Schedule
January
February
March
April
May

Proposed Criteria
for Personal Home Pages

http://www.d.umn.edu/~rdavis/ Example of criteria 1.

This is another one of my professors' homepages. This downloads quickly. The homepage itself is not impressive. It is more or less just a table of contents to the rest of the subsites. It is not eye catching but it loads up quickly and serves as a good base to maneuver from.

http://www.startrek.com/ Example of criteria 2. (How graphics add to the feel of the page.)

I put this site down because I'm a big fan of the show. It is also eye catching. The use of cool graphic really adds to the feel of the page. It is easy to get drawn into. Navigation is simple but the appearance is the selling point.

Number one is always a quick load time. No one at home wants to wait to flip the page of the book. A site I go to, but get frustrated with the time is http://www.dlrarmy.com

The front page should be a table of contents/index/tab system of sorts. Some simple menu system for getting around. The class website does have this, with the "tabs" of the portfolio on the left at all times. Another example, good and bad is http://www.mpr.org -- menus at the top are nice. However, there are days when the front page is exremely cluttered.

The other, supporting web pages should be somewhat short, like a page to two pages in a book. Graphics are ok, as long as they are not too big and are related to the page.

The exception to the supporting pages is the target. If you want to share art, pictures, funky topics, etc., then more style is ok, within reason. It may be wise to include a warning about long load times.

Finally, pop-ups and pop-unders. Yuck. I hate these. http://www.prowrestling.com -- is one example. Along with that, there are no warnings if a hyperlink is going to bring up a new window. That should also have a warning.

I try to think about the reader. Although there is color ink, newspapers still make their print in black. A little restraint from the newest thing or the over designing is the best policy.

1. Fast load time (it should be designed so that something useful
appears on the screen within 10 seconds on a minimum 56K modem
...sorry, 28.8K users, you just need to get with the times)
2. Ease of navigation
3. Photo images should be interlaced so the user has something to look at while waiting
4. No pop-ups/pop-unders! (Orbitz, I will NEVER do business with you...)
5. Updated regularly
6. Visual appeal, using principles of graphic design

example
Joellyn Rock was my 2D Digital Design instructor last spring here at UMD. Her website starts out sort of mysteriously, yet is not at all hard to navigate. Good choice of colors and use of 'rollovers'; interesting graphical composition.

http://www3.sympatico.ca/untangle/greek.html This site has no pictures at all. It is purely an information site where a description of all the greek gods can be found. It is set up in a table format and loads very fast. Unless you are searching for specific information this site can be boring.

I think a web site should be simple. This way it does load in a reasonable amount of time and it's not hard to understand what the site is about. I think that some sites overwhelm the visitor by providing numerous links throughout the text and along the borders. Colors should be 'friendly' -although that is different to each person. Too many background characteristics take away from the body of the page.

Fast loading
Viable content in first screenful
Clear,simple navigation
Viable content at the other end of every link
Good graphic design techniques applied, (i.e. contrast,repitition, alignment,proximity).
Does it serve it's highest purpose?

http://www.molehillgroup.com/annoying/

While exploring the web sites submitted by classmates I came across this little gem. An excellent piece of writing. hppt://lauraholder.com/about.html This is what you get when you click the "about us" link on her homepage. It speaks volumes of the woman without giving us a single piece of "data" about her (i.e. name,address,resume,etc). She demonstrates Heim's theory that people are drawn to the Internet out of a desire to extend themselves, The page opens too slowly because of photographs that could have been much smaller, but in this case it's worth the wait.

I felt the site as a whole had several "problems" listed below:
The banner design seems entirely arbitrary and unconnected. What does it's pattern have to do with anything?
The yellow "graph paper" background is hard on the eyes, and again, what is it's significance?
The front page has no content, it is simply a large graphic and 1 link. Does this waste the users time?
There are too many photographs used on the pages to allow loading in a reasonable amount of time. Front page for instance would benefit from having some content to read if we have to wait for the photo to load.
The writing in the "photo album" section lacks proximity, layout is very confusing to navigate.
All things considered I would rate the site fairly low on usability and design but loved the writing.

example

1) lack of animation (a good thing in my opinion)
2) pleasing color combinations used for text and graphics
3) a layout that allows for easy navigation
4) design consistency throughout the site
5) creative, sharp, fast down-loading photography

example

1) design structure consistent from page to page
2) information written clearly, concisely, and intended to attract a target audience (serious Nordic skiers)
3) featured information that changes periodically to attract the audience back to the site
4) contact information and geographical location prominently displayed. Often I will not trust a site that doesn't admit to existing in "the real, physical world"

This is a page that has a good mix of content and graphics-enough to make it interesting but not so much that it is overwhelming. Good interfact too-keeps everything compact. (I am biased though because I made it-you can all say it sucks if you want to)

This is a cool page but the opening page is wacked a huge graphic image that really has no bearing on the site as a whole, it's a shame because the rest of the site is pretty good.

UMD's engineering page, very to the point with lots of info and not much artistic input, gets the job of conveying information done.

This guy has an impressive resume in the computer realm but his homepage is HORRIBLE, look at all the annoying graphics and lack of direction for the interface design.

1. Don't lock browser into the web page http://www.home.dal.net/oliner Try to escape this site easily and you may find yourself booting and kicking.
2. Design with speed in mind
3. Go easy on the advertising
4. Give browsers an estimation of the download time
5. Give link to home page on all pages of web site
6. Give short annotations of related links
7. Avoid user registration
8. Try to keep all audiences in mind (culture)-unless your purposefully targeting a specific audience http://www.larrythecableguy.com I can think of several people this web page may offend-or maybe he has a specific audience in mind!?

No plug-ins needed to view content.
No large, slow to load graphics or pictures.
Easily manuverable pages
content updated regularly
www.slate.com

no dead links
Form following function
no pop up ads
www.imdb.com

example
is a site from a friend. on this page there is a picture that appears first. please don't be offended if it is still the picture of the woman. however, he is a graphics specialist and he has created this image. he was suppose to switch the picture for me, but I am not sure if he did yet. once you have reached this page, click the picture and it will take you to his home page. This page does not fit our computers. the computers he uses are different. there is also a lot of text and the colors are all quite similar. I thought this was a unique example, even though I don't think it is something we would produce.

example

Is a diverent site, that I find fits my criteria. It is fast, and easy to navigate. This is also a very active, and creative site.

http://webpages.marshall.edu/~carter22/
This person has nothing really to say or offer users. However, he's honest and doesn't try to pretend that he has something to say. As a result, the page is somewhat amusing and is very straight to the point.

http://webpages.marshall.edu/~clark79/
This page takes a huge amount of time to come up. I think a good page should come up as fast as possiable

- The page must download in a reasonable amount of time.
- It should have simple design, but not be laid in a way that makes it
unattractive to users.
- It should contain elements that people can connect with and that will
expand their living experience, while at the same time you are expressing
yourself.
- A site should be easy to navigate. People shouild know where they have
been and there are sufficient descriptions of where a link will take them.
- Sites should be built with software that almost everyone uses or has
access to.

this website downloads within seconds and it packs a lot of information in a simple, yet attractive design. You know exactly what the function is of the stuff on the page, whether it be searching the web, research links, or looking up words in the dictionary.I thought basically this site contained all of the things that makes a decent web page. The only downfall to it would be that it doesn't have personal information, but it does represent the business of journalism and is a great source for journalists.

It took awhile for everything to pop up on this website. It had a pretty good, simple design, but the fonts she used probably wouldn't come up on every person's computer.