Questions to Use When Evaluating Web Pages

Basic Information

1. What is the URL of the Web source you are evaluating ?
2. What is the name of the site?

Content & Evaluation

1. Who is the audience and what is the purpose of the Web Page?
2. How complete and accurate are the information and the links provided?
3. Does the Web page use multimedia well?
4. How valuable is the information provided in the Web page?

Source & Date

1. Who is the author?
2. How knowledgeable and authoritative is he/she (or the group)?
3. When was the Web page last revised?
4. Are the links up to date? Are there broken links?
5. Can you contact the author by e-mail?

Structure

1. Does the Web page use good graphic design?
2. Are the graphics and art functional or decorative?
3. Is the writing clear and easy to understand?
4. Is there a good balance between inward-pointing links ("inlinks" i.e., within the same site) and outward-pointing links ("outlinks" i.e., to other sites)?
5. Can you get the information you need within 3 or 4 clicks?

Personal Reaction

1. What do you like most about this site?
2. What do you like least about this site?

Writing the Evaluation

Look at the Evaluating Web Sites Assignment page for instructions and a list of possible web sites to review.

Based on questions created by Esther Grassian, UCLA College Library.