Corante.com Site Analysis

http://www.corante.com

One of this module’s discussion questions asked whether a Darwinian model of survivability would result in a universal Web language. The content of such a language—signs, metaphors, links, typography—is continuously evolving and difficult to forecast. Perhaps it’s only safe to say that as bandwidth and computers improve, online media will grow “richer” and these online language elements will continue to change.

The direction of Web site format is easier to assess. One trend that I’ve noticed is the bloggishness of more and more Web sites. The blog format-used-as-front-page is evident on Corante.com. I think this trend reflects the highly functional usabilty, design, and organization aspects of blogs and their bloggish-Web site relative.

Usability:

Consistency contributes greatly to a Site’s usability. Every page on the Corante Site can truly “stand alone.” Finding a page as a search-result from Google or some other engine would pose no problems for navigation; you won’t get lost or run into dead ends. I consider the use of text-based site navigation displays at the header to be some of the most functional and simple navigation features.

Ex:

Home> Industry Insiders> Science and Technology

I checked the Site’s compliance with W3C standards @ http://validator.w3.org/ . From what I could tell--and not being terribly HTML/XML/XTML/CSS literate--the free validation cited 62 different deviations from the most current W3C guidelines. Is this good, bad, or average? How these violations affected usability is unclear. Possibly they indicate non-compatibility with page readers for disabled/special-needs users.

Both IE and Mozilla/Firefox browsers displayed the page consistently and only slight differences in text size and page layout dimensions were perceptible, neither of which influenced usability.

Users can select various text sizes without changing their Web browser settings. Just click one of the letter “A” links to adjust the Site’s textual display size.

Even when operating with reduced browser and connection capabilities (e.g. with images disabled; alt text is provided in the page’s code throughout), it appears the violations cited by W3C’s validation are a non-issue for most users.

Design:

Corante’s design appears to be based on a three-column (left sidebar, main content column, and right sidebar), two-row (header, and main body), grid layout. In keeping with the bloggish-consistency of the Site, subsequent stories and features are displayed in this same manner.

Sidebars or blogrolls, whatever you call these design elements, Corante’s design is easy to scan or skim. Regular users of this site (and its linked-to blogs) are likely to appreciate such a consistent design. Spending time on blogs and blog-like aggregation pages like Corante imprints this design on the user’s eye. This is a simple, predictable format that I am increasingly accustomed to seeing. Does this represent a universal design, if not language?

Organization:

I’m not sure whether this falls under a design or organization feature. The Site’s use of drop-down menus from the Home page differs from subsequent pages. Two such menus appear on the Home page, while three appear on all other pages. I can’t see the value of this inconsistency which limits access and in effect hides content.

Recommendations for Improvement:

1. Offer three drop-down menus on every page. This will enhance usability and create another channel of organization from the front page.
2. I love RSS, but prefer to use it without an RSS reader. This is one of the few RSS-enabled Sites that doesn’t alert my Mozilla Firefox “live bookmarking” feature to RSS feeds on their RSS index. I can’t subscribe to the feed on Firefox without a “live bookmark.” Corante’s individual blogs alert live bookmarks, the RSS index does not.