Introduction:

The “primary goal on the web is to communicate” (Niederst Robbins, 2006, p. 23) and the effectiveness of that communication is reliant upon the web designer having a very clear picture of the information and image that is intended to be portrayed. Knowing who the intended audience is will impact not only on the level of content but the type of design features used. One aspect which must not be overlooked by designers—or indeed reviewers of websites—while working on a global site, is that culture plays a large part in deciding the appropriateness of a design (Usunier, Roulin, & Ivens, 2009). A site created predominantly, for example, for a Chinese teenage audience would have limited success in Western cultures, despite the language barrier, because the design elements may appear to Western eyes to be too garish and too overpowering.

Working within the context of a Western viewpoint, and focussing on websites appropriate for use in a senior secondary school, it is possible to identify elements of design and content which either contribute to or hinder the site’s effectiveness as a means of communication.

Design:

Focussing on design features, the two sites identified were The Australian, low quality design and The National Pain Summit, high quality design. Design can make or break a site; as the saying goes, ‘you only get one chance to make a first impression’ and if that impression is not positive, only the most determined web researchers will continue into the site to see if the content is valuable. Web designers must always remember that their audience is just one mouse click away from leaving.

Readers expect information to appear logically on the screen and in a way consistent with the print based media many have grown up with. As young people become more used to getting all their information from the internet, this may in fact not be so relevant to future users. Lynch & Horton (2004, p.2) say that the “graphic balance and organization of the page is crucial to drawing the reader into your content,” however, The Australian’s site assaults you rather than draws you in. The advertising banner, on the top right, which constitutes approximately 15% of the initial screen, blinks, and changes every few seconds drawing the eye to the right hand side which is at odds with usual reading patterns where the eye moves from left to right. Exacerbating this is an equally intrusive advertising banner on the right hand side which takes up 1/3 of the horizontal information-containing space. As Jennifer Johnson (2000, p.2) says, “there is nothing more distracting than trying to read and having that incessant blinking going on.” Equally frustrating to ease of access, is that the important information—the menu options—gets lost under the advertising. In this site there are two menu bars, one bold and in capitals, the other below in normal sentence case with no visual indication of whether the menu content of the lower bar is connected to any of the top menus.

Two horizontal menus, with no clear indication of which section the reader is in, or whether the menus are currently active.

All of the content of the site is held within a fixed width (Lynch & Horton, 2004, p. 23) so regardless of the width of the monitor, the page always displays the same size, thus forcing the reader, by default to read text on a screen at a set size and line width.

The Australian's design is poor because as Nielsen (in Rosen & Puriton, p. 788) suggest "newspaper layout does not transfer to the web as a computer screen cannot handle the same volume of information effectively." The impression given to the reader is that the designers wanted to have all the information from a traditional print-based newspaper—much of which is hidden deep within the paper—accessible from the home page. It has too many competing elements for the first time viewer to easily decide where to navigate next.

The National Pain Summit’s site designers have focussed on the themes of simplicity and consistency which allow the reader to know at all times where they are within the site. Images used are appropriate—identifying individuals personal stories—and load very quickly causing no delay, despite the large number on the home page. Both site’s owners are clearly identified by name and email address, however, the Pain Summit's visitors are provided with a form to make contact, rather than complicating the process by relying on opening a 3rd party email application which The Australian’s does. While the volume of information is nowhere near as large as The Australian's, the reader is, at all times, clear as to where they are in the site and not distracted by advertising. They are presented with readable chunks of information, none of which extends for more than 2 printable pages, thus not transgressing Johnson’s (2000, p. 2) Website sin #5: The Endlessly Scrolling page.

Both sites utilize frames in their design, although issues associated with cropping the page when printing have been overcome by only allowing the content to print, not the images or advertising graphics.