Evaluation Criteria for Web Aesthetics Paper

• Coherence, clarity, balance, innovation, form, size, perspective, layout, color theory, font
  
  
• Go beyond "it's pleasing to the eye." How does the design contribute to the content?
  
  
• Is this a tight design? Are things too big, too wide, too small, too cluttered, too dark, too slow. Does the design fit with the target audience? Seniors vs. Twenty-somethings

• Navigation: Does the navigation system give you a sense of where you are within the site structure? Can you get an immediate sense of the scope of the site (does it look like there is a lot, but it turns out to be empty, or do you discover it's huge and can't find what you're looking for?) Can you potentially find what you're looking for from the front page?
  
  
• Interface: How easy or how hard is it to know to whom the site is directed? How motivational is the interface? Does it make you want to explore the site further? How would you rate the overall look and feel?
  
  
• Information Design: Is the information organized in a way that makes it easy for your eyes to scan the page and quickly determine what's available? Are the right elements emphasized? Is your eye drawn to what's most important? Is the page consistent with headings, subheadings, graphical organization scheme? Does the site use outside information sources for further information?

 

For an interesting article on "How People Read the Web" click here.

 

Content

• Is the content appropriate to the web? Does the site make use of the unique qualities of the medium? Would the content work better in another medium instead (like print magazine, tv news?)
  
  
• How strong is the content of the site? Is the content easily found elsewhere? Are the special features useful? Does it combine different data types, are there clever hyperlinks, is it searchable, did the site's designers use the medium to its potential?
  
  
• Orchestration of hypermedia: Is the use of new media effective or gratuitous?
  
  
• Web embedded: Is the site "embedded" in the Web (does it provide links to other appropriate sites or are all of the links internal? Do other Web sites link to this one?) Is the site a destination site, a hub site, or a hybrid site?

• Responding to user circumstances - bandwidth sensitivity, platforms, browser sensitivity (works on all browsers)
  
  
• Loads Quickly: Speed and therefore file size is a major constraint that has helped define the medium
  
  
• Responding to new opportunities - online communities, interactive forms & new media capabilities. Is there Audio, video, hypertext, dynamic information (Amazon inventory, stock quotes, retrieve your credit card statement, class grades or registrar information, virtual shopping carts, napster, ebay)

• Cross cultural design: Is this Web site only for English speakers? Is there a global visual language?
  
  
• How does it relate to other media, expand traditional genres?
  
  
• How does it respond to larger social forces? Think about mp3 and napster
  
  
• Innovation- what new possibilites does it create?