W3Schools.com Website Review - April Baeb

1. The site's home page does not validate.

2. The second page I checked did not validate either.

3. The site's home page had five errors/warnings and the second page I checked (a link to a page about C++) had 19 errors/warnings.

4. I would give the site's design a 5 because I simply consider the design to be "okay." The colors complement each other on the home page, the site does have a clear design, and it is overall nice to look at. However, the site does feel a little long. It's like a person has to scroll forever to get to the bottom on the home page. The design on the home page could also use some more variety. Something else could definitely be done instead of having a block design for each section. I do love all how all the different sections take you straight to another page where you can learn more about a web language though. That is very useful. The other thing I don't like about the design is that on any page where you go to learn more about a web language, there are other links in the right column that are distracting to the content. If those could go away, those pages would be much more appealing. The left column on those pages gives an outline of the content on those web language pages. The design of this is helpful since you can see all the different pages you can visit regarding that web language, but the page would look cleaner if it was something similar to a hamburger menu that could be hidden and then revealed if a user clicked on it.

5. I would give the site's usability an 8 because it loads quickly and the sections to learn more about certain web languages are clearly marked on the home page. It is, overall, very easy to navigate. However, as I mentioned in my previous answer about the design, the user does have to scroll for a long time on the home page. If there was a way to shorten that scroll, the usability on the home page would be great! Also, when you go to any page to learn more about a web language, there is a navigation bar in the left column which is very helpful for usability, but I think it could be even better if it could be more of a hamburger menu function which could be hidden and then revealed by the user if they click on it. The site does have several validation errors/warnings though, so that is very disappointing from a usability standpoint.

6. I believe the site does meet its purpose. It is there to provide information on all the different web languages and it does. It provides a lot of information! This is a resource I have already bookmarked on my browser. The site would be a better role model of how to code web pages if it was validated though. It's a big disappointment that it's not validated.