There is no comprehensive set of standards for web interface design, apart from the gramatical standards for HTML and the HTTP protocol. This lack of standards, along with some designers' poor understanding of graphic interface design principles jeopardise navigation, understanding, and enjoyment of Websites.
Missing information! A reference site or page that should and could have the information you need, or pointers to that information, however it does not.
A second observation: it is nearly impossible to get an honest critical opinion about your site. There isn't much incentive for your users to fill out a feedback form, unless they are really emotional about your site.
A final note on philosophy- this service is free and will always be free for those who invest their time in an honest critique.
The registration form asks for information under four major catagories: Contact Information, Site Information, Personal Information, and Questions.
After you first submit the registration, you will see a preview of your Critique Form as we understand it. After you OK this submission, you will not get a chance to revise your questions, so make sure that your questions look the way you want them to before you make your final submission.
Also note that you will be sent an email with the answers to your questions in it. You will have to be able to understand the questions in ASCII text format.
Note that you do NOT need to ask what browser or operating system the Critiquer is using. This information is recorded by our server and we automatically include it within the critique.
It is important to remove the questions that you do not want asked, especially if they don't apply. (For example, "Rate the sound appeal..." or "rate the animated graphics...".) This will make it easier for the person critiquing your site to answer the critique questions truthfully, without wasting time on questions that are not important to you.
The following text area contains some sample questions for each of the three question types. You can submit this form to see the questions the way they would appear in the Critique form.
Remember you must seperate questions by a double character return.
When you preview your submission be sure to check that your questions came out the way you wanted. They will appear in that same way to people critiquing your site.
Sites which have critiques due, but are not on the roster, are in a longer list of sites each due a critique. As each site on the roster is critiqued, if it still has critiques due, it moves to the end of the longer list. A new site is added to the last place on the roster, from the longer list, whenever a site is critiqued.
If your site is due a critique, it may take a couple of days for it to appear on the roster. Please be patient. The more sites you critique, the faster your site will appear on the roster.
The sites at the top of the roster have been in the roster longest, so it's a good idea to critique them first.
As a general guideline, the entire critiquing process should take half-an-hour for one site. Do not submit a critique if you cannot view the pages! If you can't load the pages, or the site seems to be down, please critique a different site instead.
The second part of the critique form contains all the questions that the you you are requested to answer about the site that you are critiquing. Pay special attention to whether you are asked to critique a whole site or just a page. If you are asked to critique a page, you should be quite thorough with your fill-in answers.
Please take into account that another site designer will be receiving this critique; give them information they can use to improve their site. It is important that you fill in most of the text fill-in questions. Do not leave all of the text fill-in questions blank.
While you may leave some range questions blank, you should try to fill in as many as you can with good information. But it should go without saying that you should leave a question blank before you answer randomly. Do not answer any questions randomly.
Finally, on a range question, please use the high extreme range only for those web-pages that are truly without parallel, the creme de la creme of web pages you've seen.
See below in the Frequently Asked Questions for a discussion of "What makes a good critique".
If you are emailed by your critiquer, you may explain yourself as much as you want. You may also ignore their email. However, if you fill out the Critique form poorly, the site you critique may complain to us and we can decide to un-credit you for that critique, and/or block your URL from future critiques if necessary.
If you want more critiques of your site, you should let other designers on the web know about Critique. The more people who use this service, the stronger this service will be.
Q2. How long will I wait for a critique of my site?
Response-times vary from less than a day to over a week. We organize the roster so that the oldest-due critique appears at the head of the list, so that everybody has a fair chance to get their critiques quickly.
Q3. How can I get my critique faster?
The more critiques you answer, the faster your site will appear on the roster. Once your site is on the roster, the more users Critique has, the faster somebody will critique your site. Your results will also depend upon how attractively you phrase your s description for the Roster! Write descriptively to attract people to your site.
Q4. What makes a good critique?
A good critique tells the site-owner what you liked and did not like about their pages. It also tells them why. The site owner wants your opinion! Give it to them! Be specific with particular items that affected your opinion, either positively or negatively. The majority of returned critiques did not contain any filled in text, or only a word or two. Fill in the text boxes with useful information!
Q5. How do I change my information to point at a new site address, or change other information?
You may change information by filling out the form at: http://www.coder.com/creations/critique/update.html. You will need to fill out all the information listed. Please allow at least one week for changes to be made; they are all done manually.