Transcript kin260_lec9

Evaluating Fitness
Websites
Kin 260
Jackie Kiwata
Why do it?
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The Web is a great place for research, but
not all sites are created equal
Need to establish the validity and credibility of
discipline-related sites
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Don’t want to refer clients / athletes / students to a
disreputable site
Don’t want to use a disreputable site for
research/reference purposes
Evaluation Criteria
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Content
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Features
Target Audience Appropriateness
Quality
User Experience
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Usability
Site Appearance
Links
Content
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The most important part of a web site
Provides information needed by users
Includes text, graphics, video and sound
Without content, a website is just an empty
wrapper
Content should be organized and effectively
communicated
Content > Features
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A capability offered by the website or
program
Produces value for users
Usually can be described in Help Files or
mentioned in an ad
e.g. Amazon.com – Recommendations
Example of a feature on NSCA website:
www.nsca-lift.org ?
Content > Target Audience
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Not all features considered equal
Features should be relevant to target
audience
Identify site’s target audience by reading
Mission Statement or by evaluating features
e.g. Who is NSCA’s target audience?
e.g. Shape.com Events & Promotions
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Who is target audience?
Appropriate?
Content > Quality
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Some questions to ask
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Did you find the information you were looking for?
Where did author get information?
Are sources documented with footnotes?
How much of content is information and how much
are advertisements?
Compare quality of content from NSCA:
http://www.nsca-lift.org/Perform/articles/070106.pdf
and Muscle and Fitness:
http://www.muscleandfitness.com/training/207
User Experience
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The overall experience and satisfaction a
user has when interacting with a product or
system
User-centered design is a design philosophy
adopted by web developers to maximize the
user experience
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Optimizes the user interface around how people
want or need to work rather than forcing the users
to accommodate to the system or function
User Experience > Usability
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Website ease of use
Measures the quality of a user’s experience when
interacting with the website
How easy it is for visitors to use website, achieve their
goals and how satisfied they are with the process
 How quickly can a new user learn the website’s
interface?
 How fast can veteran users use the website to
accomplish tasks?
 How often do users make errors when navigating the
site?
Compare About.com: http://exercise.about.com
to PT on the Net: www.ptonthenet.com
User Experience > Appearance
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How the content is arranged on the page to
best meet the user’s needs
How consistent, appealing and relevant is the
style?
Factors to consider
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Are graphics and text in a single, consistent style?
Are text and graphics easy to read?
Are there distracting elements?
User Experience > Links
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Does the website contain non-working links?
Does the website link to quality sites?
What kind of sites link to the website?
More Information
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From UC Berkeley, evaluating web pages:
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guid
es/Internet/Evaluate.html
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User-centered design:
http://www.usability.gov/