Website Critiques, Interested?

[Ryo Chiba]

One of the most annoying things about putting together any sort of media (be it poster, animation, or website) on my team is that constructive criticism is few and far between. As I helped put together last year's website, I should have had people telling me all of the negative aspects of the site, but no one did. It's polite to nod and pretend everything looks alright, but when it comes down to it, it is this politeness that leads to mediocrity.

So, I look back our 2006 site with shame and disgrace. It's difficult to navigate, and it's simply a terribly visually unpleasing design.

To prevent this from happening to myself, and to other teams, we have a plan.

This year, our webteam will make screencast critiques of other interested FIRST teams' websites.

It's a win-win situation. We can learn from other teams' successes and failures. You can learn what we think could improve on your site.

Would any webteams reading this post be interested in having the usability, design, and general quality of their website critiqued with a generous helping of constructive criticism?

[artdutra04]

Would any webteams reading this post be interested in having the usability, design, and general quality of their website critiqued with a generous helping of constructive criticism?If you want something to look over, you can look over our team's website at team228.org. I often find myself being my hardest critic (and hence constantly changing and improving things), so have fun. ;)

But if anyone else would like their website critiqued, I'll gladly look over theirs as well.

[fimmel]

i may be ... closer to the season
...forest

[Uberbots]

sure, it cant hurt (=

http://uberbots.org/2008/index.php <- that is the development link, if you want to watch it.
it will move to the root once it is done (mid summer, probably)


i think this is a great idea.

[Branden Ghena]

I am willing to give it a shot. Our website is kind of basic and any criticism is welcome. Our website is: http://www.jefferson.k12.mi.us/jhs/web240/index.html
(We are hosted through our school district so the link is kind of long)

Good idea by the way. I think a little criticism from your peers can go a long way toward improvement.

[Ryo Chiba]

Thanks for the sites, folks!

Our webteam is going to have a meeting to make these in 4 days, and they'll be eventually featured on our website.

I'll send messages to interested parties when they're done.

Anyone else interested?

[Tim Arnold]

If its not too late, I'd love to hear some critique for our site, http://www.marsbot.org. Our site is a slowly evolving one, using the same codebase and CMS each year but fixing bugs and making more features constantly, so some constructive criticism could be of great help to us. Thanks!

[KathieK]

I would be glad to look at teams' websites.

[BandChick]

I'm with Kathie on this one. Having been a website judge for three years now at a few regionals, I'ld be glad to sit down and give you some CC so you have a better chance at the Website Award!

[FRANK(WGH)]

I'd love for our site to get some constructive criticism. Team 48 will even have a brand new design to role out this fall. Our web team will need helpful comments this season.

[Sgt. Mammoth]

Great Idea! We would love to get feedback on our website. It's still in ongoing development, but any constructive criticism would be extremely helpful!

Here is the link:
http://www.team1732.com

[KathieK]

Your website should be designed for your audience - so you need to decide who that is, first thing. Then determine what information you want to communicate to that audience. Then build your website around that content. Concentrate on your content and navigation scheme vs. building a flashy design. The greatest looking website with all the bells and whistles will not impress your audience if they can't find up-to-date content that they are looking for. The website team should include people who can write coherently for the web as well as the designers. Someone needs to be responsible for gathering updated content and keeping it fresh on the site. Have someone (perhaps someone from your school's English department?) proofread your site for grammatical and spelling errors. By all means, write FIRST correctly (it's an acronym) and explain its meaning somewhere on the site. And if you're going to mention the four FIRST programs, be sure to get the titles of the programs correct.

You do not have to design your site to compete for the FRC website award, but... I've judged several FRC Regional Website competitions as well as the Championships last year. It amazes me how many teams submit for that award and do not follow the simple criteria outlined in the manual (http://www.usfirst.org/uploadedFiles/Community/FRC/FRC_Documents_and_Updates/2007_assets/Manual/5%20-%20Awards_%20RevB.pdf) (Sect. 5, p.12). Another thing often lacking is the name and location of the team on the homepage! Or an easy way for people to contact your team! And while it's nice to know that your team has won several awards over the years, be sure to include the personal stories about how being on a FIRST team has impacted you!

[Compnerd]

Yes i would love to. I am currently working on this new layout, and i would love some feedback. You can email me any critisism at jwhwebdesign@gmail.com (yea i do my own webdesign but i am not paid by the team)

Site: http://www.first1444.com/2008 It is under development right now

[wsansewjs]

I have been developing the website for my team in the past 6 years now. I have not received enough critiques to allow the challenge to enfold out for the website project to become better than its previous generation.

Not everyone gets the award, but it would be more fun and acceptable for all the web teams and developers in FIRST community to get together and actually spread the words about their own websites even it would be extremely negative. I am itching to assist and make this into reality as a mentor. I am more than willing to recieve an IM or email from someone who want me to judge the website and help to improve their web project.

Beam me up, Scotty!

-Josh Simpson
Assisting Mentor / Media Specialist / Web Developer
Team Resistance #86 (http://www.teamresistance.org)

[Andrew Schuetze]

Is there any chance that website judges and release comments to the teams who submitted sites for review during the season? It doesn't have to include points but just comments or do you only give points on a web-based system and no annecdotal data is available? I ask this because I'd hate to see the hard working volunteer judges do the same work twice:yikes:

[KathieK]

Is there any chance that website judges and release comments to the teams who submitted sites for review during the season? I checked with FIRST this morning. Website judges are not allowed to release any information to the teams. If you submitted your website for the 2007 website award, you may request a copy of the comments (if any were given) through FIRST (mailto:srobinson@usfirst.org). I'd suggest including your team number, location and the Regional(s) you attended.

[Andrew Schuetze]

Sent in my request for comments to Sue Robinson per the directions above and recieved a few short comments from what appears to be five judges in the body of a single email within a few hours:)