By Hilda L. Gutierrez
This website is aimed at a young child audience as well as their
parents. There are two versions of the site, one for users with the
flash plug-in (makes the presentation of information more animated)
and one for those without. Both versions have the same look-and-feel
and provide the same information. The site is very much connected
to the popular TV show "Sesame Street", and to some extent
it could be described as an online version of the show itself. The
familiar figures and characters of the TV show are present throughout
the website. The site incorporates a vibrant, attention-grabbing color
scheme with sounds and music that would interest and entertain a young
child. There are a variety of links and options that are, as is the
goal of the TV show, aimed to teach and make the learning process
fun. The other main feature of the site is a range of information
for parents, providing advice on parenting, related articles and activity
ideas for their children. Some strengths that this website provides
is the ability to make a one-to-one learning environment available
to a user, the ability to maintain the resource of information available
at all hours of the day versus the available viewing hours of the
TV show. There is a strong sense of interactivity, hands-on feel for
the user navigating through the site, an aspect that the TV show lacks.
The website complements the TV show; one may not have arrived at the
site without previous knowledge of the show. A weakness of the site
though, is the presence of the "parent's only" aspect. It
detracts from the intended purpose of Sesame Street for kids environment
and should become a separate website.