Website Feedback Report The following report is a brief summary of a few of my classmates’ feedback on the 2 websites that I created, the official website and the experimental website. The former conforms to the norms of any generally accepted website design, while the latter defies the principles upon which the former is based. The chart below highlights the main characteristics of the 2 websites. Official website Has several pages Has subpages Has a navigation bar Has one teaching material per page Uses embedding Created on Google Sites
Experimental website Has one page Has no subpages Has no navigation bar All teaching materials on same page Uses embedding Created with Dreamweaver 8
At first, everybody seemed to like the official website. This was to be expected because they were all familiar and comfortable with the way I designed it – very similarly to a typical website with menus and submenus and pages. However, some grew to like my experimental website although they initially felt a bit uneasy with the layout. They found it awkward to have all the materials on the same page, but then appreciated the embedding technique which made it all the easier to navigate through the different materials without losing sight of the homepage (the only page for that matter). They had never been exposed to such a layout, and thus needed some time to take to it. As far as the content goes, some were surprised to see so much going into writing a biography. I received very helpful advice on the addition of interactive material, as both websites had been mainly informative: the material presented was explanatory without any room for interaction. As a result, I added a mini quiz to check students’ understanding of biography writing and some essay topics for students to practice writing different types of biographies. The idea of creating 2 websites arose from the discussions in the forum about good and bad designs. I don’t particularly like menus and submenus (and even worse, more submenus) as I like to see everything in front of me. During the discussions, some of my classmates felt appalled at the idea of presenting materials in this way, and my experimental website is just about that: trying to prove that the idea is feasible thanks to the embedding technique. While it’s still unpopular with some, others are beginning to like the idea of being able to access all the materials on one page.