Criteria

One of our awards

***Your site must be written in English or provide a means to translate into English. If this is not provided we cannot properly judge your site. We will not issue an award for a site of which we do not know the true content. ***To be given our Excellence in Webpage Design award you must earn 90 points or more. Any sites earning less than 70 points will be given our Merit award, but their site must have viable content. Sites earning between 80 and 90 points will earn one of our other awards related to their site.

CONTENT: 30 points: Your site should have a substantial amount of content of interest to someone besides yourself. Your content should be easy to read -- and easy on the eyes -- no tiny print or hard-to-read fonts. You lose points for: *spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors (disqualifies your site if the errors are frequent) *vague, unclear, or confusing text *sloppiness in formatting text *one-page web sites *material that is factually incorrect *profanity *outdated material *color combinations that make your text difficult to read LAYOUT/NAVIGATION: 20 points Your site doesn't have to be a piece of art, but the layout should be easy on the eyes and pleasant to see. Navigation should be easy -- your material should be easily accessible from anywhere on the site without having to use the BACK button. You lose points for: *awkward navigation *poor organization GRAPHICS/SOUND: 20 points If you use graphics and/or sound they should be there for a purpose -- not just because you can use them. You lose points for: *overuse of animated graphics *graphics that have no purpose for being on the page *huge graphics, splash pages, etc. that take a lot of time to download *UNDER CONSTRUCTION signs. All sites are a work in progress. *graphics that clash with the text and make it difficult to read *background music that cannot be turned off at the viewer's discretion ADVERTISING: 10 points Sometimes, as you've noted on this site and others, you can't get around carrying some advertising on your site.  It's a trade-off for getting free web space, software, etc.  There's nothing wrong with having a modest amount of third-party ads on your pages as long as you don't go overboard.  Ads should be in-line on your page and should not draw  attention away from your content.  You lose points for: *ads in pop-up windows (disqualifies your site if they are excessive) *a large amount of advertising beyond what's required by your web space provider FUNCTIONALITY: 20 points: It seems strange to say that your site should work, but a lot of them don't.  If your site doesn't work properly, then what's the point?  You lose points for: *broken links *missing graphics *too many Java applets slowing things down *being browser-specific (I use Netscape and IE5, as well as MSN Browser, depending on my mood) *crashing my browser *requiring weird plug-ins I never heard of in order to view your site **Each submitted site will be reviewed as soon as possible.  Only winners will be notified via email of their award.  If you have not heard from me within four weeks, you may safely assume that you have not won. **After 60 days have elapsed, you may, if you wish, re-submit your site for reconsideration ONLY if you have improved it since your original submission. We will be keeping track of all entries as well as the date of initial application.