You can draw up a checklist for comprehensive evaluation of websites, and then apply it to your site. It's possible to use the checklist in different ways, or to create a customised checklist depending on the needs of your site.
Creating a checklist
Creating a comprehensive checklist can be difficult. Depending on how much detail is required, the checklist could be anywhere from one page long up to, perhaps, a whole book worth.
I created an example checklist based on the principles covered in this class. Most of the questions in the checklist were drawn directly from the summaries of each lesson. So I spent only a few hours creating this checklist: a more exhaustive effort might produce better results. However it should be useful as an example.
(It may be useful to view the example checklist at the same time as reading this section: this link to the checklist will open in a new browser window.)
Customising the checklist
If your site has particular requirements, you may need to customise the checklist. For example, an ecommerce site might need to include more specific questions about ease of purchasing, providing users with information about other relevant items to encourage additional purchases, etc.
Using the checklist
You could fill in the checklist in two different ways:
- tick (check) any boxes which the site passes, leave blank any which it fails
- write a mark between 0 and 5 in each box (0 meaning "no, the site fails completely", 5 meaning "yes, the site is completely successful in this aspect)
Getting useful results
To avoid any bias, and make sure nothing is missed, it's preferable to get others to fill in the checklist as well as doing it yourself.
If several people fill in the checklist, you can then look at average or typical results, which are likely to be more useful.
Taking action
Once you have completed the checklist, you can look at the results to see in which areas your site still lacks, and then fix the problems (and go through the checklist again afterwards if necessary).
Drawbacks to this approach
There are a few problems with this approach:
- some questions on the checklist, especially those about different groups, are not easy to answer
- even a "comprehensive" checklist cannot consider all aspects of a good website
- this checklist covers what a site should do but not what it shouldn't
However I feel that a comprehensive checklist can still be useful in helping you make sure your site does everything that it should.
