 
Web Site Review - LessonPro.net and Blackboard.com: My apologies to those who thought LessonPro.net was a good example of much of anything. I seriously had to open the page again, to remember the name to write it here. In all fairness, it does appear that they are very new. If you click deep enough, which isn't hard as it seems to be not extensive in offerings ... you come to a chart where it shows there are only 6 courses available for public viewing. Out of 23 possible courses. I guess all who are not students or teachers, must be the evasive USER ... and there are exactly 6 places you can go. As for the site itself ... I despise frames. Frames are the reason that we, at Capella, have the LearningSpace click disease. Click to get here, get there, and back over there, all to try and find one item that seems to have a dozen clickable links ... but maybe none will get around to getting there. Very frustrating. Obviously, LessonPro might eventually be a useful site for teachers and students. Even right now (and I wasn't curious enough to sign up to find out) it may be a good place to house a course. But, with so many options available online, for free -- this one needs to have a more informative entry/home page, one that draws people into the content. One that makes you want to put your ideas there, as you and your students will be living there for a while. There are lots of folks "following a buzzword" and putting things online. It sure doesn't make them effective, or even good. I was very unimpressed with this site. Blackboard.com however, is another thing. I have followed their web presence almost since the beginning. I disagree with my peers who've said that the info is limited. The links to their history, their mission, and who they are ... is the first bunch of links under the logo. It's worth the reading time. I find their recent changes to the gateway to the courses (the site used to open on all of that history stuff, and it was harder getting to the course info) is very good design. It is clean and easy to find the information you need. The search engine seems to need some work, but many of their new changes have only been in effect for a short while, according to newsletters I've received. Blackboard has been my main choice for placement of online courses, for over a year. I find their growth very exciting. --- * Why is the information space so critical to interface design? The totality of design of ANY web site (or book page or t.v. screen, etc.; think on it) has to do with every element that is seen, heard, or experienced. This includes the graphics, text, multimedia, sound ... and every square inch of NON-stuff, the white space. This information space is critical because it usually is the only driving force for keeping your visitor's attention. Once you've lost their attention, it may be and usually is ... a forever kind of thing. It is your presence, your statement, your BEING. In my opinion, the old statement of not being able to judge a book by its cover, never did hold water ... and for the online presence, it is absolutely untrue. I wager 99% of your visitors will judge your site ... your product, your abilities ... within the first 15 seconds of accessing your site. It best be ... stellar. --- * What does the information space of the two web sites listed [above] communicate? As I stated above, the information space of LessonPro didn't communicate much to me. For my several decades in art and publishing, the graphics held my attention for a short time. The next thing noticed was the Frames setup. Giving it the benefit of the doubt, I clicked each link. This site took very little time to navigate enough of the links to realize there wasn't much there. I didn't stay long. --- * What is the intended user base? Is the navigational path suitable for the user base? LessonPro may be worth a second look, in a few months. If they are just very new, then much will be added. For now, it appears to only be useful to 23 entities ... the teachers or students of the 23 classes offered. Most of that learner base appears to be k-12 age groups. Blackboard offers courses that cover several learner bases, from K-12, through college level, through corporate. They have provided a very usable breakdown of these levels, and a user-friendly setting for navigating the sections. In peeking through some of the new classes, the navigational paths seem very appropriate for finding one's way around what certainly is a huge web site. I was very glad to see how much "corporate" now seems to be using the Blackboard site.
WebSpinner@refuge-earth.org ( that's me — Leanne! )
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