, LinkedIn and more. Submit articles and PR to sites that will include a link back to your website. The best way to get links to your site, however, is to provide unique and interesting content that people want to link to. You can make it easy for them to share your content by providing links or buttons such as the addthis.com button.

8. Tracking

A good website is a work in progress. A nice tool like Google Analytics will keep track of the number of people who come to your website, what pages they viewed, where they came from, what keywords they used in search engines, how many left after the first page and more. Unlike other media, websites can be easily tracked to see what is working and what isn’t. This data will help you to improve the quality and structure of your site.

Conclusion

Remember to include these characteristics in your next website design project. A professional-looking website with interesting content that is easy to navigate and can be found in search engines is sure to bring value to your business.
Feel free to comment. What other ingredients can spice up a website? What has been your most effective strategy in gaining website traffic?

Sources:http://www.successdesigns.net/articles/entry/characteristics-of-a-good-website/




Example of Good Website:


www.nike.com

Bias Information:

How to evaluate biases in information is important to understand. You need to be aware of what is true, or what just someone’s opinion is. When evaluating biases in information, it is important to remember that everyone has an opinion. Especially when looking at the Internet, understand that a lot of the websites are self published and don’t require any concrete evidence to back up what the author is saying. Following these guidelines will ensure you are getting the true information from reliable sources.

 Sources:
http://www.surfnetkids.com/go/safety/451/evaluating-bias-in-online-information/

Example of Bias Information:

This article lists examples of Bias in Wikipedia, related to Liberal politicians and the protection of them:

1. Noting that Al Gore's 2009 statement that he won a 2007 British court case about An Inconvenient Truth ran contrary to the actual ruling and, especially, the judge's statement that the claimant won the case against the film is considered "original research" and "POV" on Wikipedia.^[1]
2. Wikpedia's entry on liberal former Vice President Al Gore contains no mention of the drug charges against his son.^[2] But Wikipedia's entry on conservative Vice President Dick Cheney prominently mentions his adult daughter's sexuality.^[3]
3. When Al Gore's sex scandal was reported, no mention of this issue was allowed on the Al Gore page. The Al Gore Talk page consisted of many liberals saying that it wasn't actually a story. Attempts to create the subject matter elsewhere on wikipedia were all removed.
4. Wikipedia's article on Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign makes no mention of her endorsement by the leadership of the terrorist group Hamas,^[4] but lists endorsements of Republican presidential candidates by the Ku Klux Klan.
5. Wikipedia now promotes the late liberal icon Ted Kennedy as the leader of ... "progressivism": "By the time of his death, he had come to be viewed as a major figure and spokesman for American progressivism."^[5] Where on earth did that liberal denial come from?
6. Wikipedia's article of Jimmy Carter's Presidency is clearly biased in favor of the failed politician ^[6].
7. Progressivism: List of notable current/former progressives in US Congress: ^[7] Year-long edit war trying to keep well-known and self-admitted progressives Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Maxine Waters on this list. An editor with a history of left-wing neutral-point-of-view complaints is using every excuse to keep these three names off of the list. This liberal gatekeeper was first complaining about a lack of citations, but after citations were provided of Obama and Clinton in their own words describing *themselves* as progressives, the liberal editor is now trying to argue that "just because they say they are progressives doesn't mean they are", or that "They aren't current members of the Progressive caucus, thus they can't be progressives". This edit war has gone on for over a year, and is now working its way through moderation - likely via liberal moderators. See Wikipedia Progressivism Talk Page and Dispute Resolution Discussion--CenterRight 03:29, 29 December 2011 (EST)

 Sources:

http://www.conservapedia.com/Examples_of_Bias_in_Wikipedia:_Liberal_Politicians