Critiquing

In the workshop, we will take one site at a time, and go around the room to hear a variety of your reactions and suggestions to it. Rest assured that you will be called upon several times in each workshop to share your comments. To prepare for this discussion, follow these general guidelines.

• Interact with the sites. Before the class meeting, spend time reading and interacting with each of the sites scheduled to be discussed. Be sure to reread the assignment and have its goals clearly in mind. Click through them first as if you were members of various audiences. Then go back through a write down your impressions and detailed suggestions, a separate page for each site. Keep in mind that you are addressing all your comments to the creator of the piece, who will get back your critique once you've turned it in to me. Put your name on each page as the responder.
• Be specific. For each site, make comments keyed to particular Web pages or page details, and then sum up your reactions and suggestions in a short paragraph at the bottom of your page. This summary can also serve as your talking points when you're called upon in class.
• Sum up. You should comment both on the physical production of the pages and the organization of the site, as well as on the rhetoric and aesthetics of the site. If you would like to see how certain effects where achieved technically, try choosing "File" > "Save As" to save the page to your desktop, and then open it up with Dreamweaver or another HTML-editing application.
• Respect takes two forms. First, while your comments should be constructively "critical," they should never be contemptuous or dismissive in tone. These are all Web-design projects in progress, and anyone who shares his or her work deserves consideration, help and recognition of what's been accomplished. Second, respect means taking the pages and its creator seriously enough to offer specific suggestions and honest reactions, rather than saying the piece is "pretty good." None of us likes being patted on the head, or having our work essentially ignored. Vague, empty praise can be a form of contempt.
• Point to specific features. If it's helpful, print out individual pages and draw lines, arrows, etc. to illustrate the issues that you're talking about in the verbal comments.
• Talk the Talk. Use specific technical terms from the readings and class discussions. You might try making a list of these key ideas first to prompt your thinking. These terms can serve as a shared critical language, and can help suggest characteristics to look for.
• Use Examples. To help explain your impressions and suggestions, use examples from sample sites that we've looked at in class, or that we saw in the textbooks.
• Two Perspectives. Comment from two points of view. You are a fellow writer/designer who has thoughtful and informed suggestions and reactions. Also, though, imagine yourself as a member of the intended audience(s) visiting the site. How well do the writing-and-design decisions help the piece operate within the culture (the worldview or belief system) of the audience.