NAVIGATION CRITERIA

This section describes what we are looking for in the navigation and functionality of your website. A maximum of 25 points can be scored here.

Browser Compatibility - 2pts

Is your site well designed so that it looks good in any browser? We will check your website using some of the following browsers to ensure your website meets this point: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Mozilla, and Opera.

Load Time - 2pts

Page loading time is important if you wish to keep your visitors. Most people will wait for only a short while before they leave your site. We prefer below 60 seconds for loading time on a 56k modem. Scoring as follows:
0-30 secs - 2pts :: 30-60 secs - 1pt :: over 60 secs - 0pts

Background Colour - 1pt

This point will be gained if you have set your background colour. By not adding a colour it may cause your pages to appear in the default settings used by your visitor. If your pages are meant to be white please remember to set them as so.
e.g <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF">

Ease Of Navigation - 2pts

Is your navigation easy to use and functional? Try to use it to enhance the flow of your site by keeping your menu consistent and available on all pages.

Back Button - 2pts

Have you ensured that the visitor can move freely from page to page? If we do not have to use the back button on our browser to return to a previous page, these points will be yours.

External Links - 3pts

Have you checked that all links are up to date and work correctly? We would like to see no more than three (3) broken external links. Links are checked using Link Valet. Scoring as follows: 0-1 - 3pts :: 1-2 - 2pts :: 2-3 - 1pt :: 3+ - 0pts

Links Open In A Consistent Manner - 2pts

Have you ensured that your links open correctly? As opening external pages in a new window is no longer necessary, please ensure that your links to external sites remain consistent throughout your site.If you decide to have your external inks opening in a new window tell your visitor that they do, please see examples below.
1: Use the href title attribute to let the user know that the link opens in a new window, your visitor will see this when hovering over the link.
e.g <a href="http://www.firestarterawards.com"target="_blank"title="link opens in a new window"> Firestarter Awards
Firestarter Awards
2: Use text to indicate that the link opens in a new window:
Firestarter Awards (link opens in a new window)
3: Use a small icon and text to indicate that the link opens in a new window

Internal Links - 2pts

Whilst visiting your site, we like to see that all of your internal links work properly. We don't like to read a book with pages missing the same applies to a website. We prefer to see a maximum of two (2) broken links, scoring as follows:
0-1 - 2pts :: 1-2 - 1pt :: 2+ - 0pts

Appropriate Links - 2pts

Have you chosen sites to link to that complement your site? Be selective and pick ones that give extra information relating to your topic such as extra resources.

Up To Top Links - 2pts

An 'up to top' link is a small link which has been placed at intervals WITHIN a long page, allowing the viewer to be taken back to the top of the page. Showing this consideration will earn you these points.

Home And Contact Links - 2pts

Have you remembered to include a 'home' and 'contact' link on every page of your website? One point is given for each of these considerations, as it really is not fun to have to search through your site to find an email link to contact you. This may make a viewer very unappreciative of your site.

Html Validation - 3pts

It is always a pleasure to see that the webmaster has taken the time to validate their site with W3C for html, xhtml and css compliancy. By doing this task it will help you discover any potential coding errors and you will also learn much more about the correct construction of a page. We use W3C to check your site for validity.

Still with me? Then please now continue to the design criteria »»»