Marking Scheme

The judges will award marks under the headings shown below. However, don’t be put off by the marking scheme - basically all we are saying is that the site should look good, it should be easy to find your way around it, and the information should be of high quality, interesting and useful.

Design (20%)

•  Neat and tidy pages with logical and consistent layout
•  Good use of colour and layout with a small range of blending and nicely contrasting colours
•  Text broken by lines, images and bullets
•  Clear and legible text: dark on light or light on dark
•  The design of the site, pages and graphics assist user comprehension

Credit will be given to innovative design rather than the use of code generating tools

Content (20%)

•  The pages engage and hold the users' attention and interest
•  Your own words - not copied and pasted from another site
•  Information about who has written the pages
•  Accurate, complete, up to date and unbiased information
•  A theme relevant to your school activities (See: below)
•  Identified sources of information with links back to sites used for research if appropriate
•  Correct spelling and grammar

Audience Awareness (10%)

•  An introduction to the site and its intended audience, or a mission statement (not necessarily on the home page)
•  Content and language appropriate for the users
•  Attention to needs of different kinds of users, including those with slow phone lines or sight impairment

Functionality (20%)

•  Easy navigation
•  Consistent use of menus, buttons, and other icons
•  Alternative routes through the material
•  No broken links
•  A site map and/or "breadcrumbs" if appropriate
•  Elements working as expected - for example any visual, audio and interactive features
•  An awareness of the security and safety issues

Something extra or special (20%)

Evidence of creativity or flair, for example, your own:

•  Interactivity - working e-mail or other feedback option
•  Animations
•  Digital photographs
•  Encouragement for users to find answers to questions

Description (10%)

•  A write-up of how you built your web site. Explain the reasons for the design you chose, the tools you used, and any interesting challenges that you faced. Describe the roles of each team member (artist, writer, HTML expert etc.).
•  Describe how the site links in with your school or community activities
•  Explain what you have done to make the site usable and how you checked its usability

You may submit the technical description on paper or (preferably) in pages on the web site itself.

Theme

This year, you are strongly encouraged to build your competition entry with a theme relevant to your school activities. This gives a very “open ended scope”, but some examples might include:

•  Some sort of online community, such as a club site, or area of shared interest
•  A community site possibly linking school with external activities, e.g recycling
•  A revision or support site associated with school work
•  A science project
•  Building your wild area
•  Etc.

However, we are sure you will be able to be much more creative.

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