Green Allegheny Assignment Two
Good Sites Bad Sites
Submit an example of what you think is a GOOD website, and one example of what you think is a BAD website. Include a sentence or two on what you think the problems or virtues of your choices are. Our next class will include a tour, or at least quick visits, of the sites. There is little agreement about right or wrong, or what defines quality on the web, but we can generate a lot of discussion and begin making decisions for ourselves.
Sites due by email 5 pm Sunday February 4. We will look at these sites as well as those from Assignment One in class on Monday, February 5.
Search Engine Hits
With today's search engines, it's pretty easy to land on a random page that's deeply embedded in a website. What navigational and identifying information should appear on every page? How might we assess these four sites that came up when the keywords College Landscape were searched?
Other Good Sites That Came Up on Search Engines
Bad
These were submitted as sites with problems. We'll take a tour. Be prepared to act as guide for the sites you submitted.
- Aimee Nash found Matt's Tapes to be bad. http://www.homestead.com/mworrall/tapes.html.
- She says " I think it's bad because all the words are overlapping and links don't work, it's also hard to read."
- David Rodriguez submits http://www.at149st.com/index.html as a bad site.
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Both of my sites are about graffiti art and they showcase some of the works of these underground artists. The annoying fade-in/fade-out stuff makes navigation annoying.
- Helen McCullough submitted http://www.grrlyshow.com/
- It's not so good because 1. Splash screen; 2. It's in frames; 3. After you press the "Enter", how long do you sit there waiting for those white boxes to fill in? Then, how long until you realize that they're NOT going to fill in?; 4. small white text on bright pink background is hard to read
- Also from Helen McCullough http://www.webfeat.com/index2.htm
- Comments: 1. Another splash screen. This one took almost 5 minutes to load in my office, how long would it take with a modem connection 2. What exactly does this company sell?
- Amelia Carr submits http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/defaulttext.asp
- Entry One in Why I Hate Frames is one example from Web Pages That Suck. Fabulous content, but once you find it, if you find it, how do you bookmark it? This site would look very different in different browsers, and might crash some of them.
- Amelia Carr also gives us http://www.franksworld.com/scrape/issue03/anti.html
- Example number two of Why I Hate Frames. This page came up in a search engine was submitted to me in a class assignment as a website.
- How about Women and Water
- Amelia Carr says she feels guilty criticizing a site whose cause she supports, but this site screams amateur, or perhaps just old-fashioned, using big design background, clunky buttons, thickly bordered tables. Noticeable beginner design and coding errors. There's a virtue in looking homemade, but it leaves a definite impression.
Good
- Noralen Curl submitted several sites: http://www.cloudband.com/
- "This site has a subject I am interested in, and I am happy I came about it since one would never know it contains info about antique textiles throug its name "cloudband". Anyhow, it does have some navigation problems, but I am guessing it is a relatively new site. I am communicating with someone at that site regarding getting some discussion boards up."
- Another site from Noralen is http://www.gotheborg.com/
- It's a professional one man show - that's what it seems to me - and if anyone is interested in learning about their piece of asian porcelain - he is who to go to. I think he has become a bit inundated because people have caught on, but its simple and looks good.
- And Noralen's last site is http://www.marthastewart.com/
- She can afford to pay the best - so she has to have a fabulous and concise website. MY GOD - someone updates it daily with every teensy bit of info that was on her show that day. The graphics are nice and they are sharp.
- Aimee Nash found the Springfield Shopper site to be good. http://www.thespringfieldshopper.com/home.html.
- She comments that it is a fun site, that is easy to get around. Everything is well labled and easy to find.
- David Rodriguez' good site is http://www.x2project.com/index1.htm
- In this graffiti art site, everything is indexed… useful links… simple design.
- Helen McCullough suggests http://www.vdb.org/
- She says that this Video Data Bank site is pretty good. "I'm willing to forgive the fact that they use frames and have a black background because: 1. I like the first screen; 2. site is easy to navigate; 3. has lots of good information; 4. quick load times."
- Amelia Carr likes http://www.organic.com/.
- I visit this site when I want to see what the pros are doing. Allegheny alum Jonathan Nelson is Chairman of the Board of this dot.com. An example of beautiful graphic design, good navigation, and very cutting edge scripting. Two pages to visit: info on internships, and their client list, with links to a wide range of interesting websites they've created.
Dare we?
- http://www.allegheny.edu
- artSite, comments welcome because we're scheduling this for an expansion.
Resources
- Good Sites Bad Sites.
- FYI, here is the page that was submitted by my class back in 1997. I've added some commentary that might be useful. What happens to old web pages?
- How to Recognize Good and Bad Design
- An online version of chapter 8 from our text Non-Designer's Web Book, Chap. 8.
- Web Pages That Suck
- Learn Good Design by Looking at Bad Design, an idea that caught on. This site has an online series of examples, but is geared to your purchase of the book that came out in 1996. A hard copy w/ CD-rom examples will be put into the computer lab for your reference.
- Webmonkey Design: Site Building
- Websites that instruct you how to program webpages often include tips on good design. Here's a good developer's resource.
- Web Page Authoring for Anyone (1997).
- A government site with tips on webdesign, using bad pages as examples.
- Top Ten Mistakes in Web Design.
- A list compiled in 1996, but still useful.
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