d: Start and End of main content:
These two graphics feature on each page as well. The top image is to support the sub-title of each page. It signifies the start of the main content. The image to the bottom of the page is to signify the end of the main content. These images are both colour coordinated to add to the consistency of the website.
e: Enter site button:
This is the only button on this page. This button, when clicked on, takes the user to the first page of the website, which is the welcome page, which gives the user a brief summary of the module. The same button design will be used throughout the website.
The Welcome Page:
As with the other web pages on this website, the same template is used, however, along with the same template the following features are unique to this page:
a: These are the buttons that help the user to go around the website. This is the navigation that is available throughout the website. I have used similar colours for the buttons so that it blends in with the rest of the page. The design of each button is kept the same for consistency. On this page, I have 7 buttons, all taking the user to different pages of the site. The “home” button, has added to it, a hyperlink to the welcome page, the same page the user is on already. This needs to be improved by erasing this button because it is not needed.
b: This page is mainly aimed at welcoming the user to the website. It gives a summary about the module, and aimed to briefly describe what the Internet communications module is about. I use bullet points that I have made myself. It uses the same gradient colouring that is used for the top of each page in the site, so that it all looks more consistent.
Lecturer Page:
a: This page is about the lecturer of this module, Mr.Lu. First of all I have included his personal details that may be relevant to the user, such as his name, and contact details, so that the user has a means of communication with him. I have also included his website address.
b: I have also included a picture of Mr.Lu. This, I think is a good thing, as it adds a bit more graphics to the page, and it livens up the page.
c: Other information I have added about Kevin Lu are his academic references. Such as the modules he teaches, his special interests and contributions to publications.
Syllabus Page:
This page provides information to the user about the course layout itself. The content of this page is useful to a user that wants to know what they will be studying in this module. It shows the aims of the module, how the course will be assessed, the teaching hours, the lecture plan (what each week of lectures will be based on), links to the coursework page, books and references that may be of help to a student studying this module, and contact information of staff that may be able to help students or users who have enquiries about this module.
Content Page:
This page provides links to all the lecture notes relating to all the lectures that are for this module. When the user clicks on the lecture names, they are taken to the program the notes were created on and automatically opens the notes for them, this is very useful for students who missed their lectures.
Assessment Page:
This page includes all the coursework titles and descriptions that a student studying this module would have to do. Along with the requirements of the coursework, the deadline date and word limit is also included.
Student Results Page:
This page is aimed at the students who are taking this module. It shows the results of each student for assignments 1 to 3 and the in-class test. The way that the students can identify their marks is by finding their Brunel Student number, and then looking across the columns at their marks.
External Links Page:
This page provides useful links to the user to sites that are related to either the module itself or the contents of the module. For example, links to the Brunel Website, and the School of Business Management in Brunel site, and Kevin Lu’s homepage all are related to the module itself. The other links all provide more information about the module content, as well as help with some of the topics discussed in lectures.
CONCLUSION
All in all, the useful thing about this website is that the navigation through the website is easy. There are buttons on each page which enable the user to go to any other page in the website. The layout and design of the website is consistent is not too crowded giving it a formal look. All the content of the website is relevant to the module itself and the University.
However, there are two things that I think the website lacks. One thing is that it is too simple, more images need to be used, however, it is hard to include more images because they would be irrelevant to the purpose of the website, which is to write about the module. One other improvement that could be made is to have buttons or links at the bottom of pages that are quite long, so that the user does not have to manually scroll up the page, this would be helpful for pages such as the “Syllabus” page, when there is a lot of text to read.
