Web Design Analysis (Assignment 2)

Site 1: CNAQ https://www.cna-qatar.com/

  1. Appearance
    1. Consistency

      2. The website is consistent in appearance and has a horizontal navigation across all of its pages. It uses consistent colors, fonts, and themes. It also uses consistent navigation formats.
      However, some pages have slight differences in its sidebar navigation design (color, format) in order to differentiate it from other sections of the website. For e.g.. Each school has its own distinctive color to differentiate it from others. Also, webpages under ‘Working at CNAQ’ has a different style than webpages under ‘Studying at CNAQ’ in order to help users differentiate the website sections.

    2. Color

      3. Most of the colors don’t complement each other, however they are easily identifiable due to their distinctive appearance. Monochrome schemes are not used. Also, the website is designed as dark text on light background.

    3. Freshness

      4. The website feels out of date because its footer displays different years in different webpages. For e.g.. The homepage displays ‘2014’, ‘School of Business Studies’ displays ‘2012’. However, the documents that the website display are mostly up to date. Also, the website is linked to a database in order to simplify its management.

  2. Interaction / Usability
    1. Quick Loading

      2. The website feels fast because it is quickly loading. When looked into Inspect Element > Network, it shows that the images have been optimized for fast loading. Also, the website uses thumbnails when appropriate. However, the website has not provided any feedbacks when waiting is required.

    2. Contextual Clues

      3. The website is consistent. Users are able to identify if they are still on the site or not. The website has provided obvious navigation and clues as to where the users can go in.

    3. Feedback

      4. The website provides a way for the user to give feedback and/or get help. It uses a contact email but doesn’t provide any phone numbers, forms, or FAQ sections.

Evaluation: In my opinion, the site has obeyed the design guidelines to some extent and has a lot to improve in terms of its freshness, feedback, and its overall design.


Site 2: CNAQ D2L https://d2l.cna-qatar.edu.qa/

  1. Appearance
    1. Consistency

      2. The website is consistent in appearance and has a horizontal navigation across all of its pages. It uses consistent colors, fonts, and themes. It also uses consistent navigation formats. Some pages have their own distinctive sections such as ‘Heading’ in order to provide more information about that particular page. For e.g.. The homepage has ‘Support & Getting Started’ section, which is not visible in course pages that have their own sections such as ‘Ebooks MHCampus’.

    2. Color

      3. The website colors complement each other and they are easily identifiable due to their distinctive appearance. Monochrome schemes are not used. Also, the website is designed as dark text on light background.

    3. Freshness

      4. The website feels up to date because it displays the time each content gets updated. For e.g. the course pages display the last time it was accessed. However, the website doesn’t have any footer that displays when the website was updated recently.

  2. Interaction / Usability
    1. Quick Loading

      2. The website feels fast and fluid because it is quickly loading. When looked into Inspect Element > Network, it shows that the images and content have been optimized for fast loading. Also, the website uses thumbnails when appropriate. However, the website has not provided any feedbacks when waiting is required.

    2. Contextual Clues

      3. The website is consistent. Users are able to identify if they are still on the site or not. The website has provided obvious navigation and clues as to where the users can go in.

    3. Feedback

      4. The website provides a way for the user to give feedback and/or get help. It uses a contact email link that opens a mailto dialog box to send feedbacks and help queries. It doesn’t provide any phone numbers or forms. However, the site provides an external link to learn more information about it.

Evaluation: In my opinion, the site has obeyed the design guidelines to good extent and has a good usability design that can be improved by making it more easy to use and less cluttered.


Site 3: University of Oxford http://www.ox.ac.uk/

  1. Appearance
    1. Consistency

      2. The website is consistent in appearance and has a horizontal navigation across all of its pages. It uses consistent colors, fonts, and themes. It also uses consistent navigation formats. Some pages have their own distinctive sections and styles in order to provide more information about that particular page. For e.g.. The homepage has sections such as ‘News’, ‘Discover’ etc. that are not visible in other pages that have their own sections.

    2. Color

      3. The website colors complement each other and they are easily identifiable due to their distinctive appearance. The website uses mainly blue color but not completely in a monochromatic style. Also, the website uses both dark text on light background and light text on dark background.

    3. Freshness

      4. The website feels updated because it displays the current year in its footer. Also, the website contents are up to date.

  2. Interaction / Usability
    1. Quick Loading

      2. Considering the previous two websites, this website feels notably slower because it has more contents such as large images and videos. When looked into Inspect Element > Network, it shows that the images and content have been optimized for fast loading, however due to many multimedia elements, the website is a little slower. Also, the website uses thumbnails when appropriate. However, the website has not provided any feedbacks when waiting is required.

    2. Contextual Clues

      3. The website is consistent. Users are able to identify if they are still on the site or not. The website has provided obvious navigation and clues as to where the users can go in. Also, it uses an identifiable design layout.

    3. Feedback

      4. The website provides a way for the user to give feedback and/or get help. It uses a form that can be filled and submitted to send feedbacks and help queries.

Evaluation: In my opinion, the site has obeyed the design guidelines to great extent and is designed professionally with consideration of the user’s usability. The website could further optimize its contents to make it load faster on slower networks.