Evaluator Participants:
My first evaluator, Amanda Florido, is my older sister and looks at my photography often. Amanda is the person I confide in the most when post-producing my photography. She is very familiar with my photography style and is a great person to review how I present my photography on my website. While Amanda does not know much about HTML, she gave me great feedback on how I could make my website's presention look better. She used Google Chrome on a Microsoft Surface Pro to evaluate my website. I know the Surface Pro's have a smaller screen, therefore, the fact that she did not run into any screen formatting problems when viewing my site showed that my website can work on many different types of screens.
My second evaluator, Kayla, is a fellow web development student. She is a 22-year-old Graphic Design major so she was able to really help me understand which direction to take my website in terms of design. As a web development student, Kayla is a useful evaluator because she knows what is expected of our websites. Kayla viewed my website on a ASUS ProArt PA328Q Professional Monitor while using Chrome as her browser.
My third evaluator, Zara McDowell, is also a student in the web development class. Zara is a junior at Mizzou studying Broadcast Journalism. Zara was able to spell check my site as well as make sure it was easy to use for many viewers on different platforms. Zara viewed my site on a Samsung PC with two screen desktop displays using Internet Explorer and Google Chrome.
Summary of Evaluators' Comments:
Design: Much of my critique of my site was in regards to my design of the pilot site. For the most part, the evaulators thought I could use more color on my site. While my second evaluator liked my white background, the third evaluator said I should try and find a colored background that works well with the site. The second evaluator said I should focus on adding color to strategic parts on my site, like at the footer or around photos. The evaluators also thought I should change the font on my website, even though everything was easy to read on my site.
Content: The evaluators pointed out that I had no extrenal links on my website. They stated that I should place external links on my "Contact" page and other places throughout the site. Both of my evaluators stated that I should keep my viewers interest by adding a comment like "New photos every week" to keep viewers returning to my site.
Credibility: The highest ratings I got on my site were from the credibility section of the evaluation form. Due to the photography being my own, I will not run into many copyright issues. A few of my evaluators added that I should add a statement to my site saying that people cannont redistribute the images without consent. Also, my second evaluator pointed out that it would be beneficially to put what kind of camera and lens I use while shooting in order to establish more credibility.
Link to Evaluator Data:
Recommended/Planned Changes:
The following changes are changes that I wanted to make while creating my pilot site and after reviewing my peers evaluations on my website:
Design: One of the main changes I want to make to my website is the design of the navigtion header. I was having difficulties coding a working navigation header while making the pilot site. Even though my evaluators found my navigation to be easy to use, I will look into coding a design for the header that aesthetically fits my website. I want to redesign the entire "Contact" page. Right now, the page has all of the necessary information to contact me, but I want to make the design more appealing. My third evaluator said I should consider adding external links to the "Contact" page to make it more efficient. Two of my evaluators also commented on how I need more color to my site. In my original plan for my website, I planned to use purple as an accent color throughout my pages. I did not incorporate any purple into my pilot website. I want to add purple accent colors to appropriate places on my final website.
Layout: On my portfolio page, I think I need to rework how the images are displayed. My evaluators stated that the images on my page did not display the alt, height, and width attributes. Therefore, I need to add those to the coding. The coding of the images on that page was a little difficult. I think I need to fix the coding because when I tried to add a footer and the text ended up at the top of the page by the first row of images.
Revising Code: I would like to make my footer a little bit more compact. I need to recode the portfolio page to have my images load faster. Due to the images being such high-resolution, I need to figure out how to code my images better so that they maintain their high quality while also loading quickly on the page.
Reflections on Evaluation:
The evaluation process was very helpful for me to guage how others interpreted my website. It was interesting to see how other students in the class felt about my website. I think the evaluation report was extremely helpful in having a ranking system and a place for an explanation to be given. This process gave class members a chance to see other people's sites and gauge the process on their own site. Overall, I think my website will benefit from the feedback given to me by my evaluators. I have a clear understand of what works on my page and what needs to be changed to benefit my viewers.
