Website%20Analysis

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Website Analysis

• Health Care Professional Drug Information
  Analysis on www.explorepsych.com
• By Mark Taouk 0012441

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FIRST IMPRESSIONS

• 1. Is the user able to quickly determine the
  basic content of the site?

2. User is able to determine the intended
audience of the site?
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First impressions.

• Comments
• The home page does indicate under the main title
  that it is Online Learning for the Mental Health
  Professional, however does not make clear the
  content within the internet site. The user will
  be more distracted with News Flash or Course
  catalogue headings in the middle of the home
  page and can easily miss the Resource center
  icon which ultimately contains the information
  that the health care professional needs. However,
  due to the specific sub-heading Online Learning
  for the Mental Health Professional, the user is
  easily able to determine the intended audience of
  the site.

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RELIABILITY

• 3. Are the aims clear?

4. Does it achieve its aims?
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RELIABILITY

• 5. Is the information evidence based?

6. Does the website provide good coverage of
information?
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RELIABILITY

• 7. Is the information relevant?

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Reliability

• Comments
• The aim of the web site is made clear on the
  home page. The first paragraph on the home page
  gives a brief description on what the purpose of
  the site is. The web site does achieve its aim
  because it provides links with all the topics
  that are associated with mental health ranging
  from eating disorders to addictions. The
  information given for the HCP about the
  medications is evidence based because they are
  drug monographs based on research. The internet
  site provides excellent coverage on the different
  medications available for treatment, as well as
  other information related to mental health. This
  information is all relevant and serves its
  purpose.

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AUTHORITY

• 8. Is it clear who is responsible for the
  contents of the page?

9. Is it clear who wrote the material and are the
author's qualifications for writing on this topic
clearly stated?
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Authority

• Comments
• The web page outlines the institution
  responsible for the site and gives the details of
  personnel to contact, however the internet site
  does not mention who generated the internet site.
  The actual information on medications for the HCP
  on depression are external links, and most of the
  information that is obtained is made clear of the
  author, and the authors qualifications for
  writing on this topic is also clearly stated.

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INFORMATION VALUE

• 10. Does it provide a good description of the
  condition or treatment protocol?

11. Does it outline criteria for diagnosis of
condition or criteria for appropriate
prescription of treatment?
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INFORMATION VALUE

• 12. Does it describe how each treatment works?

13. Does it describe the benefits of each
treatment?
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INFORMATION VALUE

• 14. Does it describe alternative treatments, or
  other diagnoses possible?

15. Does it detail the typical prognoses of
condition, associated risks treatment risks?
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INFORMATION VALUE

• 16. Does it avoid inaccurate or misleading
  descriptions, recommendations?

17. Does it provide contacts for questions,
support groups, or more information?
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Information value

• Comments
• The section of the internet site that I am
  interested is treatments, however upon reviewing
  all other sections of the internet site it was
  discovered that only a brief treatment protocol
  is outlined, which lack a lot of detail. The
  internet site provides appropriate prescription
  treatment for each of the medication listed. This
  is ideal for a HCP who wants to know reliable
  information about a drug.
• Each drug listed has a detailed summary of its
  pharmacology, thus outlining its mechanism of
  action, and how this would benefit the patient.

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Information value

• Comments
• the web site lists the alternative treatments
  however does not list them in any particular
  order eg. first line or second line treatment.
• since the information on each drug is presented
  as a drug monograph, then there is detailed
  warnings and precautions about the drug outlined.
  
• All the information presented is facts and
  derived from research. This eliminates any
  misleading or false information. The internet
  page is good in that it provides the contact
  details of the corporation responsible for the
  site, it also provides the contact details of
  counselors and social workers that some people
  may find useful.

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ACCURACY

• 18. Are the sources for any factual information
  clearly listed so they can be verified in another
  source?

19. Is the information free of grammatical,
spelling, and typographical errors?
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ACCURACY

• 20. Is it clear who has the ultimate
  responsibility for the accuracy of the content of
  the material?

21. If there are charts and/or graphs containing
statistical data, are the charts and/or graphs
clearly labeled and easy to read?
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Accuracy

• Comments
• The sub section on the web page which contains
  information on medication for the HCP does
  specifically indicate the source of the
  information, it only mentions that the
  information is from a Canadian monograph. However
  other information on the web page such as
  information about the disease state does list
  specific references.

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Accuracy

• Comments
• The web page shows superior grammatical context,
  is free of spelling errors or typographical
  errors which further supports its claim as being
  a site for the HCP.
• It is hard to determine who is clearly
  responsible for the content of the information
  since the site was generated by a corporation,
  however, the actual data or information is
  actually linked to that website, and is part of
  another website. So is it fair to say that the
  exploepsych.com is responsible because they claim
  to provide this information? Or, should the
  linked site be responsible because they generated
  the information?

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CURRENCY

• 22. Are there dates on the page to indicate when
  the page was written, first placed on the Web,
  and when it was last revised?

23. If material is presented in graphs and/or
charts, is it clearly stated when the data was
gathered?
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Currency

• Comments
• The internet site home page shows no indication
  of when the page was written, and shows no
  indication of when it was last updated. After a
  thorough search within the web site, it could not
  be determined when the internet site was written,
  or updated.

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PRESENTATION

• 24. Is the information clearly communicated?

25. Is information summarised and/or
bullet-pointed ?
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PRESENTATION

• 26. Were the lines of type clearly spaced?

27. Are unrelated sections clearly separated?
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PRESENTATION

• 28. Are diagrams and images labeled and do they
  relate to the subject matter?

29. Is there a single style of design and layout
maintained throughout?
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Presentation

• Comments
• The actual information about medication for
  depression is clearly communicated, however
  reaching this information is not. It would be
  better if the headings leading to the information
  are more specific in relation to their content.
• The information is presented very well. There is
  a summary of the main headings listed in which
  each heading is linked to the relevant section in
  the bulk of the information. This provides a very
  efficient way of navigating thru data.

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Presentation

• Comments
• The text on the internet page are typed clearly
  and evenly spaced. Different or unrelated
  sections are presented separately thus making it
  easy for the viewer to understand and extract
  information.
• The site does not have many diagrams or
  graphics, however, of the little diagrams present
  they are not labeled and do not have anything to
  do with the information on the internet page.

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Presentation

• Comments
• The internet site maintains a single style
  layout throughout the site, with the most common
  characteristic being the horizontal menu on top
  of each page which leads to other sections on the
  within the site. This uniformity is however lost
  when external links to the site are selected.

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APPEARANCE OF TEXT

• 30. Was 12pt font or larger used?(Recommended
  that no less than 10 pt font is used for the main
  body of text)

31. Was a dark typeface on a pale background
used?
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APPEARANCE OF TEXT

• 32. Was bold used for emphasis only?

33. Were italics not used for long passages?
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APPEARANCE OF TEXT

• 34. Was underlining avoided ?

35. Was UPPER CASE used sparingly ?
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Appearance of text

• Comments
• The majority of the text throughout the internet
  site is size 12 font. Sub-headings have a larger
  font mostly being size 28. The bulk information
  has a font size of 12 which can easily be read.
  Further contributing to how clear the text is
  visually is the fact that dark text was used on a
  light background. Headings are in a dark blue,
  and the bulk of the text is in black all on a
  white background.

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Appearance of text

• Comments
• Bold was not used for emphasis in this site. It
  only appeared to be used for sub-headings, or to
  highlight a search topic if it is to be
  performed.
• Italics were not used for long passages, in
  fact, italics were hardly used in the internet
  site at all.
• Underlining is avoided in this site, the only
  underlining that can be seen is under words that
  are linked to something else.
• Upper case was used sparingly within this site.
  It was only used at the beginning of words on
  sub-headings, and used appropriately when it came
  to the bulk text.

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CONTENT

• 36. Was jargon avoided ?

37. Were acronyms, abbreviations and specialist
terms explained (eg in a glossary)?
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CONTENT

• 38. Is the information balanced and unbiased?

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Content

• Comments
• The text contains no jargon, only factual
  information, written in the standard for the HCP.
  Acronyms are prevalent however are explained in
  brackets following the acronym. There are not
  many abbreviations within the text. The advantage
  of text being like this is that you dont have to
  be a HCP to understand the text, and more
  importantly the information.
• The information consists of mostly facts that
  are derived from research, so the information is
  not bias in nature.

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FURTHER INFORMATION

• 39. Are there links to other sites that are
  relevant to the users needs/ purposes?

40. Are the links to other sites current and
working properly ?
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Further Information

• Comments
• As mentioned earlier there are a large number of
  links from this site. They are all relevant to
  the HCP and range in topic from medication which
  is what I am looking at to diagnosing.
• The external links are all functioning and
  working properly, offering information which is
  accurate and up to date.

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OVERALL RATING OF THE PUBLICATION

• Total score 158/200 (Very good!)
• 41. Based on the answers to all of the above
  questions, rate the overall quality of the
  publication as a source of information about
  treatment choices

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Comment on the overall rating

• www.explorepsych.com is a sight that meets the
  requirements of the Health Care Professional. It
  provides accurate and precise information on a
  wide variety of drugs used un depression.
• The internet site is consistent throughout and
  structured consistently making it easy to
  navigate and extract information.
• The site contains may links which are related
  and useful to its user and provide information to
  the level a health care professional expects.

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Comment on the overall rating

• There are some areas on the web page that can
  use some improvement. A user does not know the
  content in the website if he/she does not browse
  into the sites sub-sections. Also, finding the
  information required is not simple, it requires
  the user to click on a heading that is not
  obvious.
• The internet site does not contain much
  graphics, so its not visually stimulating.
  Although it is intended for the HCP, some related
  graphics should be applied.

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Comment on the overall rating

• The internet site provides an excellent range of
  information on different medications, however it
  does not put these medications in context i.e..
  it doesnt state what medication should be used
  in what situation.
• Although all the information on the internet
  site is up to date, there is no indication of
  when the internet site was last updated. Further
  more, it doesnt state when the internet site was
  generated or posted which can leave someone
  wondering about the reliability of the
  information.