Merlion Awards Program Criteria and Scoring

Merlion Awards Program Criteria and Scoring

All sites that Qualify (see Criteria) will be evaluated on the following criteria. Each criteria has a point value of 1. All elements in each criteria must be met to receive this point. Websites must meet 8 of the 10 criteria to win the Merlion Awards.
[Revised on 24/May/2006]

Impression
The first impression that your site has on a visitor is one that ensures that they continue to view your site. Your site should have an opening page with only the site name and not over four small other items on the page (ex. stat counter, entrance, copyright statement). It should be free of advertisements, banners, links to other sites and webring links. This opening page may be a flash entrance, but all elements in the flash relate to the site. And of course you would have a skip intro to a flash entrance.

Design
  The Design of the website should be original, appealing and consistent to a visitor.
  Use of the same background on all pages.
  Text is easily readable on backgrounds.
  Text is not too large, too small, irregular.
  Use of the same size and color of text.
  Color co-ordination.
  Pages on the site should not be cluttered with advertisements, links, etc.
  Too much information on one page should be avoided.
  The overuse of animations on a page is a distraction.

Content
The content of the site should be original and creative. If the content of the site is not original is it presented in a different and creative manner. The site should not consist totally of graphics or written content. There must be a good quality mixture of both. The content should be of general interest to anyone visiting your site.

Navigation
The navigation on your site should be flawless. A visitor should be able to go to any page on your site, from any page on your site. There should never be a reason to use the browsers back button. One should be able to go to your homepage from any page on your site. If you use java navigation, you should also have a non-java form of navigation on your pages. Pages over 2 screen lengths should have a top of page function at the bottom of the page.

Graphics
The use of beautiful and original graphics is a plus. If you use graphics made by someone else, this is acceptable, give them the credit. Graphics should be optimized for viewing and have alt tags. Alt tags must have a descripiton of the graphic. All graphics must load, and no little x's where a graphic is suppose to be.

Links
  All internal links on the site must work.
  There must be no more than 2 broken external links.<p>&nbsp;

Statements/Labels
All sites should be labeled with or have a statement declaring the following:
  Privacy
  COPPA (USA)
  Site safe to be viewed by all. (Safesurf,ICRA, or similar)
  Date site last updated or revised.

Loading Time
All pages must load within 45 seconds on a 56K modem, DSL. We do consider our server, your server and will check a couple of times if pages do not load the first time.

Interaction
A visitor should be able to contact you or interact with you from your site. This can be by e-mail, a guestbook or direct contact form. Site should also have a stat counter or visitor counter.

Application
The form does not contain a password. All fields on the form must be filled out and filled out correctly. To ensure that you read the criteria, to earn this point you must put your site name as the first words in description area of application form.