Roses Website Auditing

Website Audit Checklist:

Authority:

• Contact details or means of communicating with the author? Qualification of author to write about the topic, are they an expert? Citations - Is a source bibliography provided to consult?

Navigation:

• Is the site easy to navigate? "Findability" - Is there a table of contents or index? Does the site include a search engine? Are headings of relevant topics provided, rather than reading through the whole document?

Currency:

• Is the information current? Can you identify when the webpage was written, recently updated, revised? Are all external links active?

Efficiency:

• Traffic on the site - which may affect the speed at particular busy times.
• Download speed.
• Does the site have a tendency to crash, and not safe your details!

Graphics:

• Spelling and grammar, presentation of info, use of colour for those who may be visually impaired, font adjustment option.

Requirements:

• Does the site ask for a submission of registration before you can view its content?
• Spam free.
• It's compatibility with browsers

Other:

• Number of hits

My choice for a 'bad website' goes to www.tanningtruth.com . The domain name it would appear prides itself on "tanning truth", however the majority of the content on the site is very biased, with some very distorted statements being made throughout. There appears to be no source bibliography, or details for the author, which questions it's credibility further. Many so called "studies" are made reference to throughout to back up its arguments, however these are not named or referenced. A lot of the information goes against information provided by Cancer Research UK which I would regard as a credible source. Apparently tanning is not damage to your skin and the risks associated with UV overexposure are manageable!

My choice for a 'good website' goes to HSE www.hse.gov.uk which I tend to visit on a recurring basis. It ticks the majority of boxes on my checklist. It's a credible source, easy to navigate, it's quite current, with good graphics. Although it could improve it's efficiency, as downloading videos tends to be slow.