Writing For The Web
Discussion Question-
Part 1:
"Writing for the Web" Please respond to the following:
- You have likely seen hundreds of thousands of Web pages over the span of your lifetime. Generalize how well you feel the audience and purpose overall of all the Websites you have viewed are aligned. Speculate to the reason behind your generalization.
- Having summarized your general observations about Websites, discuss what you feel is the most common error you encounter in poorly written or displayed Websites.
Part 2:
Make a substantive response to one of your fellow students. (choose one)
a. Over the course of my life, I've encountered several web pages. For the most part, they all seem to hit the target in terms of the intended audience depending on who created or published the site. Most reputable or professional sites allow for easy navigation and usually show what the company or page is about within the homepage via pics or mission statements. They usually have a breakdown of who they are, what they do, and what they value with streamline and professional look.
Common errors in poorly written or displayed websites are lack of clarity or pages with jumbled information. For example, if you're unfamiliar with Wiki pages, it can be difficult to read through to get the information you're requesting. Its structured in a outline fashion however its not always the easiest to sift through. In addition, a lot of self made sites lack page structure and clarity.
b. Hello Everyone,
You have likely seen hundreds of thousands of Web pages over the span of your lifetime. Generalize how well you feel the audience and purpose overall of all the Websites you have viewed are aligned. Speculate to the reason behind your generalization.
All of the web pages I've seen throughout my life normally are right on target with their audience. I think the reason these websites are on target with their audience is because they have conducted studies to find out what their consumer wants. They would then gear their web pages to attract those people.
Having summarized your general observations about Websites, discuss what you feel is the most common error you encounter in poorly written or displayed Websites.
The error that i encounter most is redirection errors or web page buttons that aren't setup the correctly, and lack of information about a topic that should be well covered on a particular site.
c. According to the textbook and based on webpages that I have seen, in general they all have the primary goal of providing information. It can be about a service, soliciting opinion, creating a community or just to entertain people. The main reason being that webpages are on the internet and the world wide web is where all those things should reside. Since web pages provide some sort of information at some level, I think the most common error is not designing the webpage to your audience and not having a good layout. If I visit a webpage, I will leave instantly if it has broken links that lead no where or links to pages that are under construction. I will also leave instantly if the layout is not appealing meaning that the choice of font style, size and color is basic.
d. Over my lifetime I have definitely seen a very large amount of webpages, and obviously recalling all of them is nearly impossible. In recent years most of the webpages are satisfactory if not excellent examples of delivery of a message to the viewer. I think that since the Internet has been such a large part of our lives in the recent past that companies are really making an effort to display information on their website that is appealing to the viewer. It is very important that the information presented is quality information and graphics because if not there are so many other options out there. A news site or company will lose readers or customers if they don’t produce a quality website.
The most common error I have encountered on a website is information that is clearly needed not being readily available or easy to navigate to. An example I can bring up from the last week is when I tried to find a church’s service times. I first googled the church, and the service times didn’t come up right away so I then navigated to their website. I think that information like service times is probably one of the main reasons someone would visit the site, so not only should it be displayed right on the top of the page, but it should be in large bold font.