Prince George's Community College

Engineering Technology Department

Evaluation of Website Design:

The initial visual impact of the page is simple and unimpressive
At first look, the photograph in the top corner is distracting and it takes a minute to scroll your eyes down to where it says Department of Engineering Technology
There is small gray font and a lot of information in one area that is not broken up or organized
There are some ALL CAPS areas and copyright information at the bottom

Usability and Accessibility Features:

Noticeable tabs and clickable options to take you to other areas of the website
Left bar helps reader stay organized as to what you are looking at
Links are kept to 1-3 words, but are in a peach color that is not easily recognizable as a link
No clickable images, only one large distracting one at the top of the page
Used bullets in the beginning to attempt to organize different aspects of the major
Copyright information listed at the bottom

Hartnell College

Math and Science Department

Evaluation of Website Design:

The initial impression of this webpage is a very scattered. There is a lack of organization
The only image on the page is a tiny image of their school mascot, a black panther
The purpose of the page is slightly unclear, the reader has to search for a Math title

Usability and Accessibility Features:

Clear light blue organization bar on the left side with red links around the website
Larger black font on white background and blue links in main information area
No images or breakup of text
Excellent break-up of majors and bolded titles within organized content
Copyright information listed at the bottom

Northwestern University

Henry and Leigh Bienen School of Music

Evaluation of Website Design:

Main eye-catcher is a large, uninteresting picture of a wall that is unclickable
Most of the information and small text is on a colored background, like purple
Unrecognizeable links because they are not blue, they are red

Usability and Accessibility Features:

Website is not very informative because there are mostly just links
Most hyperlinks are more than 3 words, like 6
Image is too large and consumes most of the usable space on the page
Hyperlink and regular text font are too similar in color, which can be confusing
Copyright information listed at the bottom

My Triage
The Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University has a simple and pretty, yet overall uninformative webpage. The webpage does make a strong visual impact at first impression with its overbearing image and small text. They could make the image smaller and the font larger so there is more focus on the information. The main image would also make more of an impression if it had something to do with music instead of just a random building. Also, the information boxes are scattered and need to have more organization and consistency throughout their shape and color scheme.
This site is not very readable and it is difficult to focus or find a specific piece of information. All of the links should be one, noticeable color like blue and be 1-3 clickable words.

Last updated 9/24/2009