"Evaluating Existing Web Sites and Applications: Consistency," by Eric Hughes

Eric Hughes’ article, "Evaluating Existing Web Sites and Applications: Consistency," is interesting to me since we’ve just designed our own rubric for evaluating web sites in our last group project. My group didn’t include consistency as a specific criteria in our rubric, and I wish that we had. The criteria that we used for reviewing 20 national news sites were usability, design, content, currency, and interactivity. (To view my group’s evaluation page, click here). On some level, I’m sure that consistency affected our grading; for instance, web sites with a consistent design are generally more aesthetically pleasing, opposed to those that use random colors and fonts on each page. However, I know that I didn’t probe each site in this area - especially for consistency in results, process, and versioning. In fact, I hadn’t even thought of these subcategories prior to this reading.

In all, Hughes lists 11 areas of consistency that one should use when looking at sites. I mentioned consistency in results, process, and versioning earlier, and the others are consistency in: form, language and content, function, coding, labeling, design, error messaging, and in the reason a piece of content exists. I think that each of these are valid categories, but relating to our last project, the category that might have been a little tricky for my group would have been consistency in language and content. Although the news sites that we reviewed definitely have their own tone, there’s a variety of news stories ranging in areas from Politics to Health to Technology. Also, there are a variety of journalists reporting in their unique style, and most news sites have a section dedicated to blogs.

One other point that I find interesting in this article is that people will tell their friends about a bad experience at a restaurant, but they are less likely to tell their friends about a bad experience with a web site because they may not be able to articulate what it is that makes it bad. Therefore, it’s important to pay special attention to consistency on your site, since you may not hear negative feedback from your audience.

Personal Technology Toolkit

In terms of my technology toolkit, I have the most tools in my arsenal in the print and Web media, and multimedia is in a distant third place. (Although I’m hoping to close the gap soon!) Below is a breakdown of the tools by medium that I have used in the past, am currently learning, and hope to learn in the future.

Print

Past: I have used Photoshop to edit images that I have then placed into InDesign and Illustrator files. Last quarter, I took the class Principles of Graphic Design and learned so much about all three of these programs, as well as, the basic design principles, typography, and print output.

Present: I’m currently working on my biggest work assignment of the year, which involves laying out the print version of the university catalogs. I learned so many tricks in last quarter’s class, that this assignment is easier than it has been in past years, and I think that it will be the most aesthetically-pleasing catalog yet.

Future: Although I know the basics of Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator, I’d like to sharpen these skills and become more proficient in each.

Web

Past: A large part of my job involves the management of the university’s Web site via the content management system, Ingeniux. I have experience with setting up workflows, training other employees, and I have also used Photoshop to edit images and banners for the site.

Present: I’m learning HTML/CSS, and I’m also becoming more familiar with all of the different browsers.

Future: I want to gain a basic understanding of SEO and Web analytics.

Multimedia

Past: I do have some video editing experience, but it’s been awhile since I’ve dabbled it. In undergrad. I took a video editing class, where I learned Final Cut Pro, and in the Proseminar class, we had an in-class video editing assignment, where I used Windows Movie Maker.

Present: I’m currently not doing much in terms of multimedia. These types of projects (departmental videos, virtual tours, etc.) are either handled by the Department of Media Resources or by an outside group.

Future: I would like to revisit Final Cut Pro, and I want to learn Flash. There have been a few projects that my office has been interested in doing involving Flash, but none of us know even the basics of this program, and that has been somewhat frustrating.

Personal Web Footprint

Part of my Web footprint, or trail of online information, consists of personal details that I voluntarily provide on popular social networking sites, such as, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. I have these accounts for a number of reasons (below), even though I know that this information is searchable by anyone and that what I share is connected to me forever. For this reason I’m very careful about what I publicize, I use the privacy settings, and I don’t post anything controversial. I also don’t post my contact information because I don’t want it to fall into the wrong hands.

• Facebook: Four years ago, I moved to the Chicago area from Ohio, and Facebook is a great way to stay connected with friends and family. We can view and comment on each others pictures and posts online at our leisure. Everyone is busy, and Facebook allows us to share information with all of our friends on our own time.
  
  In my profile, I post some photos and general information: interests, favorite movies/books, and hometown to name a few. I don’t post contact information or religious/political views because I don’t want all of my friends (like co-workers) to see this. Also, I know that these preferences may change over time, and I might not want my views today to be connected with me in 20 years.

• Twitter: The thing that I like about Twitter is that I can “follow” interesting people, like celebrities, artists, and journalists. However, I don’t like posting tweets because I’m a private person and can’t think of anything interesting to tweet most of the time. My account hasn’t gotten a lot of action lately - that’s something I’ll have to work on.

• LinkedIn: I have a LinkedIn account for networking purposes. This profile contains most of my employment and education history, connections, and a link to my Twitter account. I don’t post a picture or contact information.

In the Proseminar class that I took last Fall, our class read a PEW Internet Report called Digital Footprints, and we did a similar assignment. One of the things that I learned from this assignment was that it's important to periodically enter your name into a search engine to see if your profile information pops up - as this is what a potential employer would see. My name unfortunately is very common, and I don't show up at all in the results....I think that I just found my question for this week. How can I get my profile information to show up on the first page of Google search results?