CHEM-465 CHEMISTRY SENIOR SEMINAR Web Site Evaluation Assignment

By the end of this semester, you in collaboration with a few other students in this class will construct a web site dealing with a chemical/biochemical problem having significant, current societal impact. Part of the preparation for that project is to become sensitive to what makes an effective web site. While color and animation may be attractive, ultimately a web site's quality is based on its usefulness to those who look at it.

Over the past years, students in CHEM-465 have created many web-sites.   Many of those web sites undoubtedly could be modified to be more effective. Certainly we hope you will learn from their web sites and produce even better sites this year. You and every other student in this year's class will be assigned to evaluate a different combination of three web sites from last year. Using the criteria below and weighting them as you like, evaluate the three sites you have been assigned, rank order the three sites (for example, D>C>A), and write a short informative summary in an e-mail message to your instructor before 14 September. This summary should describe the basis for your ranking that take into account the issues below.

Please note: To avoid being overly influenced by appearance, you will need to take a couple of hours to complete this assignment responsibly. You might want to take a look at one or more of the many sites that deal in detail with evaluation and rating of web sites.

Things to look for and think about in a web site:

Is the title informative?

Are the authors identified and are there e-mail addresses to contact the authors?

Are any illustrations appropriate and informative rather than being distractions?

Is the layout attractive, consistent, and easy to navigate?

Is there a concise introduction with a summary of the site's purpose?

Are there multiple links from the introductory page to the main sub-topics?

Is the text large enough to read easily and does it contrast with any background colors?

Are the linked sub-topics developed well?

Are the sub-topics linked in turn to other sites that provide reliable and relevant information?

Do the links work?

Perhaps most importantly, in your judgement, have you learned a little or a lot of useful information from the site?

Do you think the overall message of the site is biased or is based on opinion rather than evidence?