Blog Assignment 3

Dear Webmaster,
My name is Tracy Barron and I am an Elementary Education major at the University of Southern Mississippi. While doing research for a course project regarding No Child Left Behind, I had the pleasure of visiting your website, Wrightslaw.com. I cannot tell you how truly impressed I was with the vast amounts of information that were available to me through your site. I had no trouble obtaining all the information I needed in order to complete my project. However, I did have some difficulties when navigating your site and actually locating information. Therefore, I would like to offer a few suggestions that could possibly help future visitors navigate your site without encountering the difficulties that I did.

Upon initially viewing your site, I was overwhelmed with the sheer volume of information that was available to me. As a first time visitor to your site, I found it rather confusing trying to identify and isolate the information that I needed for my specific topic. The organization of the site itself could use a few modifications in order to make it a bit more user friendly. First, the text that appears throughout the center of the page distracted and confused me when I first encountered the site. I found the heading that I was looking for in the small print at the top, right of the page, but found myself sidetracked for quite a while, after reading through the all this other information. Second, you might consider enlarging the font size of the individual headings along the top of the page and down the left side. This would help in locating information quickly as the small type makes reading the topics a little difficult. So difficult, in fact, that for the first few minutes I was on the site I thought it was simply a website advertising books and other resources for which one would pay. The advertisements, while an understandable necessity, distract the reader from the information for which they are looking. Lastly, the visual appeal of your website could use a little improvement. Upon initial inspection, the site is not as visually attractive as it could be. This could be alleviated with the addition of a more eye-catching banner at the top of the page. This would act as an attention-getter to draw in the reader. For example, when clicking on the link to register for an out of town conference, the reader is taken to another page that has a very attractive banner that immediately grabs the attention of the person reading. This could be a useful addition to the homepage.

On a positive note, the information that I was looking for was contained in one of the headings located at the top of the page. It was nice to have all the information that I needed so centrally located. In addition, it was extremely helpful that the information I was looking for was from resources that were trustworthy and researched. I would also like to mention, your FAQ’s were extensive and easy to follow. This made looking for specific items relatively easy and hassle-free. Also, all of the pages on your website loaded quickly and without errors. While looking through your site, I found no dead links or pages that went nowhere.

In conclusion, I would like to reiterate how helpful your site was while I was researching my project. The amount of information that is available on your site is extensive and thorough and a big help to anybody trying to navigate their way through the legalese of programs like No Child Left Behind and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. My suggestions are meant, not to offend, but to help in making the site more navigable to others like myself who do not have a legal background and may otherwise find the information overwhelming.
With sincere best wishes,
Tracy Barron
Website address: www.wrightslaw.com