Evaluating Web information and design

The growth of use of the Internet, and particularly the World Wide Web, has made electronic libraries a reality of sorts, and put publishing electronically within the grasp of anyone with a computer and a method of Internet connection. This has re-emphasised the importance of methods for critically evaluating the quality of published information. Some of the criteria used to evaluate Internet information sources are no different from those used by librarians and information professionals to evaluate conventional publications. Some consensus is also emerging about good practice in the design of Web pages, to do with aspects such as writing style, navigation, graphics, etc. It follows that methods for critically evaluating the content and design of existing Internet document can also usefully inform the production of new documents. The present paper aims to identify and provide a digest of ‘good practices’ from some such sources.