For participants of Stanford's '08 Publishing on the Web Workshop
Advance Assignment
Below is a copy of the advance assignment we recently sent by e-mail. If you did not receive or cannot find that message, please read this over so that you will be prepared for the site critiques. If you do not know who is in your critique group, please check with conference staff.
TO: Stanford Web Publishing Workshop Registrants
FROM: Susan West and Michael Gold, Academic Directors
RE: Advance assignment for 2008 Web site critique sessions
One of the most revealing activities of this course is the critique session, during which participants “test drive” and assess each other’s Web sites. We will explain the full routine for these critiques during the conference. Meanwhile, in preparation for the critique session, please find some time before the course to complete the assignments below and on the next page.
Prepare Tasks for Your Testers
TO: Stanford Web Publishing Workshop Registrants
FROM: Susan West and Michael Gold, Academic Directors
RE: Advance assignment for 2008 Web site critique sessions
One of the most revealing activities of this course is the critique session, during which participants “test drive” and assess each other’s Web sites. We will explain the full routine for these critiques during the conference. Meanwhile, in preparation for the critique session, please find some time before the course to complete the assignments below and on the next page.
Prepare Tasks for Your Testers
- Identify four tasks that typical visitors to your Web site would try to perform. These should be tasks that are important both to your audience and to your site’s business model or mission. If there are particular aspects of your site that you want tested (perhaps because you suspect they may be trouble spots that need improvement), be sure to choose some tasks that target them.
- Write down each task on a separate sheet of paper. (Bring three copies of each task to your critique session.) Unless your site covers an esoteric subject or is aimed at a highly specialized audience, you should be able to state the task in a single sentence. Keep the language neutral. Don’t give step-by-step instructions, don’t provide hints, and don’t explicitly direct your tester to the relevant area or function on the site.
Here are some samples that you can use as guides in writing up your own tasks:
Preview Your Team Members' Sites
This exercise will get you primed for the more deliberate reviews you’ll be conducting during the critique session.
- TASK #1: To help you plan a weekend trip to Amador County, California, research wineries you might visit, places to stay, and kid-friendly activities. (Don’t write, “Click on ‘Weekenders,’ under ‘Place’ select ‘Gold Country & Sierras,’ and under ‘Interest’ choose ‘Food & Wine.’”)
- TASK #2: Order a book about penguins as a birthday present for your eight-year-old niece and have it gift-wrapped and sent to her. (Don’t write, “Go to the ‘Book-finder,’ click on ‘Topics,’ select ‘Animals’…”)
- TASK #3: Sign up for the annual conference and print out a copy of the program. (Don’t write, “Register for ‘Las Vegas 2008 Meeting’ and click on ‘Sneak Preview of This Year’s Line-up.’”)
- TASK #4: Find an article summarizing the presidential candidates’ plans to fix the health care system, add your own brief comment, and save the article for future reference. (Don’t write, “Search for the article titled ‘Reforming Health Care: McCain vs. Obama,” click on ‘Make a comment’ at the end of the article and type your thoughts in the red box, then click ‘Bookmark.’”)
Preview Your Team Members' Sites
- Visit the Web sites of the other members of your critique team.
- Use the checklist below to help you evaluate the effectiveness and usability of the sites. You may want to make a separate copy of the checklist for each site and jot down your observations as you explore. (At the critique session, you will use a scorecard that is more detailed than this checklist but covers many of the same issues.)
- For each site, consider all points on the list and make note of a few suggestions for improvement as well as a few of the site’s strong points.
How to Judge a Web Site: a Checklist
- Is the site’s identity (and, if relevant, that of its parent company or organization) clearly defined on every page?
- On every page, is it clear what user’s can do on the site? (Consider the tag line, navigational labels, and samples of content.)
- Can a user easily perform the one or two tasks most important to him or her?
- Is most of the important stuff—critical content, search results, key navigation, etc.—visible on the first screen of each page? Or does the user have to scroll down?
- Is the content presented in a user-friendly manner, avoiding information overload and making it easy for users to quickly scan?
- Is the navigation sensible and intuitive (conventional look and feel, consistent scheme throughout the site, clear orientation on every page, links recognizable as “clickable,” links clearly labeled)?
- Is the site organized and labeled to match the user’s way of thinking and talking—or does it seem to be based on the company’s structure and internal lingo?
- Does the search function provide useful, satisfying results?
- Does the site offer enough help and guidance? Does it explain how users can get the most out of what’s there, guide them through processes, keep them informed of progress, and help them recover from errors?
- Does the site make good use of the Web’s special capabilities (databases, interactivity, quick updating, linking, user-generated content, social media…) or is it primarily static print material dumped into Web pages?
Last updated by Michael Gold Nov. 13, 2008.
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