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| Entry Page | Content Review | Technical Review |
| Back to Emily Morris - L571 website | LITEhouse L571 class page | Evaluation Criteria |
On this site, you will explore a school library website, High Point High School Library Media Center. I used an AOL/Internet Explorer browser combination to view and use the site. The evaluation took place on September 24, 2005. I found this site to be high quality, according to the web evaluation criteria I have learned in L571 - Information Architecture for the Web. On this entry page, I will give you an overall impression of the library website. In the menu bar, you will see supplemental reviews of the site, including content and technical evaluations. I hope you will enjoy reading my critique.
| On this page | ||||||
| Site's purpose | Site's organization and structure | Site usability | Maintenance | Website special features | Strengths and Weaknesses | Site design |
This website is designed to provide access to information resources to augment High Point High School's curriculum, help the students with big life decisions (like where to attend college or what career to choose), guide teachers toward valuable teaching resources and showcase student web-based products. It also encourages reading, information inquiry, and information literacy.
Back to topThe website is organized by tables, categories and headings. The site consists of two parallel vertical tables with information and links. Red horizontal rules/title bars are used to highlight the different categories. Bold print is used to highlight subheadings. The left table column uses bulleted lists to organize the great number of links. Occasionally images are also used to highlight different link options.
Back to topThis site is pretty user friendly. The user should be able to navigate by looking at the headings and subheadings to find where his desired resource is. I think, however, it would have been more user-friendly if the webmaster made the external links open into a new window so the user did not lose connection with the main library page. Although it is easy to click the "back" button, sometimes web browsers experience difficulty going back to a previous page.
Back to topI do not have information regarding frequency of site updates. I do know that the site has a copyright date of 2000. It also has a section on the entry page for "new links," giving the indication that the site is revised on occasion.
Back to topHere is a list of some special features I noticed on this site:
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High Point High School Library Media Center's website has many things to offer. Something I really like about this site is the amount of choices the user has to explore. There is not just one search engine, pathfinder, or information literacy activity. The webmaster took lots of time to create content for the users. I like how the site reaches more than just one audience. It is good for both students and faculty. I also like the use of tables to keep the content organized. There is a nice amount of space between the cells to keep things from looking crowded. The use of graphics does not distract from the content either. In fact, I think the bold logo graphic for the high school sets a professional touch to the site. I like the use of headings to help the user know where to look for the desired information.
As much as I like the site, there are also flaws. I do not like that the links are not annotated. The user will not be sure exactly what information the link will gives him until he explores it. I also would like to see more author information on the entry page, along with more up-to-date page creation information. I would want to know the author's credentials up front (instead of on secondary pages), along with a contact line so people could easily communicate with her when necessary. I think I would increase the font size for the general text and links because people with vision problems may have trouble looking at the small print. As far as color scheme goes, I think to create a better overall look, I would have chosen either yellow or blue for the heading category bars to go with the school logo.
Back to topI think the website design is one that mostly helps the user. The entry page uses colors and graphics effectively to highlight and not to distract. (I would have chosen yellow or blue Heading bars versus red to match the school logo, but that is very minor.) The background color, white, makes it easy to read the black text. However, I would make the text slightly larger to help the visually impaired user. The organization of the content and the amount of content reflects a studious purpose. The use of tables allows the amount of information to be organized effectively. I think the intended audience (high school students and faculty) will find this website suitable for their needs. It is not too childish in nature. I find that most high school students want to be treated like adults, and this website gives a feel of higher education.
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Web Author: Emily Morris, IUPUI School of Library Science graduate student Page creation date: September 24, 2005 Last revision: September 26,2005 XHTML validation site:W3C Markup Validation Service CSS validation site:W3C CSS Validator Web accessibilty site:Watchfire WebXACT |
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