reviewing web design

suki · 17 Mar 2006 at 10:54

Hi

i've got to talk about the strengths and weaknesses of a websites design and the headings i came up with to discuss are as follow :

Navigation
Speed.
Content
Ease of use
Layout
Colour Scheme
Fonts
Images
Use of technology
What You See is What You Get

just asking if anyone can add anymore to that list or are there any obvious ones i've missed off.
and also are there are sites out there that review websites, so it will give me an idea of what to write

thanks

Sic · 17 Mar 2006 at 10:55

could just do the whole thing for you if you want

Tru · 17 Mar 2006 at 10:59

Embedded midi files

Gilly · 17 Mar 2006 at 11:03

Sic said:
could just do the whole thing for you if you want

Bit harsh, he was only asking for pointers.

Phantom · 17 Mar 2006 at 11:03

catering for disabled/sight impaired people?
- covers your colour scheme by using high contrast colours
- dynamic increase in font size rather than making it fixed depending on your css

Sic · 17 Mar 2006 at 11:04

Gilly said:
Bit harsh, he was only asking for pointers.

sarcastic mood. i didnt mean anything by it

Tru said:
Embedded midi files

i'd also take that a bit further and say embedded multimedia objects. though that may be a subcategory of Technology.

@the OP. are you having a look at whether websites follow accessibility guidelines? what type of websites are we talking? eCommerce or do you get to pick your own?

as far as i'm aware there's nothing with regards to reviews websites. i've got a list of links of sites that validate for accessibility...these may be of use. i'll grab them when i get home. you could also use the w3c validation tools, as this will show what technologies people are using and if they're using them correctly/effectively.

</overcompensating for seeming rude>

Pajeh · 17 Mar 2006 at 11:07

Must have animated gifs

suki · 17 Mar 2006 at 11:19

thanks for the replies guys.

the website i'm doing is primark.co.uk (pretty awful looking site)

there are no guidlines for the work, just have to talk about the design and compare it to others.

Sic · 17 Mar 2006 at 11:28

i'd say your biggest playing field is going to be technology there. are you going to be comparing it to the likes of topman.co.uk and riverisland.co.uk ?

im not entirely sure if you could because that seems to be a corporate website as opposed to eCom.

(excuse me if i ramble...i enjoy looking at this kind of thing

)

suki · 17 Mar 2006 at 11:31

there are many companies i can compare it to, so i will just compare it to the ones that make primark look bad.

i have to make recommendations on possible internet technology for primark after looking at competitors, probably things like online shop etc.

Sic · 17 Mar 2006 at 11:32

yeah, i'd recommend they get rid of their tabular layout and give their site some proper structure. and also to stop using that damn javascript menu that has been used on every site since 1995

Mel_P · 17 Mar 2006 at 13:06

How about using this?

http://webxact.watchfire.com/

punky_munky · 17 Mar 2006 at 13:35

Also, have a read of 37 signals' Defensive Design for the Web. Really helps you understand usability not just from a design perspective.

paulsheff · 17 Mar 2006 at 14:33

Tru said:
Embedded midi files

Hahaha sorry that just tickled me no end.

Al Vallario · 17 Mar 2006 at 15:32

punky_munky said:
Also, have a read of 37 signals' Defensive Design for the Web. Really helps you understand usability not just from a design perspective.

I second that reccomendation. The book is aimed more at developers and how web applications should flow, but I suppose it could come in handy for reviewing websites.

Look at cross-platform compatability (Do they have a separate stylesheet for mobile phone & PDA access?, does the site look the same in all browsers?), usability flow (How easy is it for "users" to get the information they want? In this case, some may be dissapointed to find they don't sell goods online), how the website reflects on the company (Far too corporate at the moment) and whether is conforms to all the usual standards (I'm expecting the Primark site to flunk every single test to be honest!).

Do you have to design an improved version of their website or just review their current one?

Jake 2.0 · 17 Mar 2006 at 20:45

suki said:
thanks for the replies guys.

the website i'm doing is primark.co.uk (pretty awful looking site)

there are no guidlines for the work, just have to talk about the design and compare it to others.

why are you looking at their site for? is it for a project or what?

suki said:
there are many companies i can compare it to, so i will just compare it to the ones that make primark look bad.

i have to make recommendations on possible internet technology for primark after looking at competitors, probably things like online shop etc.

lol you wont have to look hard for sites that make primark look bad! take any site and compare it with primark's and primark will be worse..

/strictly speaking i shouldnt be saying that about primark,oh well

suki · 18 Mar 2006 at 14:17

Freak_boy said:
why are you looking at their site for? is it for a project or what?

lol you wont have to look hard for sites that make primark look bad! take any site and compare it with primark's and primark will be worse..

/strictly speaking i shouldnt be saying that about primark,oh well

yeah i'm looking at their site for a project, i have to talk about the current web design, and them make recommendations for improvement for content and design.

Jake 2.0 · 18 Mar 2006 at 19:07

suki said:
yeah i'm looking at their site for a project, i have to talk about the current web design, and them make recommendations for improvement for content and design.

so will they actually listen OR its just recommendations you would make just for the sakes of your project?

suki · 19 Mar 2006 at 16:26

hey

just for the sakes of my project, i can make any sort of recommendations aslong as they are reasonable.