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How to Perform a Website Critique on Your Own Project

March 4, 2019

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At Amelia  (probably the best  WordPress booking plugin ), we believe that your website is the key to business success. If you feel like your website is not as effective as it should be, there must be something wrong that you need to assess and then correct.

In case you don’t notice any sale boosts or new inquiries once you’ve published your site, you might need to perform a website critique and see what’s the matter with it.

Table of contents

How to conduct your own website critique, how do you know you need website critique in the first place, how to perform a good website critique.

In order to step aside from a subjective point of view and perform good website critiques, you need to perceive things with a different pair of eyes. This is something that not all people can do from the very first try, but with the right tips, you will be able to perform your own website critique.

To master this art, you need to develop a logical eye and to do a reason-based analysis of what you can improve on your website. Criticizing the website from a point of view which is not constructive in any way is just a waste of time and resources.

A good website critique can only be obtained if you organize your opinions logically and come up with resourceful feedback regarding your website.

You need some design feedback

If you think that the way your website looks is not appreciated by all people who visit it, then you might need to analyze it more in-depth. The design of your website is the element that catches the attention of your website’s visitors within seconds.

Without an attractive website, you have low chances of generating sales online. Start your website design critique process here and see what you can improve. You can critique a website once you detach yourself completely.

Google ranking is not in your favor

People use search engines to look for what they need. If your website won’t pop up on the first page of results, users are unlikely to reach it.

Google applies certain algorithms that have to do with Search Engine Optimization . Optimize your website to get a better ranking, especially by using keywords. Don’t forget to optimize images as well. A slow loading site will push you at least on page 2 of Google.

Visitors never turn into leads

The purpose of a good website is to turn regular visitors into leads. Noticing that doesn’t happen is a reason why you should start putting your website critique together. What is the issue behind your SEO configuration?

What can you do to improve the user experience and increase user retention? Ask yourself these questions and make the necessary changes. Look for “review my website” for more information in this sense.

Sales go down

It’s time to perform your own website critique if you notice that your business sales went down in the past couple of months. You need to learn how to critique your website from multiple points of view, not design only.

If no one buys products from you, it doesn’t matter how aesthetically pleasing your website is. See if your website looks trustworthy and try to find your competitive advantage.

The bounce rate is high

A good webpage review always includes details related to the bounce rate. If your website seems to have a high bounce rate, it happens because your website lacks direction, it doesn’t look professional or it doesn’t include quality content.

Quality is more important than quantity and this matters quite a lot for good user experience. Read a website critique example if you don’t know where to start with yours.

The traffic numbers are low

Critiquing websites involves numbers too. If you notice that the traffic on your inexplicably went down, you must find the element that made that happen.

See if enough resources were invested in advertising. Any website critique template includes some numbers related to traffic and sales, and you definitely can’t be the exception.

Determine if the website is practical

Website critique is all about practicality. The navigation system is the first element you should analyze to determine why people spend the amount of time they spend on your website, be it short or long.

A clean navigation system is always a requirement, as well as including zero distractions in the path of the user. You need to start with this criterion before anything else. Web critique always begins with how practical the website is.

Keep in mind that website critiques are not always negative. Some people simply want to analyze the level of their website, which can be a highly positive one. If that’s your case, congratulations! In case you notice that there are things which can be improved, go ahead and make the necessary changes as fast as possible.

Visuals and the website’s aesthetic

After analyzing the website’s navigation system, you can move the website critique to visuals. The way your website looks will determine whether a person remains on the website or not. The visual impact represents the first impression a user has when he accesses your website.

In order to come up with a good website critique, you should place yourself in the shoes of a visitor. If you are happy with what you see, the website should work just fine. If you notice things that are not pleasing to the eye, change them and see what difference it makes. It is helpful to ask yourself:

• Do your visuals have a direction?
• What is the main focus of the website?
• Is the page layout good for the message your website tries to transmit?
• Are the elements matching?

Make searching easy

Next, you can start checking out the search options. People want to find the information they are looking for as quickly as possible. This has to do with the navigation system. See if you can easily find the search bar. If not, make it visible immediately.

People always look for a search bar when they want to find something specific on your website. Streamline the entire navigation system to the point you can find anything in a matter of seconds. Anything less effective will make the bounce rate go through the roof. Website critique is all about making your website better, so don’t be greedy when it comes to making changes.

Contact information

Another thing that people instantly look for is represented by your contact information. Performing a website critique should always refer to this element as well.

See if the contact information that you provided is up to date, spelled correctly and generous enough to keep the visitors informed. Take into account that visitors who can’t find contact information rapidly won’t reach out to you any longer.

Content quality

When performing a website critique, you need to review your published content, which is probably the most intricate, time-consuming thing you can do. You can either hire someone to proofread your content or do it yourself with patience.

Correcting all spelling mistakes is just the first part of the task. You will also need to make sure that your website contains enough content to keep visitors informed and entertained. Resourceful content will make users come back.

Even though you might not have plenty of knowledge in coding, it’s important to perform a website critique from this point of view, too. You should only be familiar with the basic principles of HTML/CSS and go through your lines of code.

If you see anything looking odd, Google it and make sure that it is correct. Some errors are produced because of a mistake in your website’s code. A simple check-up and short research should do the job.

Finally, the last thing you should consider in the website critique process is represented by usability. If the website is too difficult to figure out, visitors will be tempted to leave very rapidly.

To avoid that, you need to make it easy to access and pleasurable to navigate. Put together all details that make the website easy to use and work on them until everything seems right for you.

Ending thoughts on performing a website critique

Performing a website critique is definitely not easy. The insight you need to invest in this process, as well as the experience and knowledge you need to have to make it more difficult than it seems. Hopefully, the information you found here is a solid starting point that you can use in the future.

If you enjoyed reading this article about how to perform a website critique on your own project, you should check out this one on information architecture .

We also wrote about a few related subjects like loading bar , homepage design , login page and golden ratio in design .

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Detailed Instructions and Grading Rubrics

Website article reviews and discussions, overview of the website article review assignment:.

You will receive 2 grades for this assignment in each module:  The website review (50%) and the website review discussion forum (50%).

• Using the Internet search engine of your choice (for example, Google), locate a web article on a topic introduced in the textbook that is relevent to the current module.
• Write a review of the article:  include an overview of the main point(s) and your thoughts on the information
• Submit your review to the turnitin drop box for an Originality Analysis.
• Revise and resubmit your review if needed.  (Note – resubmits take 24 hours to process and are not accepted after the module discussions end.)
• Your website review is graded within the turnitin drop box using the associated rubric.  You can see my feedback by accessing the graded rubric.
• Paste your final review into the Website Discussion Forum for class discussion.  This is due within the first 3 days that the module is open.
• Discuss your review – and at least 2 others – in the Website Discussion Forum.
• Your grade on this discussion forum depends upon the quantity and quality of your posts.  Review the forum grading rubric below.
• There is a penalty for posting on fewer than 6 different days in a website review discussion forum.

The purpose of this assignment is for each student to locate a website article that contains valid information relevant to the issues we will be discussing in this module, write an original review and analysis essay about the content of the website, and then lead a class discussion on the issue(s) covered in the website. Please note: Wikipedia, and similar “wiki-based” websites, are not acceptable sources. 

I want you to look over the textbook chapters assigned for the current module, select a topic that interests you, then use Google – or the Internet search engine of your choice – to find a “good” website article dealing with that issue, and the write a review of that article. (By “good” I mean one that seems to you to provide unbiased information on the issue).  After you submit the review to the turnitin dropbox (and, if needed, revise and resubmit) post it in the discussion forum for class discussion.

The acceptable window for submitting your website review to the class for discussion (Step 6 below) is within the first three days after the module officially opens. You may submit (and re-submit) your website review to the turnitin dropbox prior to the opening of the module.

Follow these instructions carefully. Once your assignment has been evaluated, you will not be permitted to make revisions.

Detailed Instructions:

Write an original review of the website article – minimum 500 original* words. See the definition of “original words” below.  You must include this number in your review to receive full credit!

*Definition of “Original Words”: This assignment has a “minimum of 500 original words” requirement. The turnitin service that is used at Herkimer County Community College analyzes your assignment and determines the % of your content that is essentially the same as content that already exists on the Internet.  This “similar content” – EVEN IF YOU DID NOT COPY IT FROM THE WEB / EVEN IF YOU MADE IT UP YOURSELF – does not count as your “original words.”

Submit your essay to the turnitin dropbox. This will  generate an “Originality Report” which will:

•  indicate all non-original content in your essay
•  show the earliest web source for this content
• and display the total number of words in your review.

Determine the number of original words from your turnitin Originality Reports using the following calculation:

Original Words = Word Count minus Similarity Index %.

• Total word count = 600 (If your word processing application does not have a “word count” feature, use http://wordcounttool.com .)
• If your Similarity Index is 10%, then the calculation would be
• 600 – 10%, or 600 – 60 = 540 original words.

Include this number at the end of your review as follows: (original words = 540)

• Total word count = 600
• If your Similarity Index is 20%, then the calculation would be
• 600 – 20%, or 600 – 120 = 480 original words.

Include this number at the end of your review as follows: (original words = 480)

Use the turn-it-in Originality Report to edit (if needed) and resubmit your website review . All content identified by turnitin as non-original must either be re-written in your own words, or enclosed in quotes and cited with the source identified by turnitin. You may submit your assignment to the turnitin dropbox as many times as necessary. Please note: your first submission to the turn-it-in drop box is usually analyzed within a few minutes. Subsequent submissions take about 24 hours.

Once your review has been edited and complies with all of the requirements, paste it into the Web Review Discussion Forum (for class discussion). This assignment is due before the end of the 2nd. day, but will be accepted late with a penalty.

Discuss the Website Article Reviews in the Website Discussion Forum.

• Use the Create Thread button to submit your web review for class discussion. (Copy it from the turn-it-in drop box and paste it into the discussion forum as a New Post.)
• Facilitate the discussion of your website review in the same manner as the student led chapter discussions. When other students respond to your posting, respond back to them. Your job is to facilitate a discussion which explores the issues in the website and relates them to the textbook.
• Read and discuss the Reviews submitted by at least 2 other students. Be an active participant in these threads. You may participate in as many review discussions as you want to – but the minimum is 2.

Website Discussion Forum Grading Rubric:

There are several factors that determine your grade on each of the website discussion forums:

• Did you post your website review to the forum on time?
• Did you do a good job facilitating the discussion on your website reviews?
• Did you submit at least 10 high-quality posts that satisfied both of the Cardinal Rules?
• Did you login and participate on at least 6 different days spread out during the life of the module?

The Website Review Grading Rubric:

The Website Review Discussion Forum Grading Rubric:

• Website Article Reviews and Discussions. Authored by : WIlliam Pelz. Provided by : Herkimer College. License : CC BY: Attribution