1. Evaluating Fitness Websites Kin 260 Jackie Kiwata

2. Why do it? The Web is a great place for research, but not all sites are created equal Need to establish the validity and credibility of discipline-related sites Don’t want to refer clients / athletes / students to a disreputable site Don’t want to use a disreputable site for research/reference purposes

3. Evaluation Criteria Content Features Target Audience Appropriateness Quality User Experience Usability Site Appearance Links

4. Content The most important part of a web site Provides information needed by users Includes text, graphics, video and sound Without content, a website is just an empty wrapper Content should be organized and effectively communicated

5. Content > Features A capability offered by the website or program Produces value for users Usually can be described in Help Files or mentioned in an ad e.g. Amazon.com – Recommendations Example of a feature on NSCA website: www.nsca-lift.org ? www.nsca-lift.org

6. Content > Target Audience Not all features considered equal Features should be relevant to target audience Identify site’s target audience by reading Mission Statement or by evaluating features e.g. Who is NSCA’s target audience? e.g. Shape.com Events & Promotions Who is target audience? Appropriate?

7. Content > Quality Some questions to ask Did you find the information you were looking for? Where did author get information? Are sources documented with footnotes? How much of content is information and how much are advertisements? Compare quality of content from NSCA: http://www.nsca-lift.org/Perform/articles/070106.pdf and Muscle and Fitness: http://www.muscleandfitness.com/training/207

8. User Experience The overall experience and satisfaction a user has when interacting with a product or system User-centered design is a design philosophy adopted by web developers to maximize the user experience Optimizes the user interface around how people want or need to work rather than forcing the users to accommodate to the system or function

9. User Experience > Usability Website ease of use Measures the quality of a user’s experience when interacting with the website How easy it is for visitors to use website, achieve their goals and how satisfied they are with the process How quickly can a new user learn the website’s interface? How fast can veteran users use the website to accomplish tasks? How often do users make errors when navigating the site? Compare About.com: http://exercise.about.comhttp://exercise.about.com to PT on the Net: www.ptonthenet.comwww.ptonthenet.com

10. User Experience > Appearance How the content is arranged on the page to best meet the user’s needs How consistent, appealing and relevant is the style? Factors to consider Are graphics and text in a single, consistent style? Are text and graphics easy to read? Are there distracting elements?

11. User Experience > Links Does the website contain non-working links? Does the website link to quality sites? What kind of sites link to the website?

12. More Information From UC Berkeley, evaluating web pages: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guid es/Internet/Evaluate.html http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guid es/Internet/Evaluate.html User-centered design: http://www.usability.gov/