Website readability

Blog or vlog post: Analyze the readability of a effective web site versus a less-effective or poorly-designed site or blog in terms of difference in the design features: what specific design features contributed to high versus low readability? Develop some activities that would help students learn to attend to design features in creating and editing their digital writing, for example, how to make their PowerPoint presentations more interactive.

Always on the look-out for creative writing prompts, I checked out two sites:

http://www.writersdigest.com/writingprompts.asp?goto=closead

and

http://www.creativewritingprompts.com/

The Writer's Digest site doesn't hold up in readability tests (my own) compared to the Writing Prompts site. Here are some reasons:
1. Writer's digest has a pop up add when you first access it, asking if you want a free copy of their magazine. Gross.
2. The font size is small.
3. Flash advertisements.
4. Too busy.

The Writing Prompts site isn't fabulously fabulous (also too many small fonts and too much going on) but the cool part is its purpose is very clear: Writing Prompts. There are hundreds of them. You scroll across a number and a writing prompt comes up. It's all secret and revealing fun-like.

Writer's Digest also gives prompts, but just in a list. It's not as fun.

Activities for students to pay attention to design...

1. Show them strong and weak examples of websites, powerpoints, etc. and have them list what categories they can for what makes a visually strong website, etc.
2. Have them find websites that do/don't embody these categories. (Save websites for future use. :) )
3. Have students make the worst powerpoint they can and tell us what makes it so bad.