Week 3 September 9 2010

The interface of a website is the way it looks when you first open it and scan the screen of what you are searching for of that particular website. Interface involves visual, navigational, and organizational elements in an online course. It also includes layout and formatting. These elements can encourage or deter the full use of a course and influence one's ability to create meaning (Delich, P. 2006). Another good definition of interface that I found from my ITEC 860 class is from the book we are using called Online Learning: Concepts, Strategies, and Application by Nada Dabbagh and Brenda Bannan-Ritland. According to these authors it says that interface is all the elements of a computer software program or application (website) that affects the user’s of the developer’s interaction with the screen design and layout, including menus, buttons, graphics, navigational components, and content (Dabbagh, Bannan-Ritland, 2005). This means that how the user sees the website and how much is going to be relevant to what they are coming there to get information on that particular website.

Good Interface

The elements that define “a good interface of a website” are: a good headings that is easily readable to all, good use of white space so they are not too crowded and the text is easier to read that way, use a simple font like Arial, which is a sans serif font (easily read), the use of black on white text works the best,(I have heard that blue on white works also pretty well), break apart content, use of images to break up content, use of section headers, check for grammatical errors, test links, consistent formatting and navigation (Delich, P. 2006).

Please Note: I am in no way a graphic designer/developer and that developing websites, webpages is very new to me, and I am a extreme beginner. I really do not know how to tell what is a well-designed website as oppose to a badly designed website. I am just going from what I read about in the articles about designing a website. Two websites I chose looked to be one good and one in my  opinion very poorly designed.

Critique of a Good Well Designed Website

Website: http://www.sfsu.edu/

The first website I chose was the university website (where I am currently attending as a graduate student) for students planning to go there and get a higher educational degree. This is the functionality of this website is for information. When you look at the first page of the San Francisco State University website, it has very nice layout. It has that university feel and it draws students in and welcomes you to SFSU. There is quite a lot of black actually to me it looks grey/black in the background which works with the color scheme. The navigation on top left hand corner is easy to find what you are looking for. The subheadings like news, welcome, and featured links make it easy to navigate. The text is big enough for you to see it and the golden yellow color of the text with the gray-black background is very good contrast I think. It is easy to read for prospective students to look for how to apply to this university. It also seems to me it is quite an interactive website. The website is also consistent with size and style of the font. The other navigation bars on the left are very easy to read and lined up very nicely. The white text, which is big enough to see, works well with the grayish black background. I think that the quick link drop down menu (on the right side) is easy to find very quickly, what you need do as a student to be admitted to this university.

Accessibility

In looking at the accessibility of this website, I think that it is very accessible to students who are visual impaired or blind. It also makes sure that the forms you submit are clear and concise to the university. It makes sure, when you submit it goes to the right place. I also think it follows the POUR model when it comes to accessibility, which is perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust. It is perceivable for disabled people in that it is available for the senses using assistive technology screen reader, screen enlargers etc. The website is operable in that they can interact with all the controls and buttons (mouse, keyboard, or assistive device) by clicking on them on the homepage. I am sure that they have captions for the hard of hearing but I cannot find it. It is also understandable in that the contents is clear and easy to follow and no confusion. Finally, it is robust in that it can probably use of new and older technology agents and assistive technology and will not have problem functionality wise and can access the content (Introduction to Web Accessibility, WebAIM, 2010). Overall, I think it is a very well designed and functioning website.

Critique of a Poorly Designed Website

Website: http://www.scu.edu/

The next website I chose was another university that I think the website is very poorly designed which is Santa Clara University (SCU). This is another university website for students planning to go there, be a student at this university, and get a higher educational degree. Again as in the pervious website, the functionality of this website is for information. The first problem with this webpage is that the red with white really is not I think a good color scheme. It makes it hard to read the words behind the dark red background. I think if they wanted to improve that, I would use white and black background with the Santa Clara University banner in white or vise versa. It is so hard to read even the banner. The next reason that it is so poorly designed is that the font is so small everywhere. The font needs to be much better and darker too. They need to make it bolder and larger would be my suggestion to improve the functionality of the website. Another improvement I see is that the navigation is again so small. I actually have to view the little menus in red at the bottom (about SCU, admission, on campus etc.) with my prescription glasses because the type is so small. Another improvement I see is making the navigation menus bigger on the top right of the page. The colors of the font need to be brighter they are so hard to read. The final improvement that I see I would really make to this website is that it needs to be more interactive with the menus and buttons.

Accessibility

In looking at the accessibility of the website, it is not very accessible at all to students that are disabled it seems like to me. The accessibility issue first that I see is that it is so small the font that they use that someone who is visually impaired like me it is very hard to see the words in the menus at the bottom. In addition, another accessibility problem is the menus in red at the bottom are so close together that someone impaired will click the wrong thing. This website does not follow POUR. It is not perceivable in that is going to be hard for the vision and possibly the hearing impaired when they have to use a screen reader or a screen enlarger. The operable in this site it has some interaction/interactivity but again it is very hard to see. Everything blends in with the buttons and menus and you cannot see what exactly you are clicking on. The content on some of the menus is not understandable and is very confusing. It seems the robust range of the technologies is not used much on this site for some reason. They also do not have captions for the deaf and hard of hearing (hoh) people who is very important or people that miss something on the website. The drops down menus are ok but they again, need to be much bigger text and font size. Overall, this website needs to be more accessible to all students and is very poorly designed.