16 2 WEB SITES’ EVALUATION In this chapter we will evaluate sites of National Bank of Ukraine, Central European Bank and Federal Reserve System of the USA taken into account our developed in the previous chapter criteria. Also we will compare the results and define which site got the highest point and which site needs further development. 2.1 SITES’ DESCRIPTION 2.1.1 NATIONAL BANK OF UKRAINE Address: www.bank.gov.ua Usability Navigability 1. Does site have any navigation system? Yes it has navigation system that is hyperlinks at the top of the window (see figure 2.1). Figure 2.1. Navigation system of www.bank.gov.ua 2. Is this navigation is intuitive, simple and obvious? Yes it is. Knowing the basics of economy we could easily foresee what means every hyperlink of the menu. 3. Can user with the help of site navigation jump to any part within it? Yes, he can. We visited every unit of the menu and they did cover every section that site had. Special print and save function 17 4. Is there a separate link to a complete document for printing and saving?”. Yes every document has this function. Statistical data has both *.pdf or *.xls 6 format that is easy to print and save. Reports and statement are in *.pdf format. Search system 5. If there is any search system on the site? Yes, it has. Navigation menu has special section “Search” at the top right corner. See figure 2.1. Vertical Scrolling 6. Can user see the whole first page without scrolling? No, he can’t. At the first page we had to scroll 1,5 window to reach the bottom. 7. In case of documents or statistics, are they longer than ideal (1,5 screens)? Yes, we opened the first page and we had to scroll 3 windows. Size (in kilobytes) of the home page 8. Which site has the biggest first page? The first page has 245 kb. Further answer needs evaluation of all sites (see point 2.2) Verbal and Visual Rendering Language 9. Does the site frequently use of economical jargon? Yes, it has a lot of jargon. To get the meaning of documents user need to have deep knowledge in economics. 10. Are there spelling mistakes? No, we found no mistakes in 4 overviewed articles. Text and background 11. Does combination of text and background provides comfortable and easy reading? Yes, it has black font on white background that provides user with easy reading (See appendix 1). Informational Content Statistics, Publishing, News 12. This criterion needs comparative analyses. See point 2.2. Information on the First Page 6 Extension of Microsoft Excel file 18 13. Physical address of the national bank on index page. Yes, we found this information at the bottom of the site. 14. Current economical indicators. Yes, this information is on the left side of the web-page. 15. E-mail address to sand feedback to the web-masters (with mailto HTML tag). Yes, e-mail address (with mailto tag) is given near the navigation system (see appendix 1). Up-dated Information 16. News. News are up-dated ones a month in one bag *.pdf package. Thus we give 0 points. 17. Statistics. Statistical data is up-dated once a quarter. Thus “0” points. Informative page titles 18. Does the title of the page body explain what the page is about? Yes, it does. Every site section has its own title. Multiculturality Multi-Languages Support 19. Does the site provide up-dated multi-language support? The site supports English language, but no Russian language on which speaks great part of Ukrainian citizens. English version has less information that Ukrainian version has. Intercultural Interactive 20. Does the site have any form of intercultural interaction? No, it has neither FAQs, nor forum or other interactive forms. Special Notes www.bank.gov.ua is a well organized site. We found it easy to work with him. What lacks him is a bit “friendly” design especially in colors because present colors are depressing. 19 2.1.2 EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK Address: www.ecb.int Usability Navigability 1. Does site have any navigation system? Yes, the site has navigation system. See figure 2.2. It is hyperlinks at top of the page. Also site has 2 additional menus: one at the right site and one at the top (see figure 2.2). Figure 2.2. Navigation System of www.ecb.int. 2. Is this navigation is intuitive, simple and obvious? Yes, it is intuitive and simple. It is emphasized and we could easily guess what each item means. 3. Can user with the help of site navigation jump to any part within it? Yes, he can. Via the navigation system we could get every main section of the site. Special print and save function 4. Is there a separate link to a complete document for printing and saving? Not every document has this special function. Press releases are not useful to be printed because they contain all graphical elements. Statistical data has *.pdf format. Search system 5. If there is any search system on the site? Yes, it has. It is a special section of additional menu (see figure 2.3). Figure 2.3. Hyperlink for search system on www.ecb.int. Vertical Scrolling 20 6. Can user see the whole first page without scrolling? No, he can’t. First page demands 1 window to be scrolled. 7. In case of documents or statistics, are they longer than ideal (1,5 screen)? Yes, most documents are longer than 1,5 screen. Size (in kilobytes) of the home page 8. Which site has the biggest first page? This site has 221 kb. Further answer needs evaluation of all sites (see point 2.2) Verbal and Visual Rendering Language 9. Does the site frequently use of economic jargon? Yes, there is special jargon but site provides “Glossary” to explain these terms. 10. Are there spelling mistakes? We have overviewed several documents in Word 2002 processor and found no mistakes. Text and background 11. Does combination of text and background provides comfortable and easy reading? Yes, the text is readable. It has white background and black font (see appendix 2). Informational Content Statistics, Publishing, News 12. This criterion needs comparative analyses. See subchapter 2.2. Information on the First Page 13. Physical address of the national bank on index page. No address on the first page. 14. Current economic indicators. There are some current economic indicators. 15. E-mail address to sand feedback to the web-masters (with mailto HTML tag). No e-mail address (see appendix 2). Up-dated Information 16. News. News are up-dated approximately once a week. Thus “1” point. 17. Statistics. New statistic appears every week on average. Thus “2” points. Informative page titles 21 18. Does the title of the page body explain what the page is about? Yes, every section has its title that corresponds to the content. Multiculturality Multi-Languages Support 19. Does the site provide up-dated multi-language support? The site supports 20 languages that are all languages of European Union. Every document is in English but only few documents have versions of all supported languages. Intercultural Interactive 20. Does the site have any form of intercultural interaction? No interactive forms. Special Notes The site of European Central Bank has very “friendly” design because of its bright colors with symbols that characterize the EU. There is a special section for students where they can get information about education, some booklets about the ECB and themes for economic researches. Also special “Economical Research” section may be interested for students and post-graduates. The site has special sections for job applicants and suppliers. All members and of our team and people who helped us found rather interesting from both design and economic information. 2.1.3 FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM OF THE USA Address: www.federalreserve.gov Usability Navigability 1. Does site have any navigation system? The site of FRS has navigation system that is hyperlinks at the left of the window (see figure 2.4). 22 Figure 2.4. Navigation system of www.federalreserve.gov 2. Is this navigation is intuitive, simple and obvious? Yes it is. Each menu unit is intuitive, simple and obvious. 3. Can user with the help of site navigation jump to any part within it? Yes, he can. We visited every unit of the menu and they did cover every section that site had. Special print and save function 4. Is there a separate link to a complete document for printing and saving?”. Yes every document has this function. Information outlay is in *.html format without graphical elements. Also some documents are in *.pdf format. Search system 5. If there is any search system on the site? Yes, it has search system on the first page (See Figure 2.4) Vertical Scrolling 6. Can user see the whole first page without scrolling? Yes, he can. Every page is less than 1 window. 7. In case of documents or statistics, are they longer than ideal (1,5 screens)? In the point 4, we mentioned that each document is in *.pdf format, so user don’t have to scroll, but to list pages. 23 Size (in kilobytes) of the home page 8. Which site has the biggest first page? The first page has 155 kb. Further answer needs evaluation of all sites (see point 2.2). Verbal and Visual Rendering Language 9. Does the site frequently use of economical jargon? Yes, it has a lot of jargon, but every economical term is explained in “Glossary” 10. If there is spelling mistakes? No, we found no mistakes in 4 overviewed articles. Text and background 11. Does combination of text and background provides comfortable and easy reading? Site has typical combination of black font and white background (see appendix 3). Informational Content Statistics, Publishing, News 12. This criterion needs comparative analyses (see point 2.2). Information on the First Page 13. Physical address of the national bank on index page. There is no address at the first page. 14. Current economical indicators. There are no any economical indicators at the first page. 15. E-mail address to sand feedback to the web-masters (with mailto HTML tag). No, there is no address to sand feedback to the web-masters. (see appendix 3) Up-dated Information 16. News. News are up-dated every week on average. Thus we give “1” point. 17. Statistics. Statistical data is up-dated once a week. Thus “2” points. Informative page titles 18. Does the title of the page body explain what the page is about? Yes, it does. Every site section has its own title that explains content of page. Multiculturality Multi-Languages Support 24 19. Does the site provide up-dated multi-language support? The site supports only Spanish (Mexican national language) language. Canada is another business partner of America and one of its two national languages is French, but we found no French version of the site. Spanish version has less information than English one. Intercultural Interactive 20. Does the site have any form of intercultural interaction? Yes, there is FAQs. Special Notes We found the site of Federal Reserve System is a big source of well organized information. There is special section for those who looks for a job at FRS (“Career Opportunities”). Also there is special education section that provides information for both teachers and students. 2.2. COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS We have described 3 chosen sites. To give the comparative analysis we decided to design special table into which we put all our points to every site (see table 1). Using this table we will easily find aspects that we consider are needed to be improved. Navigability As you can see from the table (see table 1, points 1-3) every site got maximum points in navigability criterion. Most members of our research group emphasized navigation system of www.bank.gov.ua site because it’s compact, whereas other two sites have scattered menu (more than one menu on a screen). Other members highlighted the menu of www.ecb.int for its colorful design. [good that you used observation as a method but then the sample should be more than 5 people] Special print and save function (see table 1, points 4) All sites support *.pdf formal. The FRS and ECB sites also have *.csv 7 format. Search system (see table 1, points 5) 7 Extension of Microsoft Excel Database file 25 Table 2.1. Comparative Table of Sites’ Evaluation Criterion NBU ECB FRS Usability of a site Navigability 1. Does site have any navigation system? 1 1 1 2. Is this navigation is intuitive, simple and obvious? 1 1 1 3. Can user with the help of the site navigation jump to any part within it? 1 1 1 Special print and save function 4. Is there a separate link to a complete document for printing and saving? 1 0 1 Search system 5. If there is any search system on the site? 1 1 1 Vertical scrolling 6. Can user see the whole first page without scrolling? 0 0 1 7. In case of document or statistics, are they longer than ideal? 0 0 1 Size of homepage 8. Which site has the biggest first page (Kb)? 1 (68.2) 0 (152) 2 (68.9) Verbal and visual rendering Language 10. Does the site frequently use of economical jargon? 0 1 1 11. Are there spelling mistakes? 1 1 1 Text and background 12. Does combination of text and background provides comfortable and easy reading? 1 1 1 Informational Content Statistics, Publishing, News 13. Points for informational content 0 1 1 Information on the First Page 14. Physical address of the national bank on index page 1 0 0 15. Current economical indicators 1 1 0 16. E-mail address to sand feedback to the web-masters (with mailto HTML tag) 1 0 0 Up-dated Information 17. News (points) 0 1 1 18. Statistics (points) 0 2 2 Informative page titles 19. Does the title of the page body explain what the page is about? 1 1 1 Multiculturality Multi-Languages Support 20. Does the site provide up-dated multi-language support? 0 0 0 Intercultural Interactive 21. Does the site have any form of intercultural interaction? 0 0 1 Total 12 13 18 Despite all sites have their local search system we would like to emphasize sites of the FRS and ECB. The first one has search input area right on a first page and there is an opportunity to choose in which section to search. The same approach with search by sections has the ECB site with only difference that every section is provided with its search system. Vertical scrolling (see table 1, points 6-7) [...].. .26 Only the FRS site coped with this criterion Its site can be seen without scrolling even with 800x600 screen resolution Other sites need scrolling Size of homepage (see table 1, points 8) The quickest site to download is www.bank.gov.ua with 68 .2 kb The second site is www.federalreserve.gov (68.9 kb) and the last one is www.ecb.int with 1 52 kb Big “weight” of the ECB... give approximately the same quantity of statistical data It only varies in respect to some specifics of this or that bank has (e.g NBU is a bank of unitary country, FRS – federal country and ECB – union of countries) Information on the First Page (see table 1, points 14-16) Only the NBU site corresponds to every our remarks to the first page It has currency rates, interest rates and commodity prices on... a week Informative page titles (see table 1, points 19) 27 Every chosen site meets this standard that is separate title for separate content Multicultural Multi-Languages Support (see table 1, points 20 ) Every site supports al least two languages but not all language versions are equally up-dated Intercultural Interactive (see table 1, points 21 ) The only one form of intercultural interactivity that... Summing all points we see that the FRS site got 18 points and rank the first place The ECB site was assessed with 13 points and the NBU site got the least point – 12 That is why in the next chapter we will give our recommendations on how to improve the site of our Ukrainian National Bank ... element that create attractive design Verbal and Visual Rendering Language (see table 1, points 10-11) Every chosen site has a lot of jargon due to their functions, but the FRS and ECB sites provide users with glossary Text and background (see table 1, points 12) All sites go by one standard in background and font that is black on white This combination is the most readable Statistics, Publishing, News . 2. 2. It is hyperlinks at top of the page. Also site has 2 additional menus: one at the right site and one at the top (see figure 2. 2). Figure 2. 2. Navigation System of www.ecb.int. 2. . indicators. There are no any economical indicators at the first page. 15. E-mail address to sand feedback to the web-masters (with mailto HTML tag). No, there is no address to sand feedback to. economic indicators. There are some current economic indicators. 15. E-mail address to sand feedback to the web-masters (with mailto HTML tag). No e-mail address (see appendix 2) . Up-dated