The Independent Online Edition
Design
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Initial Reaction
The web site looks very simple and has lot's of content, but different stories are only separated by white space, which doesn't make different stories very distinguishable.
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Aesthetics
The web site is mainly white with black text and blue headings. The colours work well together.
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Legibility
The text is clear and legible, however some text may be a bit small to read for some users.
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Layout
The layout is split in four columns. The left three columns contain news stories. The right column contains an advertisement and search box. The different columns are only separated by white space.
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Presentation
The web site is attractive, but with only white space separating different stories, it becomes hard to distinguish between different news stories.
Navigation
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Mouse Clicks
You can get to most articles in three clicks or less.
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Scrolling
The main headlines and navigation are above the fold, so not much scrolling is required.
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Where are you?
The category you are in is highlighted in the navigation. There is a also a breadcrumb displayed below the navigation and the current category is also displayed in the title bar.
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Search
The search box is displayed at the top right of every page under the navigation. It returns the results expected.
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Consistency
The navigation is consistent throughout the site.
Content
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Home Page
The home page displays the main stories and text links to other stories. There are also links to Editor's Choice articles.
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Updates
The web site looks to be update regularly, but there is no indication to when the last update was.
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Quality
The Independent is a trusted newspaper; this trust is carried by its online edition too.
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Images
All the images I found within news articles where related to the article they were placed in.
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Syndication
The web site provides e-mail news alerts and RSS feeds.
Functionality
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Interactivity
I did not encounter any interactive content when browsing the web site. However, users can submit letters which may be published on the web site.
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Browser Compatibility
The web site looks and behaves the same in the three major browsers; Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Opera
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Resolution Compatibility
The web site is designed for a resolution of 800 x 600 pixels and will not expand past 800 pixels wide leaving a lot of white space on the right in larger screen resolutions.
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Errors
I did not encounter any errors whilst using the web site.
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Accessibility
The web site failed validation of CSS, HTML, but passed an automated accessibility test. However, the site is still usable for the three types of colour blindness I checked for.
Conclusion
The web site's design is simple and the colours work well together. Navigation is good and consistent; you always know where you are. The content is from a quality source, but doesn't tell the user when it was last updated, so they have no idea when the last update was. There is no interactive content, but the web site is more accessible than some of the other web sites.
The Independent Online Edition web site achieved an overall rating of 77%
