How to Critique a Website
It may seem harsh, but giving or getting a critique on a website is a valuable experience. A lot of time and effort goes into creating a web presence so finding ways to make improvements ensures that all the work does not go to waste. By evaluating some essential elements, you can help a website become successful or ensure the continued success of one that already is.
- Difficulty:
- Easy
Instructions
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1
Launch the website that you are critiquing and take note of how long it takes the page to load. Even if you have a slow connection, you should not have to wait more than a few seconds. If the load time takes longer, it means that the web designer should rethink any large media files or overloaded HTML code that could be slowing the page-load process.
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2
Assess whether the content on the page is easy on the eyes. For example, white text on a black background is an unfortunate, yet common, setup that some web designers use. This design causes the eyes to strain harder than necessary. The content must be readable in order to keep visitors from leaving the site.
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See if there are any broken links. Are the image files broken? If this is the case, you will see a question mark where a graphic should be. Does the linked text work? Click the links and determine whether you are being taken to a valid page or if you are seeing error messages.
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Evaluate whether the purpose of the website is clear. Can you accurately ascertain what the objective of the site is? For example, if the site is meant to inform you about an artist and his work, but yet there are entries describing all the computer experience they have, this can send mixed messages and confuse visitors.
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Determine whether the page has any strange formatting issues. For example, does the page have an obvious boundary, but you see text going past it? Some websites appear fine on some browsers and operating systems, but are totally different on others. These things are a pain for web designers to have to deal with; however, it is important to know about these issues to keep the pages accessible to as many visitors as possible.
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See if you can effortlessly get to the information that you are looking for. For example, if the website is selling a product, is it easy to determine how to purchase this item? Is it difficult to get to the page that you want because of the menu navigation in place? You should be able to locate the information you desire within a few clicks at the most.
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