Website Analysis

1
Website Analysis

• Website Analysis On Disease Information For
  Health Care Professional On Depression
• www.nimh.nih.gov
• Mahmoud Kaoutarani (9830217)

2
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?
3
First impressions.

• The simplicity of the home page makes it
  impressive and easy to understand. A selection
  for the intended audience is displayed on the
  right hand side of the website were Patients,
  Practitioners and Researchers can select their
  category to study. It would be desirable if these
  selections were emphasized more strongly by an
  increase in there text size or so on.

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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?
6
RELIABILITY

• 7. Is the information relevant?

7
Reliability

• A page written by the director of The National
  Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is dedicated to
  explain the mission of this institute. With an
  annual budget of 1.2 billion dollars, the NIMH
  conducts significant research projects and
  clinical studies to provide advancements in this
  field. The information provided in this website
  are evidence based and very reliable.

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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?
9
Authority

• The information on the website are clearly
  displayed as the responsibility of the NIMH
  through their logo and there contact details
  being provided at the end of each article.
  Although the author of the articles are not
  clearly displayed and only a NIMH publication
  number for each article are issued were the
  author must be pursued through the Institute.

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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?
12
INFORMATION VALUE

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

15. Does is detail the typical prognoses of
condition, associated risks treatment risks?
13
INFORMATION VALUE

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

17. Does it provide contacts for questions,
support groups, or more information?
14
Information value

• The site has some fantastic information on
  depression alone and also articles that
  concentrate in topic areas such as depression in
  men/women, depression in elderly/children,
  depression at the workplace, depression and other
  illnesses and many more.
• Detailed information is also provided on the
  medications available in this disease state. A
  wide range of clinical trials are conducted by
  the NIMH offering a better understanding of
  depression and developments of new and improve
  treatments for the HCP.

15
Information value

• The sites information is not inaccurate or
  misleading and does not have a bias in any way as
  it is a government site dedicated to improve the
  quality of knowledge on mental health. Most
  information is referenced or comes from a
  research project.
• The contact details of NIMH are listed at the end
  of each article to give the opportunity for
  questions. Also, numbers for support groups, help
  lines etc. are provided to allow HCPs counsel
  patients on these avenues.

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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

• Many of the articles and information are
  referenced to allow the verification of the data.
  There is a link that is dedicated for statistical
  data in depression which develop out of research
  and clinical studies. These statistical data and
  graphs are of high standards being referenced
  from original sources.

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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?
20
Currency

• The is no date on the page to indicate when the
  page was written but there is a page explaining
  how the NIMH first developed. The website does
  specify when the page was last revised.
• The statistical data are referenced and the year
  of data collection is provided.

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PRESENTATION

• 24. Is the information clearly communicated?

25. Is information summarized and/or
bullet-pointed ?
22
PRESENTATION

• 26. Were the lines of type clearly spaced?

27. Are unrelated sections clearly separated?
23
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?
24
Presentation

• The information that was intended to be
  communicated towards the HCP was of very high
  quality and clearly presented. Although a patient
  reading this information would most likely find
  it to complicated to understand, there is a link
  for which these patients can proceed to and read
  information that have been summarised and
  simplified.

25
Presentation

• This website is dedicated towards mental health
  as a whole and because many of the topics in this
  field overlap and correlate with each other,
  making a distinct separation between topics was
  not always identified. This made finding
  information just a little more difficult than
  would be expected.

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Presentation

• The design of the website had a simple aspect
  about it yet still professional. This made the
  site simple to use and is consistent throughout
  the whole site (articles, graphs, fact sheets,
  employment etc.). The NIMH logo was always
  displayed and so were the contact details. Most
  of the external links on this website were part
  of the National Institute of Health (NIH) and
  also had a similar layout to this website.

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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

• The bulk of the information was of 12pt size in
  dark font contrasting white background making it
  clear to read.
• Bold font was not used very often to emphasise
  words in articles. In a number of instances, long
  sentences of information were in italic which
  made the information a little less clear to read.
• Underlining was avoided most of the time except
  in sub headings or emphasis.

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CONTENT

• 36. Was jargon avoided ?

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

• 38. Is the information balanced and unbiased?

33
Content

• The information in this website was free of
  jargon and very professional with full
  explanations of abbreviations but there was no
  glossary facility. As a HCP reading the
  information, it would be expected for them to
  understand specialist terms.
• This site is a government site and therefore has
  no bias in the information provided. Information
  is obtained from research and clinical trials.

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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 ?
35
Further Information

• There are many links connected to this website.
  There are even links which go into specific types
  of depression and combinations. Most of the links
  were up to date although there were 2 links that
  were not functioning and there was 1 link that
  was still under construction but since 2001.

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OVERALL RATING OF THE PUBLICATION

• Total score 176/200 (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

37
Comment on the overall rating

• From this extensive review it is seen that this
  websites overall rating is very impressive. The
  simplicity yet professional approach in the
  layout and organization of information on disease
  (depression), clinical trials, research projects,
  statistics/graphs, medications and even
  employment makes it a very helpful and user
  friendly tool for the HCPs.

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Comment on the overall rating

• There may still be some improvements needed in
  clearly separating topic areas of mental health.
• With an intention to achieve a higher quality of
  mental health care, this 1.2 billion dollar
  institution is certainly demonstrating its role
  in the health care world.