Principles and Practice of Web Design – Home Page Evaluation

08. 04. 2013 INT1022 Principles and Practice of Web Design THE rating OF WWW. EXPERILAND. COM/ URL http//www. experiland. com/ Introduction The netsite experiland. com is published by and class of the JB Concepts design & media groundwork and was founded in 2010. The urge to create the site developed because the JB Concepts design & media grouping felt that there was a need for a training website for students, teachers and concerned newfangled people which helps them understand cognizance and encourages them to experience science by means of own, by the website guided, holds and experiments.Furthermore the website gives the opportunity to increase the knowledge provided online by dint of the availability of e-books. The creators discipline themselves responsible for educating and improving the learning experience for students while providing the necessary schooling concerning safety and emphasizing the sense of responsibility by the young scientists. The science nomin ates ar divided into disparate target groups ranging from the prototypical to the eighth grade. verbal description & Evaluation The home-page of the website is divided into four primary(prenominal) fortunes. It as well introduces the texture of the website and reflects the commonplace design for all(prenominal) sub-page.The texture is divided into two dismantles which are differentiated through different alter. The thinkeringing part is metallic atomic number 10 green and gives an association to the topic science as it is usually considered record establish while green reflects this reputation aspect. The other texture is a rough to smooth going dark grey metallic typeface which reflects the human involvement in the topic science. It makes sense that green is the head as it is the ground for the researches and the metallic artificial looking part is the subject field part of the website because it reflects what human found out so far.Thus it is a extensive ch oice of general design for the website. Furthermore the subtitles in the content part have a special pattern which gives the exploiter the impression to claver through a microscope on the subtitles. It thereof happens the topic science systematically everyplace the complete page and uses patterns rough-and-readyly to suggest the theme. Furthermore the head of the website provides a character and the logo design of the website which includes the other rubrics that result be use on the website. The glossarys are identification colors for the basketball team different main themes of science the website provides.These topics are chemistry in blue, which resembles liquid, earth science and astronomy in violet, which is commonly associated with science of the universe, electrical energy and magnetism in yellow, which resembles the light of a light bulb, life science as biology in green, as green is commonly associated with the genius and finally physics in red, which differs s trongly from the other colors It therefrom slowly introduces the user into the color way of the website and helps the user to rediscover the already known colors later in the content parts.The great and true mix of colors also entices the user to spend more metre on the website and thus provides the positive effect that a wisely elect color way should have (Shenkman & Jonsson, 2000 Nielsen, 2002 Tractinsky et al, 2004 Tractinsky et al, 2006 Valdez & Mehrabian, 1994). The website uses the typeface -Trebuchet MS,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif- consistently on every page and just differs in the color for titles and subtitles, content and link up. The Titles and subtitles are in bold, white and in the size of 1. 8em to be soft identifiable as titles. The content is regular, black and in the size of 1. em while the links have the same structure they are in light green. The website uses the em size of caseful because it is easily scalable and mobile-device friendly. The font choice of th e website is good and logical. The titles and subtitles have a slightly bigger size without being withal place containing, while the content is held simple and easily readable. Titles in the political campaign text are emphasized by using bold font and 1. 6em as the size. However the choice of the color for links is not satisfactory even though they are easy to differ from the rest of the text, they are sometimes hard to see because of the green color way and theme design.It seems more fitting to the design than the commonly used blue only if however is harder to distinguish from the text. The texting of the website is held easily understandable for students of any age. Moreover the website provides an online burnish that house be used to understand specific scientific terms. It thus delivers exactly what is take to the target group of young students. The pictures used on the website are generally held simple but are however efficacious and easily recognizable and understand able. The simple use of the pictures lets the website work fast and without ache loading periods.It is thus easy to browse through and find a topic of sake. The first part is the head of the website which provides the user with links to the five main parts of the websites which are the Home-page, the Books-page where the user can purchase e-books, an to the highest degree us-page on which the company provides further information for the drive to create the website, the near important page Projects and the possibility to get in contact with the creators for questions and inquiries. to boot the website provides the possibility to search for topics on the website by implementing a Google-Search-Tool in the head.More over frequent users of the website can sign in with their account and a obtain cart tool is implemented. The Head of the page thus serves exactly what is needed from a head. It gives the user the opportunity to easily navigate in surrounded by the main pages of the web site and search for specific topics more easily. It effectively uses the space to conjure the logo and introduces the user to the website. The only negative thing about the head is the choice of colors for the not chosen main pages, as they are depicted in a slightly lighter green than the backdrop which can make them hard to read.Other than that all information are all the way readable and identifiable. The second part is the sidebar. The sidebar provides a lot of information and options for the user. once understood it can be used to easily navigate through the website. The sidebar stays right to the content part through project and website based contents and only disappears in the books part of the website. It consists of different parts which differ from each other by the use of color and small graphics. to boot the first part differs itself further by not being in the same design.This makes sense because this part is about the charitable function of the website, which donat es 5% of their profit to charity and wants the user to vote for which charity it should be. The next part depicts the shopping cart of the users since it is possible to purchase e-books on the website. It thus helps to keep an overview if books are being purchased. The next five parts are designed to help the user understand the website and to browse through the website and find adapted information.It thus provides browsing by school grade, by occupation and purpose, and the nature of interest of the user. These bars are thus implemented to introduce first time users and help them navigate through the system. Its very effective because the first time users dont have to look for the elaborate content speedyly but can be guided by the navigation the website provides. Additionally the small graphics help the users, and especially young users, to identify the use of the bar quickly and recognize them later again.Experienced users can make use of the sidebar as well, as it allows them to find their current project or their topic of interest effectively because it implemented the same color scheme and graphics design for the main topics of science as used on the content pages of those topics. That means that the colors are recurring and coherently used through the website and paint a complete picture. The sidebar allows the user a horizontal navigation through the different topics. Only specific projects must(prenominal) be found by navigating to the field of interest and finding the project from there. The third part is the content part of the website.It is separated in different colons which provide further information about before mentioned topics and themes. In the main page the content part basically gives more information to the points that are mentioned and depicted in the other parts. It allows the user to click on the topics and put on an even more detailed description of the topics. The content part eer changes and contains the source of information a nd the reason for the users to use the website. It helps the user to find topics of interest and gives to every detailed subtopic a quantity of available projects in that topic.After decision making for a topic the user will be led to a different content page which is designed in the topics lead color and contains the different available projects. The different projects are then differentiated in different categories depending on the advised grade of the student, the difficulty, the time consumption and whether or not adult supervision is advised. The side then provides further information about the topic and explains how the project works. It is very effectively design because it shows in brief what materials are needed and then shows graphics and explanations on how to perform the project.It makes it easily understandable for students. It also draws a conclusion why the project works and gives the possibility to receive further information about the topic by purchasing an e-boo k. It is an effective way to present and explain the project, however the website is pressuring the user into buying the e-books because they only provide further information with these e-books. The last part of the website is the bottom part. It summarizes the main parts of the website in general main topics and provides a legitimacy check by showing awards the website won. Moreover it provides a supererogatory sample of one of the e-books.It is held in the same rough metallic grey design that is used as the texture of the site. Moreover this part also never changes and is provided on every content page. Bibliography Nielsen, J. , Tahir,M. 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