Meeting Your Own Standards

by Luke Wright, Webmaster
LTW Site Sensation Awards (site closed)
4 December 2001

Print Version

You hear it everywhere. Just about everyone agrees that it is one of the challenges of setting up an award program, especially for those inexperienced in web design. What I'm talking about is the notion that "an award site must be able to win its own award."

Now, I know you can't win your own award. Winning your own award would be a big breach of ethical practices, but if it could, would it? It is important that when you set the standard for others to achieve, you need to make sure your award site will achieve the same standard, or exceed it.

Why Is It Important?

As the owner of an award program, you are positioning yourself more or less as an expert in the field of web design. You should know what's good and what's, well, not so good. However, when it comes to the site showcasing your award, it may, in fact, fall short of your supposedly expert criteria. That is, your award site may not even be able to win it's own award.

Your prospective applicants will probably be left wondering why they should come up to your mark and apply for your award when the site the award resides upon, that supposedly sets the standard for others to achieve, would not qualify for its own award. Your program's credibility, and your level of applications, will suffer as a result.

Be Professional

By designing your site to achieve the standard required by your award, you will display to your potential submitters that you do know a thing or two about web site design, and that you are more than qualified to judge others' sites! This adds credibility and professionalism to your award program, hopefully encouraging those that were in the process of deciding whether or not to submit, to try for your award.

Just Design or All-Round?

There's no doubt that when you create your award site, the design will be the part that you will be paying the most attention to. After all, the design is your visitors' first impression of your program. If they are unimpressed by your site, they will more than likely move on without looking any further into your criteria or your submission form.

If your award is geared towards design, then this is even more important to you. But even if design is only a small portion of your award's criteria, then I suggest that your site should be at least above-average. (See the point about professionalism above.)

However, if your award is given predominantly on criteria other than design, then you cannot neglect those either. For example, if good navigation is a part of your criteria, then you should make sure your navigation is as good as what you expect of others (and make sure you comply with page scrolling or "clicks to any information" limits). If a large part of your criteria is based upon content, then the content on your own site should be well done, or perhaps you could offer extra, unique content alongside your award.

Most awards are based on multiple criteria, which means it's important that you set an example for each part of your criteria. Like your award, the priorities of your award site's design should lie within the weightings of your criteria. However, even if one section of your criteria is only worth a small amount of the total score, it is still important that you address it. The owners of the sites applying for your award would no doubt be doing exactly the same thing.

Earn the Top Award?

In the case of programs with multiple award levels (Gold, Silver and Bronze, for example), you have a further issue to contend with. There is debate in the award community on whether an award site should be able to reach the level of their highest award, or just be able to earn any award it offers. Merit awards are not counted, of course.

I can understand the arguments. Creating a site that would qualify for your higher level awards can be taken as an act of leadership that will get other high-quality sites to apply for your award. However, I believe that no matter how good your site is, there will always be better ones out there, and indeed, these would potentially be your Gold or Platinum level winners.

If You Can, Then Do It!

If you believe you can create a site that would win your top level award, by all means do it. If that is taking your expectations too high, then I believe that at least something a bit above your bare minimum standard is adequate.

If your site requires, say, 75 per cent to receive your award (or your lowest level award), it's probably not a good idea to design your site strictly to 75 per cent standards. If you are capable of producing a site that would score more, in your opinion, then create one.

Whatever you do, don't put in only a half effort, because your resulting site will be a reflection of that. Throw yourself into it, and produce the best site you can! Your fellow site owners will be encouraged by your site to apply, and you will be satisfied with your work.

Take a Good, Hard Look

It's time to take a look through the broad themes of your criteria, determine what you expect of other sites (search through your archive of winners for that), and then work through your own award site. If you can, get someone else to take a look with you.

Be honest with yourself when you answer this question: "Would your award site qualify for its own award?" If the answer is a definite "No," then you should be asking yourself a further question: "What can I do to bring the site up to a qualifying standard?"

Note down what you believe you are missing in terms of meeting your criteria, and take all reasonable steps possible to address the problem. For example, if your pages are longer than that allowed by your criteria, then try breaking your pages into two or even three pages. Before you know it, your site will either meet the your minimum standard, or at least be closer to it.

Why Stop at Your Award Program?

If you run other sites, you should also look at them and see if they also meet your award's criteria. If you believe that your criteria is your formula for an ideal site (and by using your criteria to judge others, that is essentially what you are implying), why can't your other sites benefit from your award's standard? Even though you may be unable to submit them to your award program, treat them as if you could. Your sites, and your web design skills in general, will benefit as a result.

You Set the Standard - Achieve It!

Your award and its criteria is like the crossbar on a high jump. Sites that have the ability to "jump over the crossbar" (or score more than is required by your criteria) will receive your award. But what if someone asks you the question, "Show me an example of how YOU can get over the bar?" Imagine how awful you would feel if your site ran head first into the crossbar? Ouch!

By running your award program, you set the level that you expect others to achieve in order to receive your award. More importantly, your award should set the level for what YOU should achieve; not only for your award site, but your other sites as well. If you set a good example, not only will your awards become more credible (which will eventually lead to increased applications for your program), the applicants will be more inspired to achieve your standard.