Stanford Housing Tutorial – Aki

Your site will be a very useful resource for many Stanford students if you are able to keep up with all the changing housing scenarios. I really like how you break it down by class, allowing students to see only what they need. Though it may be a little too informal in places, the language you use is very welcoming and friendly.

Visible Site

Having links for each class year presented right away presents nice direction for those coming to your site. You may want to include some pictures or visuals on the front page to make it a little less plain and a little more exciting. On the pages for each class, I really like the question and answer style you present. This helps continue the friendly conversation style your site maintains. It might be a little more helpful to have the questions presented at the top so that users can find exactly what they want without having to scroll through information they do not need. I believe you mentioned this in your presentation, but I think it would also be nice to include testimonials from other Stanford students as well answering some of the questions. Finally, I really like how you break down the draw in two different manners: one very simple and one more in-depth. This lets the reader choose how much information to take from the site.

Assignments

Your Assignment 1 reads somewhat like a story, which makes for easy reading if someone is going to sit down and read the whole thing. If you want to include this on the visible portion of your site at all, though, you might condense it a little, break some parts into bullets, etc. to make for easier scanning. In your business plan, you break everything down into logical groups and include estimated numbers wherever necessary. I think this is really great as it leaves the reader with few questions, if any, about the demographics and finances.

Overall, I think it’s a great idea for a site!

 

It’s Easy Being Green – Susie

This site is a great resource for learning about sustainability! The way you make it so that the user is the focus is very engaging and will keep the attention of most who visit your site. I also like the layout you have; the color scheme and simplicity make for easy reading.

Visible Site

There are some spots, such as in the introduction, where your text is a little heavy and overwhelming, which you may want to break up. The information you present is excellent, especially with all the definitions, I just think the size of its content may scare off some readers. In your ‘Become a Sustainable Thinker’ section, the wording you use seems a little harsh and may make a reader not want to participate, feeling like he or she is being scolded. In your food section, I really like the seasonal foods table as it breaks down everything quite nicely.

General Comments

You may want to include some more pictures on your site, other than just Kermit. For example, seeing the different seasonal foods rather than just their names may entice readers to look at that section a little more closely. I think your ‘What Can I Do?’ sections are very helpful, though you may want to make them more prominent by setting them off to the side or something. Overall, the layout and simplicity make for easy navigation, greatly helping the reader.