The Purpose of the EECS Homepages

The assignment of critiqing a home page is, on the surface, a simple one. However, lying beneath the mask of a query put forth in so few words is a jaberwoky sized dilemna. Behold! Before you lies a wealth of information here so far unequaled in the history of mankind. A wonder of wonders where you or I cansee anything, do anything, be anything that our immaginations can fathom. But low, this landscape is so new, so uncharted, so transient that there is no past to tell us what is wrong or right, ugly or beautiful, good or bad. As a result of the net's nature the surfing it is deciding for ones self which wave suits you best. Therefore asking for a critique of a web page is asking for a showing of values; requiring us to scribe our own rubrick by which we might judge and possibly be judged.

When one opens the Netscape Navigator they are greeted by icons that are designed to help in the decition of where to go. The icons force a user to know what they want so that they might be pointed in the right direction and they serve as good examples of what a web page should address. The icons say "exploring the net", "company and products", "netscape store", "news and reference", "assistance", and "community". Each icon targets a user type and represent the following...

External Information

- Information directed at an audience outside of the organization to whom the page belongs (perspective buyers, friends, students, etc.)

Internal Information

- Information directed at those within the organization to whom the page belongs. (assignments, important dates, job info., etc.)

Communications

- Transmitting information between the organization to whom the page belongs and the audience. (applications, responses, etc.)

Aesthetics

- How easy is the page to look at?

Functionality

- How easy is the page to use?

By taking the above listed elements one might begin to develop an idea about the "goodness" or "badness" of a page and what might be done to improve it. Unfortunatly, the importance of each element changes not only from person to person but also from time to time. Who knows what the surfers of the future will want?

The MIT EECS home page indeed covers all of the preset areas to some extent. However, the differences between the designations of importance by the pages designers and our ideas of what is important show discrepancies, there in lies the critique.

All rankings on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 meaning that it completely fulfills requirement

External Info.

- The EECS home page does a good job of both informing people of things in the department (degree programs, groups, facilities, course descriptions, etc.) and a good job of advertising (facts, awards, gallery). RANK:10

Internal Info.

- Through the catalogs, scheduals, and references to other useful sights (professors' pages, instructional labs, etc.) but links to individual courses within the department would be desireable to both students and faculty. RANK: 8

Communications

- The EECS home page has a section for comments and places that people might go for submitting documents. Even though the documents part is a little harder to find this the page is more than adiquite in this field. RANK: 10

Aesthetics

- Besides the "MIT EECS and squiggle" graphic at the top of the page the packing of information onto the page has completely won out over the overall looks of the page. There is something to be said for simplicity and due to the page's layout it can be viewed by many different browsers without loss. However, there is also something to be said or "flash and glamor" especially since it is so widely used over the net. RANK: 4

Functionality

- Most of the information that could be desired is supplied on the page, however, the links are grouped very tightly making it hard to distinguish between them at a glance. Spreading or even icons might help the functionality. RANK: 6

Overall

- Overall the EECS home page is a page chocked full of information, concise, and readily accessable. It is very standard which is both a plus to its usability and a minus to its style. RANK: 9

As of now the web is still in its infant stage and all of those who crawl upon it and expand its reach are in fact trail blazers. Every person on the net is helping to define its distinguishing characteristics. A web page is a tabula rosa of sorts that is contributing to a much grander formation. A formation with a new culture, rules, and style simply called the web.