Duck Digital

RMIT Web Review - Assessment

About RMIT http://www.rmit.EDU.AU/About/

This screen has been assessed according to a working set of criteria:

Heuristic overview

The word `About' does not give much descriptive information about the content of this screen.

  1. The use of the horizonatal line could confuse the user with 480 pixel screen height.
  2. The purpose of the unlabeled navigation boxes (lower left) is unclear. They both link to an index.
  3. The picture of the bicycle (no ALT tag - see below) is also confusing. It is not explained until the samll text block at the bottom of the screen is reached.
  4. Link colour text against the white background lacks contrast and therefore readability.
  5. Text in `at a glance' is compromised by the link colours and the number of links make the text difficult to read.
  6. Each section of the body of this screen appear to lack a clear purpose.
  7. The use of `click here' as a link to a brief history is not recommended as screen readers will make no sense of its destination.

Download Time

The down load time for this screen was within the recommended range.

URL
Size
Time (seconds)
http://www.rmit.EDU.AU/About/ 13.20 K 3.67
http://www.rmit.edu.au/images/rmit-tl.gif 1.78 K 0.50
sillybike.gif 6.90 K 1.92
http://www.rmit.edu.au/images/RMITUsmll.gif 1.43 K 0.40
Total
23.32 K
6.48
HTTP Request Delays

2.00
Total + Delays

8.48

Body text link colour does not contrast well with the background and could be considered an accessibility problem. Links below are not always descriptive.

[Links not yet assessed]

  1. RMIT logo
  2. What's on@RMIT this week
  3. Media Releases
  4. hotTYPE
  5. disclaimer
  6. email
  7. at a glance

  8. Established 1887
  9. 45,000 students
  10. Melbourne
  11. international students
  12. courses offered overseas
  13. statistics site
  14. campuses
  15. RMIT Technology Estate
  16. campus life
  17. alumni
  18. Research centres
  19. Environmentally responsible
  20. equal opportunity, racial tolerance and cultural diversity
  21. Award-winning
  22. Fields of study
  23. top of page

  24. news and views

  25. What's On @ RMIT (repeated)
  26. media releases (repeated)
  27. hotTYPE (repeated)

  28. about our oganisation

  29. strategic plan
  30. teaching and learning strategy
  31. organisational chart
  32. divisions
  33. faculties
  34. annual report
  35. employment opportunities
  36. top of page

  37. enquiries

  38. Admissions
  39. International admissions
  40. staff directory
  41. student e-mail directory
  42. Other enquiries
  43. top of page

  44. what does 'RMIT' stand for?

  45. here
  46. multimedia introduction
  47. Shockwave
  48. top of page

  49. logo (repeated)

Accessibility Suggestions:

  1. Specify a logical tab order among form controls
    Lines 227-228: <span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, Arial"> <p align="center"><select name="url" size="1" onchange="window.location=this.options[selectedIndex].value">
    Line 242: </select></span><input type="submit" value="Visit Selection"></p>

  2. Associate labels with their form controls
    Lines 227-228: <span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, Arial"> <p align="center"><select name="url" size="1" onchange="window.location=this.options[selectedIndex].value">

  3. Use the LANG attribute to identify the language of the text

  4. If possible, avoid using tables to format text documents in columns

  5. Create link phrases that make sense when read out of context
    Line 200: href="http://www.rmit.edu.au/About/hotTYPEv1n1/keydates.htm">here</a>

Browser Compatibility Suggestions:

  1. W3C non-compliance is due to markup being generated for Microsoft Internet Explorer. No encoding errors.

    1. Required attribute ALT is missing from tag IMG for browser(s): HTML 4.0
      Lines 61-62: <p align="center"><font face="Arial"><img src="sillybike.gif" width="160" height="109"></font></p>

    2. Unknown attribute HEIGHT in element TABLE for browser(s): HTML 4.0
      Lines 20-21: <table border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" width="100%" height="100%">

    3. Unknown attribute BACKGROUND in element TD for browser(s): HTML 4.0
      Lines 34-36: <td valign="top" width="150" background="http://www.rmit.edu.au/images/rmitBG-bl.gif" bgcolor="#000000"><blockquote>
      Lines 222-224: <td width="150" background="http://www.rmit.edu.au/images/rmitBG-bl.gif" bgcolor="#000000"><form

    4. Unknown attribute START in element IMG for browser(s): HTML 4.0
      Lines 24-27: name="Index"></a><a href="http://www.rmit.edu.au/"><img src="http://www.rmit.edu.au/images/rmit-tl.gif" alt="RMIT University" align="center" border="0" width="101" height="47" start="fileopen"></a>  </th>

    Metadata:

    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <meta name="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <meta name="keywords" content="RMIT, University, Education, Research, Australia"> <meta name="KeyWords" content="RMIT, University, Education, Research, Australia, Resources"> <meta name="GENERATOR" content="Microsoft FrontPage 2.0">

    This Microsoft metadata non-compliant with Dublin Core emerging standard. KeyWords are repeated.

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