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Evaluating Emergency Management Websites

Shelby Canterford

News Flash!

For those who missed the first seminar, I will be presenting the seminar to the ACS Software Quality Association, again on this topic, at the ANU Department of Computer Science on Wednesday, June 16, 6pm.

Purpose

This paper was completed as fulfillment of the requirements for COMP3700, Special Topics in Software Engineering. The subject is an elective for students studying computer science at the Australian National University.

Abstract

This paper discusses the use of world wide web in information dissemination websites, and constructs evaluation criteria to assess the effectiveness of such websites. The web design principles of accessibility, usability, searchability and credibility are reviewed, as is the emergency management literature. These principles are then used to construct five criteria that can be used by web developers to assess their own websites. the five criteria are findability, accessibility, navigation, content, credibility. Three websites were assessed by the criteria. The main problem highlighted by the assessment is that of accessibility and points to an area that needs to be addressed further.

Download the report

The full report as a pdf
The assessment criteria as a pdf as a rtf

If you have any questions about this project, please contact the author at the address below.


Last Updated: June 15 2004
Email the web mistress: shelby at mail dot watersprite dot com dot au