People Who Tested:
Gary V. Grutkowski, Bonnie Chun-Bennett, Susan Snow, Heather Dubin, Marcy McNeil, Kent Ward, Jennifer Pucillo, Kristi Anderson
People Who Did Not Test:
Anyone on the Center for Wellness, Puente Project, and Health Care for All teams that is not listed above.
Computers Tested On:
Gateway 180, Compaq Presario 1200 Laptop, Mac, Dell 8200, Dell 800, Compaq Presario
Monitor Sizes:
17", 15", 17", 19"
Monitor Colors:
16 bit, 24 bit, 32 bit (800x600)
Operating Systems:
win 98, Windows 2000,Windows 2000 Pro,Windows XP Professional, System 10.1.5, Pentium 4
Browsers:
IE 5.1, IE 6.0, Netscape 4.7, Netscape 6
Internet Connections:
56K, Cable, DSL

What is the overall tone and feel of the site?
The site was welcoming and organized. The colors were warm, calming and professional, but also very subdued and bland. This isn't a site that is going to jump out at the reader, since the only colors on the side are green on a beige background. The one person who commented on the logo loved it, but felt that the print could be smaller. The Information is well oriented, serious and appropriate.

What is the site about?
The point of the site is extremely clear. All people who tested were able to tell that it was for the Advocacy Resource Center, a non-profit organization that helps those with developmental disabilities get the necessary support needed.

What was your first impression of the opening screen?
The photos are nice and vivid, but too large. There is far too much scrolling because there is a lot of information on the main page that should be on an About Us page. Homepages should have no or very little scrolling. There is an awkward gap on the left side of the screen between the navigation and the text, one person mentioned waiting expecting something to load there. This extra, unneccesary room for the navigation pushes the text far over to the right hand of the screen on small monitors, while the open gap is annoying for those who have large monitors. Though even on small monitors with high resolution the text doesn't appear to get cut off. The text itself is rather big. However, despite all this a few people felt it was a nice to moderate design, effective and appealing, however nothing jumps out at them.

Where did you first click?
All except for one person who tested clicked on the History page, the other one clicked on Programs.

Did you find the site easy to navigate?
No one had any trouble at all navigating the site.

Were the visuals were appropriate?
There are too few photos on the site, but those that are there seem very much in the right places and fit the theme. One person had trouble figuring out what the photo on the contacts page was for and another noted it was too large and takes too long to load. None of the pictures are very stimulating though and the one on the homepage was noted again to be too large. One person suggested it should be cropped and focus more in on the people within the picture.

Were the pages interesting? Why or why not?
Most people felt the pages were at least moderately interesting, but only because of the content matter on the pages. Most people felt the design was bland and the big blocks of text could use images to break it up.

Was the organization and sequencing of information appropriate?
For the most part everyone felt that the organization and sequencing of infrormation was very appropriate. One person felt that board would make more sense above the policy. However, one person said they were confused since they expected an 'about us' page and that was on the home page. The same person also noted that there is no navigation bar on the directions page.

What did you like best about the site?
The color and logo
Easy to find information
Some of the information presented interested me a lot.
I liked the fade on the green in the background.
The little dove in the logo.
Consistent design.
The multi-picture on the first page was nice.
The green is a nice color for this site. The left hand gradient is nice too.

Did you find the calendar, was it easy to read?
No one has any trouble finding the calender, but everyone noted that the calender wasn't complete and had nothing listed on the page except for the names of the months.

Was the amount of interaction was appropriate?
Yes. The only people who didn't say 'yes' specified that they didn't understand the question.

Did the site help you learn about the Advocacy Resources Center and what it does?
Again, another yes all the way across.

What suggestions for improvement do you have?
The site should be looked over one more time for spelling. The left to right scrolling on the disorders page is annoying. The page's alignments and spacing are extremely veriable and need to be streamlined. Specifically on the Contact, ,Membership and Policy pages where there are a lot of unneeded spaces making everything look blown up and causing a lot of unneeded scrolling. They should be changed to be consistant with the Programs and Affiliates pages. The bottom navigation and the side navigation don't match. One says 'affiliates' and the other 'affiliated organizations' one or the other should be choosen. The site needs more visual design interest, it is too bland to keep a reader's attention for too long since there isn't much on the site except for reading long blocks of information. The font sizes seem extremely big, especially on the contact page. The navigation pushing the text over also makes the site hard to read. The graphic images on the left between the navigation and grradient bar need adjusted so that they match up and the bottom navigation needed to be movedto the right a little so that it appears to be centered on the page.