Website evaluation assignment evaluating the website of Queensland art gallery
Question
Task: Through the website evaluation assignment you are required to provide a critical evaluation of the nominated website and to support your observations and recommendation.
Answer
INTRODUCTION to the website evaluation assignment
In today’s world, the internet has grown rapidly. Websites has been used by many people in a constant manner. So there is a requirement of building the website with usability principles. There should be a development of the website to preserve the heritage of the work in a digital manner. Museum as per the website evaluation assignmenthas established its presence through website development. Now almost every museum has its official website. The museum containsmore information about its collection makingitavailable to the user. The information should be accessible and usable by the public. The digitalization of museums reflects the development of the transition between websites and digital libraries to digital collections. It contains information that is available inpaper format. According to the website evaluation assignmentfindings, a number of users such as pre-schoolers art historians, and art researchers will visit the art website. Thus the website can faces the desires and the expectation for the culture and the knowledge of the various people such as ages, education level, profession, etc. all these requirements should be satisfied (Issa & Turk, 2012).
The purpose of this website evaluation assignmentis to provide a critical evaluation of the selected website:https://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/ and to provide the observations and recommendations accordingly.
DISCUSSION
NOMINATED WEBSITE IN THE WEBSITE EVALUATION ASSIGNMENT
The selected website for the website evaluation assignmentis https://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/ .Queensland art gallery is an art museum that is situated in Queensland, Australia. This art gallery is a part of QAGOMA. It is owned by the Australian government.
Figure 1. home page
Queensland Art galleryas per thewebsite evaluation assignmentis the best art museum which holds 16000 collection that includes different varieties of art such as painting, sculpture, decorative arts, installation multiplearts, and a collection of fine art photography around the world. It was founded in the year 1895 with its arts venue the Galleryof Modern Art (GOMA). More than 1.2 million visitors are available annually. The website in the website evaluation assignmentis designed by a professional website designer which shows that the art gallery has made an effort in website creation. Similar to QAG, other important art museums in Australia are the art gallery of western Australia (AGWA), the art gallery of New south wales, National Gallery of Australia. In the Queensland art gallery, the permanentcollections are modern arts such as early indigenous Australian art, Queensland heritage art, Australian art to 1975, Asian art, pacific art, and international art.
FEATURES IDENTIFICATION AND ELABORATION
Most business websites lack usability features as per the website evaluation assignment. It is critical to achievethe success of a website without any overlooking. Good usability will improve the website’s performance and increase its success. The best website should include the best experience for the visitors. Good website design will provide the information quicker and easier (Matera, et al., 2006). The following features are identified in the website evaluation assignment
Figure 2. submenus in menu
System Compatibility
According to the website evaluation assignment, all the users do not use the same version of the website. Different versions such as windows, apple, and Linuxversions are used so the website should be in such a way that it should be compatible with all the desktop versions. When viewing the website with the different versions of the website, it looks the same. When looking for the website it loads faster and views in the perfect ratio (Alrizq, et al., 2021).
Mobile compatibility
It is found in this website evaluation assignmentthat nowadays most users are using mobilephones for accessing the internet. It is necessary to create amobile-optimize website. While seeing this website on mobile. it is a very optimized one. All the information can be viewed in a specific manner. All the links are viewed in order if any information has to know it can be viewed easily.
User accessibility
This website in thewebsite evaluation assignmentis accessible to all users. A simple web design technique is used to make sure the presence of screen readers makesthe website for all the users.
Formatted content
The internet users focus on the web page content instead of the reading entire contentfrom top to bottom. Users will scan important parts to determine their requirements. It is important to format the content. Using heading, subheadings, bullets, and paragraphs for breaking the textsinto perfect place will make the visitors scan the content on the website. There should be separation which will make the usage of the content quickly as per the website evaluation assignment. Onqagoma website, the different collections of art arecategorized and they are a group to know more information. Different headings are used on the website to display the art collection.
Fast loading time
When the load time is more then it will be annoying for the website visitors as per the findings of the website evaluation assignment. When the website load timeis slow then many users will leave the website. On this website, the load time is faster where the information is loaded faster so that the users will be engaged in the website. When there are more images on the website then it will take more time to load. Some websites will load the content first then theimages but this website loads the content faster with both images and the content.
Consistency of the browser
The consistency of the browser will be overlooked easily as per thewebsite evaluation assignment. Most modern websites suffer fromthese features but this website.it is important to ensure the appearance and behavior of the browser such as google chrome, opera, safari, firefox, etc.
Navigation
It is an important aspect of website usability. When it is good then it will make the user find a better design. It is important to navigate the clutter-free. There should be a limited number of the menu so that the navigation will be good. But this website considered in thewebsite evaluation assignmentconsists of menus such as what’s on, visit, learn, join and support and shop. When clicking on the menu it will list some set of relevant options and it will show the related content. It will be redirected to the new page by clicking the shop menu.
POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF WEBSITE
The main problem with the website considered in the website evaluation assignmentis based on the website design and the development of theart gallery. Web developments are accepted with limited time, knowledge, and money so the art gallery website lacksitsfeatures. It is known that website development with more information requires more time and time. Most art gallery does have a sufficient amount of funds or time to complete this kind ofproject. The large art gallery will have more funds to employ professionals designed in an efficient way. But smaller art gallery has some difficulties in maintaining the official websiteby a professional designer.
Another issue found in the website evaluation assignmentis that there is a lack of understanding of technology among the public. This is more evidence that in developedcountries the categories of people will be the visitors such as elder people, teachers, and young people without having real access to the internet. With a better understanding of motivation and reference, the professionals in the art gallery will provide an effective and better experience for the visitors. The design should be better while considering different visitors to the website. The evaluation of the website in the website evaluation assignmentis based on the principles of human-computer interaction.
The main principle that are focused on the evaluation of the website in the website evaluation assignmentis usability and they are as follows (Qasrawi, et al., 2021):
• User involvement in the website design
• Avoiding frustration while using the website
• Making a user-friendly website
• Winning the trust of the website visitor
Based on the principles of the HCI the positive and negative aspects of the website are considered.
User involvement in the website
When the users are searching for information related to the art gallery, they may of different age groups from preschoolers to researchers. Based on their interest may vary. Preschoolerwill not be much involved when there is more informationon the website considered in this website evaluation assignment. They will not know where to find the information accurately. They will find a way for the website which will clearly show the information in a prescribed way. Likewisea person with good technical knowledge will find this website more useful since it contains more information about the art gallery with many sub-topics (Gurcan, et al., 2021).
Making user-friendlywebsite evaluation assignment
Website visitors are searching for information that is not known to them so it should be user-friendly where there should not be any complex menus to access the information. For example, on this art gallery website, there are five menus. in each menu there are separate menus that give more information. In the case of a person with technical knowledge, they will have a user-friendly application as per thewebsite evaluation assignment. All the menus should be highlighted with the required information. In learn menu there are submenus that categorize the menus for kids, researchers, collection, education, and learning. Based on the user requirement they can select the menu. For kids, there is information described in the video. For research users, the content is based on the research level. Likewise, the content is provided basedon the level of the user. This will add additional value to the user when they visit the website.
Also to support the organization considered in thewebsite evaluation assignmentthere are sub-menu to make membership, partnership, and donations. This will be helpful for the users to support the organization. The key elements are displayed in the menus and they are classified with the sub-menus to provide more information.
Figure 3. submenu from learn menu
Avoiding frustration while using the website
In qagomawebsite there is more information with many menus and content. While visiting the website, the front page logo is not clear and attractive. The homepage of the view is not attractive as per the website evaluation assignment. For all, it has only one background. The information provided by the art gallery is not advertised. All the information should be searched based on the requirementsof the user in the sub menus. The list of information provided should be displayed on the homepage with the screentime out manner. It consists of more information that should be searched deeper. This will make the visitor to get frustrated while using the website and the information could not be gathered easier (Islam, et al., 2021).
Figure 4. links in submenu
Winning the trust of the website visitor
This is one of the important usability principles that should be achieved by the website visitor considered in this website evaluation assignment. When visiting the website the visitor should know whether they can be benefited from using this website. When they are aware of the website information then they will visit the website again to get more information. Onqagoma website, the website visitor’s trust can be ensured by gaining the reviews of the users. After getting the information from the website the user should submit a review of them so that thewebsite can be grown better. On this website evaluation assignment, with the position of the art gallery the trust is ensured by the website visitor but it will not be applicable to all the website users.
EVALUATION
The website evaluation in thewebsite evaluation assignmentis carried out by selecting two participants to this is carried out by questionnaires (Mohammed, et al., 2021).
Participant 1:
Age: 30
Gender: M
Profession: researcher
As a researcher of thewebsite evaluation assignment, I want to know the information regarding the specific art, pacific art.It describes pacific art and gives respective art images. while searching for the information, many websites are listed but https://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/ provides more images and informationabout pacific art. When we want to buy any art, it can be shopped online using the menu listed on the website. The store is available to buy books, gifts, homewares, accessories, kids, and exhibitions. I found this website helpful but one thing is about the list of menus. There ismuchinformation and it should be searched for. All the informationit should be given on the homepage but it is missing.
Figure 5. content in the research menu
Participant 2:
Age: 18
Gender:
Profession: school student
Questionnaires:
As a student studying thewebsite evaluation assignment, I don’t have much knowledge about using the website. I don’t know about the webpage navigation symbols used on the website. I found it difficult to search for the information on the website. But there is a separate menu for kids to learn using the videos and make the information to understand easier and simpler.
Figure 6. kids submenu in learn menu
RECOMMENDATIONS
Usability principles are used for website design to reach the best usability features. These principles are used for analyzing the website content to improve the satisfaction of the user. This will add to the positive aspects of the website. The following recommendations in thewebsite evaluation assignmentare required toimprove the user satisfaction (Islam, et al., 2014).
Using unnecessary graphicsthere should be pleasant graphics to make the website good from the user’s perspective. It should not occupy more space on the screen where the information will be lost. Using graphics there should not be a distraction. It also increases the downtime when the user will change from this website to another website (Namoun, et al., 2021).
Make essential points visible to the user in the website evaluation assignment
Users can successfully complete the task when the menus are directly visible to the user. There should be an objective to display the important points to the user.
Format the content
The website considered in the website evaluation assignmentcontent should be formatted to specific characters that should be applicable to all the users. i.e all the users from an ethnicbackgroundin different countries use the website.
Provide feedback
To ensure trust in the website, it is necessary to get feedback from the users. Also, there is a store that definitely requires the feedback section so that the user can ensure trust among the users. Proper feedback should be given for the product in the store.
Figure 7. store menu
Home page visibility
The home page should give a good impression to the website visitors. The homepage must communicatethe purpose of the website and provide major options for the website to the users.
Image download time
It is necessary to ensure the download time of the images from the website. To speed up the download time several images are used. And a minimum number of colors should be used in the image.
CONCLUSION
Website evaluation assignmentis done for ensuring whether the developed website is user-friendly. In case of discrepancies, it should be available easily to the user. Nowadays all organizations are using websites to display information and make their presence to the user. From that, the user can be available to make the presence in a direct or indirect way. The information should be accessible in an efficient way. For this, the website is evaluated by considering the principles of HCI. For website evaluation, HCI principles provide accurate information since it deals with the efficiency of the website creation. The evaluation of the qagoma website with the related HCI principles is discussed in thewebsite evaluation assignmentand recommendations are provided to improve the satisfaction of the user.
REFERENCES
Issa, T., & Turk, A. (2012). Applying usability and HCI principles in developing marketing websites forwebsite evaluation assignment. International Journal of Computer Information Systems and Industrial Management Applications, 4, 76-82.
Matera, M., Rizzo, F., &Carughi, G. T. (2006). Web usability: Principles and evaluation methods. In Web engineering (pp. 143-180). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Alrizq, M., Solangi, S. A., Alghamdi, A., Nizamani, M. A., Memon, M. A., & Hamdi, M. (2022). An Architecture Supporting Intelligent Mobile Healthcare Using Human-Computer Interaction HCI Principles inwebsite evaluation assignment. Comput. Syst. Sci. Eng., 40(2), 557-569.
Qasrawi, A., VicunaPolo, S., &Qasrawi, R. (2021, November). User experience and performance evaluation of palestinian universities websites. In 2021 International Conference on Promising Electronic Technologies (ICPET) (pp. 73-77). IEEE.
Gurcan, F., Cagiltay, N. E., &Cagiltay, K. (2021). Mapping human–computer interaction research themes and trends from its existence to today: A topic modeling-based review of past 60 years. International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction, 37(3), 267-280.
Mohammed, Y. B., &Karagozlu, D. (2021). A Review of Human-Computer Interaction Design Approaches towards Information Systems Development. BRAIN. Broad Research in Artificial Intelligence and Neuroscience, 12(1), 229-250.
Islam, M. N., Bouwman, H., & Islam, A. N. (2020). Evaluating web and mobile user interfaces with semiotics: An empirical study. IEEE Access, 8, 84396-84414.
Islam, M. N. (2014, May). Exploring interface sign ontologies for web user interface design and evaluation: a user study. In International Conference on Informatics and Semiotics in Organisations (pp. 87-96). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Namoun, A., Alrehaili, A., & Tufail, A. (2021, July). A Review of Automated Website Usability Evaluation Tools: Research Issues and Challenges in website evaluation assignment. In International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (pp. 292-311). Springer, Cham.
