Writer Jonathan Scheff reported on the winners of The Scientist's Laboratory Website and Video Awards this month in our Careers feature. He consulted with our panel of expert judges and the designers of winning pages to find out what makes a lab website work.
Colorado State University, LaWVA winner.
Good
Design: clean, simple and professional. Easy-to-read text, broken by lines rather than boxes.
Usability: menu bar is present and consistent for all pages, content accessible within one or two clicks.
Content: organized by topic, broken into sections that pertain to a particular audience group-i.e., potential or current lab members and colleagues.
Bad Content: links section contains few links to external resources; since it does not serve the target audience well, this feature should be improved or removed. Content: skimpy information about lab members; other than e-mail ...
