You’ve seen them. Great websites and really bad ones. The ones that are easy to navigate to the information you want and the ones where you are left clicking all over the place with no rhyme or reason just to find a phone number to call. The ones that are visually stunning, and the ones that look like they haven’t changed since 1992 (featuring a cartoon mouse waving at you and a visitor counter at the bottom of the page that reads 00032).
There are Topeka businesses and non-profits that have put together amazing websites that are as good as any you’ll find on the WWW. TK Magazine decided to find them, rate them, and see what we can learn from them.
We asked for nominations of great websites and were inundated with entries. Entries were sent to the local chapters of International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) and Association for Women in Communications (AWC) who applied their expertise in business communications to determine the best of the best. The scores from the judges were tabulated and below are the results—Topeka’s Top Web Sites (at least among the ones that were nominated)!
A Big “thank you” to the members of IABC Topeka and AWC for their excellent work in judging this year’s entries.
Without further ado, presenting the 2008 Best of the Topeka Web!
Judge Comments:
“This site is fun to look at and very appealing.”
“Site instantly made me want to search through it – with all the color and card samples. It was great.”
“I especially like the glossary section for those of us who aren’t bilingual. The Limelight area was also well-done with thumbnails of press coverage.”
Judge Comments:
“Whataham.com’s main goal, as stated in the entry, is to ‘present their photography services in a fun and energetic way’ and they definitely accomplish that. From the photography samples to the music and mouse-over menus as well as Flash software, the site exudes a progressive, energetic, ‘we’re-focused-on-the-customer-experience’ feel.”
“I love that you address myths up-front…gives me the impression that you’re serious about your work and can also poke a little bit of fun at yourself.”
“Very creative! Well organized, good use of visuals/video/music. Very engaging with audience and easy to use.”
Judge Comments:
“The website flows really well and allows the user to find the information they are looking for quickly. The concise design is appealing and attractive.”
“Layout is nice; text is nice; colors are nice. Top notch and very inviting. Well organized and user-friendly to navigate.”
“The design is nice and clean – just enough color and graphics to give a sense of the character and nature of the business. I liked that everything fit on my screen on the home page – I didn’t have to scroll to find links to information.”
