The Web site http://www.sem.bowiestate.edu/cosc/ is the site of the Department of Computer Science at Bowie State College in Maryland, with the acknowledged mission of "Serving the educational needs of the Baltimore-Washington / Southern Maryland region a high quality education in the field of computer science and information technology". This site will serve as my "Exemplary" pick based on the criteria for our class project. The appeal of the site is a combination of its simplicity, and the distinction of any good site, that is of "presenting relevant and useful information readily and easily.

Striving to meeting the narrow timeframe of the 15-30 seconds to catch a visitor’s attention, the site serves up easy to read pages that loads quickly and present sensible information in a logical way. Keeping with the concept that a Web site is a physical place, the pages each have a common header, a logo and a background image that completes a mosaic that reflects unequivocal the purpose, identity and philosophy of the Department. The initial load serves up the main page with an overview of the Department and a framed a menu that immediately presents the user with the full suit of available information on the entire site. At this junction the user can go directly to the information that s/he is looking for, all just one click away.

The designers of the site must have been aware that a successful site must be more than just a cute billboard. The site offers a sense of community, excellent navigational tool and most importantly relevant information such as the department’s vision, mission, goal and faculty listing, degree programs, class schedules, research activities, career oppertunties and other useful links. On initial site load the visitor is presented with the department’s main page and a navigational tools set to access and retrieve the sites’s other pages. While visual appeal is a hard quality to define and certainly involves personal preferences, in most case it depends upon graphics and the quality of graphics used. The sparce inclusion of graphics positively impacts on the rapidity of page loading, and here we see an absence of graphics on most of the pages as a deference to swift loading. Despite the absence of graphics on most pages, skillful page layout and navigational tools reflect an adherence to the qualities of of simplicity and consistency. Once the page is loaded the visitor is handed a readily handed upfront a page of useful information and navigational tools to get educate about thes site other pages. The Navigational schemes of this site obeys the simple rule of laying out a constantly visible menu that facilitates the visitor to access information quickly, easily and logically while at the same time, knowing exactly where they are, where they came from and where they can go next. In short, this site navigation is both functional and very practical.

The site design meets the technical requirement of out project. Error free HTML, good background design and frames navigational tools all add up to a nice package. The site is also available in a text format for browsers that are non-graphical oriented from the University's home page.

While this site does not boast all the "Bells And Whistles", and the most sophisticated Java scripts, it does in my mind meet and exceeds the purpose of intent of what a Web site should do. Web designers should play by the rule of not "doing it just because you can do it". The idea of creating a Web page with all the latest technology and graphics only contribute to the World Wide Wait. When I use the Web in search of information, I would almost always stay away from site with long loading times or graphics that are either distracting and add nothing to the content of the site. The site does dovetails nicely to my philosophy that in more times that not and particularly on the Net, "Less is Best’ especially when it come to all those wild graphic that only adds to the delay.

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