Frequently Asked Questions about the Website Design Contest

 

How will the websites be judged?

For the first time in the contest’s six year history, contestants may choose from two skill categories.

 

BEGINNER Category: One round of judging will occur. Judges will focus on the technical quality, content, and usability of the websites. They will also examine the website’s adherence to the contest requirements for the Beginner category. Multiple judges will view each site. Scores from each judge will be totaled. We will announce the top 12 on Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2011. These 12 will be invited to Finals Day on Saturday, December 3, 2011. At Finals Day, the six winners will be announced and presented with their ranking and prize money.

 

ADVANCED Category: Two rounds of judging will take place. The first round will focus on the technical quality, content, and usability of the websites. It will also examine the website’s adherence to the contest requirements. Twelve Advanced Finalists will be chosen to compete in a second round on Saturday, December 3, 2011. On “Finals Day,” the 12 Finalists will present their websites to the Finals Judges panel. On that day, Winners will be selected not only on their designs but also on their oral presentation to the judges. Parents and teachers of Finalists are invited. At Finals Day, the six winners will be announced and presented with their prize money.

 

What could cause an entry to be disqualified?

 All pages must be authored in HTML and have the “.htm” file extension. The use of a Cascading Style Sheet (.css) for text formatting is allowed. Teams in the Beginner category using other authoring languages such as php, Flash or including flash movies will be disqualified. Teams in the Advanced category are allowed other authoring languages. It is not necessary to include video or sound or photos, but if you do, they must work, or you will lose points.

 

Web design software is allowed but contest entries that use a pre-made template will be disqualified. If you use design software, make sure you begin with a blank page, NOT a template that the software offers. For example, a “Go Daddy” or Microsoft Publisher-type templates would be disqualified. A contestant may create her own template from scratch when using software.

 

Will a website be disqualified if it uses pre-made elements?

Yes. A few examples of pre-made elements are: a template of a pre-made drop-down menu, Flash Buttons, or a pre-made button that Dreamweaver offers.

 

What can a contestant do to create interesting elements?

Your teacher can offer great advice. You could also visit www.webmonkey.com, which has tutorials and html code suggestions. Also, visit www.video.google.com and search for tutorials about the technique you want to try.

 

What browser will be used by the judges?

First Round Judges will use their own computers. The contest rules state that Beginners must review their site in Internet Explorer 6, so our judges will use IE6 for any Beginner Category contestant’s entry. Advanced contestants must review their sites in a variety of popular browsers. Our First Round Judges will be instructed to review Advanced sites in a variety of browsers. You can use free services such as www.browsershots.org to test your website using different screen resolutions, browsers, etc.

 

I know I must be careful of plagiarism. How should sources be noted?

The Contest does not have a mandated format for how you acknowledge your sources. It does, however, require one page of the website for your sources, references, explanations and a description of the classes you may have taken in school and a brief summary of what you learned in the classes. This is new for the 2011 contest. For reference, visit www.plagiarism.org.

 

My school’s computer lab screens are pre-set to 1280 by 1024 resolution. What screen resolution do the judges use?

In Round One of the judging, each contestant’s site will be viewed by multiple judges. Each judge uses his/her own computer. Beginner and Advanced contestants should research the most commonly used screen resolution and design for that format. Although the screen size is set to a specific screen resolution at your school, you probably have the ability to right click on the desktop, select Display Properties, choose the Settings tab and set the screen resolution to different settings to see what your site will look like in different resolutions.

 

If you are a Beginner, you may be using a Tables format. If so, you can set the tables to resize automatically.

 

Dreamweaver seems to default to .html file extension but the contest requires .htm. What should I do?

Web pages will work with the .htm or .html file extension but, for our contest, we want the pages to be in the .htm format. This is so the pages will link properly to our index in our server environment. If you are using Dreamweaver, it has a Preferences Menu that allows you to set the default file extension to .html or .htm so you do not have to specify it each time you make a new page.

I am having trouble uploading my site to the contest’s host URL. Help!

• Dreamweaver can be unreliable for uploading files. Please try using Filezilla. http://filezilla-project.org/download.php?type=client 
• Confirm you are typing  www.mcwtfwebdesign4girls.net in the host text box in Filezilla. Additionally, check to make sure you are paying attention to the capitalizations in your username and password.
• To view your website on the web, use the following link: www.mcwtfwebdesign4girls.net/XXXXXXXX/index.htm

IMPORTANT! REPLACE THE EIGHT X'S with your own username.

 

• Note that we have a 2-part upload deadline. By requiring just the index page to be uploaded a few days early, it allows contestants to work through upload glitches that inevitably happen. Revisions can be made to the index page, as well as to any of your other pages, until the final upload deadline. Here are the dates:

Web site development time frame for contestants	Sept. 1 - Nov. 8, 2011
Index Page upload deadline	3 PM Friday, Nov.4, 2011
Web site upload deadline	8:59:59 PM Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2011
FTP disabled	9:00 PM Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2011

  

 

I am having trouble seeing my site online.

Confirm you are uploading your files to their proper locations on the server. Your index.htm and all other HTML pages should be all together in your server space and your images should go in the pre-made images folder inside that.

 

May I use a video from YouTube  in my site?

Beginners may not use any type of video on their entries. Advanced Category contestants are allowed to use video, but only up to 15 seconds long and they must be placed in the website. The videos must be accessible without internet connection.

 

How is the scoring process determined for the websites?

Each website will be carefully evaluated by a panel of judges using the following criteria:

 

General Features

            Do you have a clear message and purpose, especially on the home page?

            Can the users easily see where they are in your site and how to navigate to other areas?

            Are links obviously links, without saying “click here?”?

            Is non-original content credited?

Clarity of Communication

Are you using phrases and concepts familiar to your target viewers?

            Did you check your site for spelling or grammar errors?

            Is the site interesting, informative and/or entertaining?

            Is the writing clear and concise?

Aesthetic Integrity

Do the graphic elements of the site have variety and look good together?

Are the pages well balanced and visually appealing?

Is it easy to read the text?

Ease of Navigation

            Is it easy to move around the site?

Is it obvious how to get back to an earlier page?

Functionality

Do images show up and does everything work on the site (navigation, links, etc)?           

You should use a free service that will check everything for you: www.w3c.org

Use of enhanced features

            Does the site include some graphics, color variety, or some other interesting enhancement?

Advanced division: If you included sound or video, does it play?

Technical Skill

            Did you use ALT tags on images?

            Can users increase the text size using browser controls?

            Do the pages load in a timely manner?

Are you meeting the browser requirements for the level of the contest?

Do all pages have a descriptive title tag that displays at the top of the browser window?