Problems with vegsource.com and Suggestions for Improvement

I identified some key problems with the vegsource.com website and suggested some potential solutions. Most of the problems relate to organization of the site such as creating better menus and moving some of the front page content into other parts of the website.

• Problem: Visitors to the site are overloaded with information from the first page of the site. It is necessary to scroll and scroll to reach the bottom of the page, and it seems like everything on the site has a link from the front page (in rather small print, too). There are clearly some attempts at organization with menu bars along the side and menu buttons at the top, but it seems incomplete as much of the content does not seem to fit in those categories.
  
  Suggestion: Drastically decrease the amount of content on front page. The creators need to make decisions about what is important to include in their entry page and how to entice people to explore further in the site. A better way to organize would be to have a welcoming message with a menu or menus that link to further content. Perhaps some recent headlines and some of the most recent articles could be highlighted to pique interest as well as an explanation of what a visitor can and cannot find at the site.
  
  
• Problem: The complete listing of the names of discussion boards and VegSource-sponsored sites (called "VegSource Sites") seems unnecessary on the front page of the site and adds to the clutter.
  
  Suggestion: Provide links in a menu for the site for discussion boards and VegSource-sponsored sites.
  
  
• Problem: Although most links are to sites created or sponsored by vegsource.com, the style of the pages can differ greatly (e.g., Mission Statement, John Robbins' page "The Food Revolution", and the VegNews discussion board. It is also unclear until visiting some of the VegSource-sponsored sites that they are created by different people.
  
  Suggestion: Take the direct links to VegSource Sites off of the main page (as suggested above) but make a link to them from the main page that clearly indicates what they are (information by and about organizations and individuals supported by VegSource.com.). Also, for those pages which are created by VegSource.com, stick with a consistent format so that it is clear where visitors are.
  
  
• Problem: Images largely lack alt text descriptions. Those that are there are unhelpful (e.g., Click here).
  
  Suggestion: Add the necessary descriptions to the images and other non-text elements.
  
  
• Problem: There is a lot of information within the discussion boards, but it is difficult to find given the format of the discussion boards with no organization beyond reverse chronological order.
  
  Suggestion: Reorganize the discussion board so that not every single response on every single discussion thread is listed. Perhaps just improving search functionality would help, i.e., giving options for more complex searches within the site. This would be helpful for the entire site. Also, creating an archive of responses would lessen the need for scrolling through the entire history of the discussion board.
  
  
• Problem: This is a relatively minor problem, but the animated border around the image above the link to the "VegSource Conference Video Tapes 2002" is unnecessary and distracting.
  
  Suggestion: Removing the distracting flashing border would easily solve this problem.
  

Return to top, critique, INLS 181 page or my INLS 181 portfolio.

E-mail questions to Meghan Lafferty at melaffer@email.unc.edu
Last updated October 6, 2003.