Title: Content or Graphics An Empirical Analysis of Criteria for AwardWinning Websites
1Content or Graphics? An Empirical Analysis of
Criteria for Award-Winning Websites
Rashmi Sinha, Marti Hearst Melody
Ivory University of California, Berkeley Maya
Draisin International Academy of Digital Arts and
Sciences
For more information http//sims.berkeley.edu/si
nha/Webby2000
2What are the qualities of award-winning websites
- Webby Awards dataset is an untapped resource
- Large pool of sites are rated on multiple
criteria - Analysis of the dataset can inform us about the
qualities that distinguish good from bad websites
3Ultimate Goal Tools to Help Non-Professional
Designers
- Examples
- A grammar checker to assess guideline
conformance - Imperfect
- Only suggestions not dogma
- Automatic comparison to highly usable pages/sites
- Automatic template suggestions
4The Current Goal
- What are the qualities of award-winning websites?
- Do good websites in different content categories
differ other in terms of importance of different
criteria? - What is more important for website quality
Content or Visual Design
5Webby Awards 2000
- Fifth Year in operation
- Webby Awards 2000
- 3000 websites from 27 content categories rated on
multiple criteria
6Webby Awards 2000
- 6 criteria
- Overall Site Experience
- Five specific Criteria
- Content
- Structure and Navigation
- Visual Design
- Interactivity
- Functionality
- Scale 1-10 (highest)
7Judging Process
- Open Submission Process
- Anyone can submit a site
- 3 rounds of Judging
- Site Review Stage (from 3000 to 400 sites)
- Site Nominating Stage (from 400 to 135 sites)
- Final Judging (from 135 to 27)
8Webby Judges
- Review Stage Judges
- Internet professionals.
- Familiarity with content category
- Nominating Judges
- New media journalists, editors, web developers,
and other Internet professionals - Possess comprehensive knowledge of sites in their
content category - Peoples Voice Ratings
- People vote for their favorite sites of the final
135
9Review Stage Analysis
- 6 criteria
- Content, Structure Navigation, Visual Design,
Functionality Interactivity - Overall experience
- 3000 sites
- 3 judges rated each site
10The whole range of sites Good to Bad
Mean 6.01 SD 1.59
11What criteria contribute to overall rating?
12What factors predict ratings
- The best predictor of the overall score is
content. Also the best unique predictor. - The worst unique predictor is visual design
13Review Stage Interrelationship of Criteria
14Nominating Stage Analysis
- 6 criteria
- Content, Structure Navigation, Visual Design,
Functionality Interactivity - Overall experience
- 414 sites
- 3 judges rated each site
15Mostly Higher Rated Sites
Mean 7.6 SD 1.66
16What criteria contribute to overall rating?
17Example Webby Content CategoriesArt, Commerce
Radio
18Art
19Commerce Sites
20Radio Sites
21Conclusions
- Content is by far the best predictor of overall
site experience. - Visual Design does not have much predictive power
22http//sims.berkeley.edu/sinha/Webby2000