I’ve seen a lot of website reviews from students, and professionals. A lot of people will only look at how a website looks. (Is it pretty?) They forget to consider how easy a site is to use, how long it takes to load, etc.
So I created a video that looks at what it takes to make a website review. You can find the video embedded below.
I am often asked to do website reviews for people. I often charge for these when people come to me, and you can too, if you learn how to do them well. When I do a web site review, I personally look for the following things as a minimum:
- Design – what does the website look like. Is it visually appealing. This doesn’t mean it will be popular or effective, just a perspective of the site’s overall design. Consider that styles change over time, and what might have once been a modern design, may not look dated.
- Load Time – people want their website to load quickly, how can you do that.
- Responsiveness – beyond the initial load, can you interact with the website in a quick and timely manner.
- How well will it work in a mobile environment
- Does the site use Flash
- Is there a mobile version
- Is the design responsive (i.e. modify the layout based upon screen resolution)
- Navigation – how easy is it to find the things you are looking for. Is everything you are looking for there.
- Ease of use (if applicable)
- E-Commerce
- Can they search for products
- How easy is it to check out
- Can users Browse
- Are they suggested meaningful add-ons
- Online Application
- Can they sign up easy
- Searching?
- What is it the user is supposed to do? – Can they figure it out.
- E-Commerce
- Ease to Contact company – phone/email/web form/physical address – these things can all matter to an end user. Different types of visitors what different things, so you need to consider that.
- Overall Usability
Now my website reviews tend to be fairly extensive. For your assignments if you were to write them out, it would be under a page.
Generally I write 6 to 10 pages single spaced, and I’ve had a few go longer. It often depends upon the site, and what you can help the person with. As I have experience in different areas that you, I can do more, which is part of the reason why mine are longer.
I also make sure to include screenshots of problem areas so they can see what I am talking about, and know that it is an actual problem. Many site owners only check their website on their favorite browser, so they don’t see problems that other browsers and screen dimensions can create.
Fret not. I don’t expect your reviews to be as long. But I do hope to see some thought put into them. And screenshots are not a bad thing…
How to Perform a Simple Website Review was originally found on Access 2 Learn
