What makes a good website a good website? (a comparative analysis)

In navigating the World Wide Web, we all find sites that are well-designed and those that are poorly designed. Even sites that have been developed through years of work and funded by millions of dollars can be difficult to use and navigate. You should pick and evaluate two websites you have visited recently—one that is well-designed and easy to use and one that wasn’t as good. Review the two websites carefully and write a short essay considering the following questions: Do the two sites share any common characteristics? Why is one so much better than the other? What could the weaker site learn from the better one? What improvements would students recommend to either web site? Your response should be specific and detailed. “It should be easier to find stuff” or “It doesn’t look very nice” are far to0 vague. Think of yourself as a consultant for the organization that produces the weaker site. How would you clearly explain the problems and specific solutions. Feel free to include screen clippings or links if you want.

For this assignment, use websites you might actually visit. Don’t just search for “worst website,” I’m tired of reading about the websites that come up at the top of that Google search. If there is a website you like (or visa versa) and you want to compare it to something, try looking at their competitors or similar sites. This assignment is easier if the two websites are similar in purpose. Feel free to use Mercer’s website as one of your choices.

Submit your response in a 300-500 word essay.

I have received a few questions about this week’s website usability assignment. Here is a little more about what I am expecting:When I describe this as a “usability” assignment, I am really just referencing the fact that how a website is put together (design, information, functionality, etc.) makes a difference in how much people will like using that site. Even if two websites are meant to provide similar services or information, there are often people who will prefer one website over the other because of how the site is put together.What you need to do is compare two websites that have similar purposes. For example, you could look at two sites that find hotel prices like Trivago.com and Kayak.com. Or you could do something more specific, like comparing two sites that debunk Coronavirus myths (maybe one from the CDC and another from Yahoo News). Or just compare our college’s website to a website from another community college. The trick is that one of the sites should be “better” than the other. The meaning of “better” is purely your own judgment (what you  think of the websites). Different people have different experiences with websites based on their own tastes, needs, or preferences. I’m not judging the quality of the sites, you are.Once you choose your two websites, you mostly just need to tell me why you think one site is better than the other. Start by telling me what the two sites are and what they are for. Then give a sentence or two describing each website. Then state some specific ways that one of the sites is better than the other. This could be about the look of the site, how easy or hard it is to use, how good the information is, how up-to-date it is, or anything else that you think was important. Be specific. Then give some suggestions about how the “bad” site could be improved.