What Makes a Website Good?

This is the post for the Wednesday, September 9, 2015 class meeting.

Willy Wonka meme, with caption 'I love how your website is impossible to read on my smartphone.'Today we’ll begin work on Project 2, which means we’ll be talking about effective websites. I’m still grading your first projects.

Discussing What Makes a Website Good

To get started, let’s brainstorm about what makes a website “good” using Padlet:

Based on the information from the lynda.com videos you watched for homework and your own experience, post one or two things about how websites work.

After everyone posts on Padlet, we’ll establish some guidelines for the web portals that you will make, and apply the criteria to some example websites (found via WebsitesThatSuck.com):

Homework

  • Find three portfolio-style sites that you like and want to emulate. Find sites where they show their work and/or their qualifications in their field. Some examples:
    • If you are a creative writer, look for the websites of some writers you admire. Be sure you admire the website. Admiring the writer is optional.
    • If you are a journalist, look for the homepage of some journalists.
    • If you are a teacher, look for the websites of some teachers.
  • One rule: Don’t choose any site of mine. I want to avoid any awkward strangeness.
  • Be ready to post your links and say what you want to emulate on Friday.