Website Overview

Describe the Report of Website Evaluation for taronga.org.

The document covers the web site evaluation of the site https://taronga.org.au/. There are a number of elements that are associated with every single web site in terms of the content, design, navigation, graphics and a lot more. There are also a number of non-functional requirements that must be fulfilled by the site in terms of usability, reliability, performance and accessibility. The document evaluates the site on all these aspects and also covers the review that is gathered from three other users in order to understand the user requirements and expectations from the site.

Taronga is a not for profit organization that supports wildlife conservation. The web site has been developed to provide the users and the citizens with the information that is associated with Taronga zoos, education, conservation and the latest developments. There is also a provision to get involved with the organization in terms of volunteer work, donations and many other options. The web site has beeb designed to provide an online portal to the users for easy access and connectivity (Taronga, 2016). 

The language and platform that has been used for the development of the web site is HTML, XML and JavaScripts and the styling has been done through CSS styles. There are a number of graphics and text that is incorporated in the web site to impart necessary information to the customers.

There are a number of features that are present in the web site. The primary features of the site are as listed below.

The web site displays the organization logo at the top and provides four basic options for the users as Shop, Donate, Tickets and Search.

There is also a language customization option available on the top to choose from a list of popular languages for the site content.

The menu bar of the site comprises of seven menu options:

Visit our zoos: This is the menu option that lists all the zoos that are set up and managed by the organization along with the necessary information such as accommodation, hourly rates, zoo map, upcoming events and many others.

Animals: This menu option provides information on the animals that are managed by the organization along with the information on animal welfare and wildlife conservation. Details on wildlife hospitals and breeding programs are also covered under this menu option.

Education: There are a number of education programs in the form of short term and long term courses that are provided and the details of the same are present under this menu option.

Main Features

Conservation: This option provides details and features associated with wildlife conservation, environmental stability and the actions that can be taken to improve the same.

Get Involved: A number of steps and options are available to the customers to get involved with the organization in the form of donations, volunteer programs and many other activities for supporting the great cause.

News: The users can subscribe to the newsletters and look out for the latest news associated with animal conservation and related areas of the field.

Centenary: Information on the centenary events and associated details are present under this option.

The footer section of the web site comprises of options such as about us, contact us, site map, careers, regulatory policies and a link to a number of social media accounts as well.

Navigational Features

The web site scores well on the navigational features that have been implemented in the design. The menu options provide a list of sub-option on mouse hover and also allow the user to view the underline and focus on the selected option. The flow between the pages is easy and smooth and there is always an option to navigate back to the home page of the site (Drell, 2016).

Graphics

The graphics that have been used in the site are the primary strength of the site. It is always believed that the content is the king for any of the site or the portal and this web site stands true to the principle. The images and videos along with other graphics that have been used across all the web pages attract the customer towards the site and also keep up the engagement in the same (Thewebshowroom, 2016). The graphics are also used correctly and are clear in terms of size and placement. There is also an intelligent use of graphics done in many sections such as how can we help section on the home page that has an image with every option. The same enhances the look and feel of the web site.

Home Page of the web site

Theme and Color Scheme

The theme that has been selected for the web site goes extremely well with the concept and the type of the organization along with its work area. The background has been kept light in color so that the text and other content is easily readable and does not get overlapped with the background itself. The menu bar along with the font face and style is also good in terms of the entire look and feel (Woods, 2014).

Positive Aspects

Layout

The layout that has been selected for the web site design is kept simple and follows the traditional layout scheme of header, menu, body and footer sections in the same order. The area that has been allocated to the header and the menu section is also just right to correctly fit in all the essential elements of the same (Laja, 2012).

Hyperlinks

There are a number of hyperlinks that are present on the web site and the same can be accessed easily without any faulty or broken links present on the site.

One of the latest features that have been implemented in the web site is the connectivity to the social media platforms and the featuring of the latest elements from the popular accounts. This feature enhances the user engagement with the site and is a mandatory one as per the recent developments in the world of web designing and development.

There are a few sections on the web site that can be improved to enhance the usability and the user experience for the site.

There is a sign up option that flashes at the bottom of the home screen and re-directs the user on the registration page as soon as the user clicks on the Sign Up Now button. However, if the user closes the option then there is no sign up option present anywhere on the home page. The only option to access the same is through refreshing the page (Umich, 2016).

Sign Up Option

There is also a lot of blank space that is present in the footer section of the web site on every web page. The empty space does not look good to the user and is also not appreciated as per the design principles. The web site should incorporate additional elements to fulfill space or utilize the existing ones to be correctly placed in order to avoid the issue (Martin, 2016).

Empty Space – Footer Section

There are a number of language options that are present on the web site with the default being Australia. The user gets to see the drop down list of the language options to choose from the many options that are present in the same. However, the same does not change upon clicking on a particular option. In some cases, the language does get change as per the selected option but the page re-directs itself to the default language option on its own (Kenny, 2016).

Areas of Improvement

There is a search capability present on the website in the header section. The user can enter the search query and the results will be retrieved on clicking the button. However, the system does not acknowledge the user when the user performs the search without providing any query. There is no message displayed to ask the user to enter the search keyword, instead, a list of random results are displayed.

Review 1

The first review has been done by a friend, Lauren. She is 26 years of age and is an actor by profession. Lauren was happy with the layout of the web site along with the use of graphics and the selection of the same. She was impressed with the images that have been used on the web site and believed that they were very engaging for her. Also, navigation on the web site was an area which impressed her a lot. She had one concern for the web site and it was associated with the about us section on the site. She was expecting this section to be present on the top of the site instead of looking for the same in the footer section. She also did not like the sign up option popping up again and again and wanted the same to be constantly available as a button or a link somewhere in the header section of the site.

The second review was carried out by Rob. He is a network engineer and is 35 years of age. Rob was extremely impressed with the theme and the color scheme that is present on the web site and felt that the same went well with the web site purpose. Rob felt that there were too many images present on the web site which led to a few performance issues especially on the Animals page. He commented that the page took a lot of time to load and the images also appeared as a list in the first few seconds and then re-arranged themselves as a grid. Rob wanted the site to have a lesser number of graphics and also felt that there should have been lesser elements on the home page of the web site. He felt that there were a lot of elements present on the home page which led to unnecessary navigation and was troublesome to use the same on a mobile device. Rob was happy with the design and liked the popping up of the sign up option at the bottom of the screen and felt that it was an innovative element to add.

The third review was carried out by another friend, Ruby. She is a market analyst and performed a thorough review of the site on her laptop with Google Chrome as the browser. Ruby was impressed with the header and menu sections of the site and felt that all the essential and necessary elements were present in these sections. She also liked the placement of the organization logo and the tag line at the top left corner and felt that the same was engaging for the users. Being a contributor towards animal welfare, Ruby also appreciated the amount of information that was present on the web site and also the presence of a lot many ways to get involved with the organization. Ruby felt that the features such as contact us and about us should have been present in a right pane on the web site instead of the footer section. She also wanted the search functionality to be more responsive in nature as she wanted the system to let her know that she had missed on entering a search query when she performed the operation without any information keyed in there. Since, Ruby is a market analyst she was particularly impressed by the connectivity to the social media accounts through the web site and also liked the idea of featuring the popular tweets at the bottom of the site. 

References

Drell, L. (2016). 10 Essential Features of Every Good Business Website. Mashable. Retrieved 5 September 2016, from https://mashable.com/2012/02/09/website-must-haves/#nb39jenkKiqs

Kenny, T. (2016). The Principles of Good Web Design Part 1: Layout | Tom Kenny Design. Tomkenny.design. Retrieved 5 September 2016, from https://tomkenny.design/articles/the-principles-of-good-web-design-part-1-layout/

Laja, P. (2012). 8 Effective Web Design Principles You Should Know. ConversionXL. Retrieved 5 September 2016, from https://conversionxl.com/8-universal-web-design-principles-you-should-to-know/

Martin,. (2016). Web Design Principles Of Successful Websites. Cleverism.com. Retrieved 5 September 2016, from https://www.cleverism.com/web-design-principles-successful-websites/

Taronga,. (2016). Taronga. Taronga. Retrieved 5 September 2016, from https://taronga.org.au/

Thewebshowroom,. (2016). Updates on Building the Best Website Design Possible – The Web Showroom. Thewebshowroom.com.au. Retrieved 5 September 2016, from https://www.thewebshowroom.com.au/articles/building-a-website/

Umich,. (2016). Basic Web Design Principles. Umich.edu. Retrieved 5 September 2016, from https://umich.edu/~ece/resources/design.html

Woods, S. (2014). 10 Top Principles of Effective Web Design – Shortie Designs. Shortie Designs. Retrieved 5 September 2016, from https://shortiedesigns.com/2014/03/10-top-principles-effective-web-design/