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Devon Zimmerman Elang 410 Cleaning Up Mr. Bottles Introduction Mr. Bottles (www.mrbottles.

com) is a website that serves as a resource for antique bottle collectors. While the websites target audience is Wisconsin residents, their site serves as a resource for bottle collectors throughout the country. Their site offers bottle appraisals, cleanings, and answers to questions that collectors may have. However, the site has been considered one of the worst sites of 2013, and with good reason. Their site uses poor design and needs a significant amount of editing. With reconstruction, the site would be able to attract more viewers, as well as keepmaintain their viewers attention. Major edits to consider would be toare strengthening organization, improvinge online readability, condensinge long pages, and maximizinge hyperlink usage. Organization Organization is essential to the creation of a successful website. Without organization, the viewers does not know where to find the information that they need. And if viewers cannot easily access the information, they may not use the site again. On the Mr. Bottles site, there are two serious issues with organization: the information on the pages is in large chunks and there are no headings. First, the information on the Mr. Bottles site needs to be organized into short, logical chunks (Amare, 310). By condensing and organizing relevant information, the reader doesnt have to read through paragraph after paragraph to find information that fits together. There are multiple pages on the Mr. Bottles website that have information that is long and crammed
Comment [JL5]: This phrase seems a little vague. What information are readers looking for that needs to fit together? Or is it just the information that readers need or want to know? Comment [JL4]: I like the headings! Comment [JL1]: An attention-grabbing first sentence is always good to consider. Comment [JL2]: You can probably take the hyperlink out. Comment [JL3]: Is it the bottle collectors website? Otherwise you might avoid using their unless its a plural ownership or mention who their refers to.

together without much white space. By eliminating these long, confusing paragraphs, the website will attract more customers and those customers will have a positive user experience. Second, headings need to be included above these chunks of text. This Headings will help readers find information faster, and will further organize the information further as a whole. For example, on the first page of the Mr. Bottles website, all of the information is organized into updates. The heading forof each of these sections should be the date (see Appendix A). Adding these sections will help separate each section and make it easier for viewers who frequently visit the site and to read the updates. Online Readaibility The first page of the website has poor online readability. This means , meaning that the page is difficult for users to read, and the cause can be a number of reasons. Some of those reasons include unnecessary words, long paragraphs, long sentences, and weak verbs. For this particular website, there are a lot of unnecessary words. It is best to eliminate these words, as long as you dont sacrifice the meaning. On the companys website, there are multiple long paragraphs on the page. As a result, the readerreaders areis unsure of which information is important, and which information they should skip through. Typically, online readers prefer short paragraphs or lists because it is faster and easier to synthesize the information that is presented to them. Paragraphs should be concise, only presenting the most important information. While the first page of the website is dedicated to updates about the company, these updates could be condensed into smaller paragraphs, displaying only the most relevant and helpful information. The first update on Appendix A is a perfect example of how the paragraphs can be shortened.
Comment [JL7]: Reference? Comment [JL6]: I wasnt sure I liked the original placement of this word. I rearranged it, but you can decide if it sounds better or if you need it at all.

Long sentences provide another readability issue on the Mr. Bottles website. If sentences are too long, they can confuse the reader and discourage them from reading further. And if the readers decides to skim the sentences (or not read at all), they may miss valuable information that the website provides. To eliminate this problem, writers and editors should try to make sentences as short as possible, and cut words that are not necessary. To help eliminate words, sentences should use strong verbs and active voice whenever possible. Passive constructions create wordy and sometimes confusing sentences. Long Pages While long pages are typically best for tutorials, articles, and other similar usesdocuments, long pages could be beneficial for the Mr. Bottles site if used correctly. As a result of daily and weekly updates, the first page of the Mr. Bottles website is extremely long. The length of this page is is problematic because the reader must scroll down the page several times, which can be time consuming and annoying. While readers are drawn to short web pages, there are methods to make long pages attractive. One such way is through hyperlinks which . Hyperlinks are links that are included in text. They Hyperlinks direct the viewer to either a new page, or a new section of the page, helping to eliminate the need for scrolling. One positive element of the Mr. Bottles site is that there is always a hyperlink near the scroll bar that can direct you to the top of the page. However, the hyperlink is hidden, so it may be best to use a Back to Top hyperlink as shown in Appendix A. In addition, For long web pages, it is important to have a table of contents at the top of the page for long pages. This way, the visitor to the site can click on the section that they would like to look at and be directed there immediately. Hyperlinks eliminate the need for scrolling. One positive element of the Mr. Bottles site is that there is always a hyperlink near the scroll bar that can direct you to the top of the page. However,
Comment [JL8]: Watch out for a lot of singular subjects and then using they later. I made them plural so they matched.

the hyperlink is hidden, so it may be best to use a Back to Top hyperlink as shown in Appendix A. Links in Text If used correctly, hyperlinks within text can also maximize user experience. On the Mr. Bottles website, there are multiple links, but they that could use improvement. The first issue is that the links include a poor choice of words. Words should establish the context so that the reader can get a good idea of what the link leads to (Amare, 331). Hyperlinks should also exclude the text click here, because it prevents screen readers from be able to provide context for those that are blind (Amare, 331). This would be problematic for several links included on the Mr. Bottles site, such as the Night Before Christmas parody is included in one of the updates. After a few lines of the story, a hyperlink says, Click here for the rest of the story. The portion of the story included on the page could be eliminated, and the hyperlink could instead be included in one of the previous sentences. For example, the sentence, I have a little Christmas story for Wisconsin bottle collectors could have a hyperlink on the word story, which would allow screen readers to have context (see Appendix A). Furthermore, the links should be distinguishable from other the surrounding text. Throughout all the web pages on the Mr. Bottles site, the texts are in various colors, which is both distracting to the reader and makes it difficult to find hyperlinks. The hyperlinks should be kept in the default font, and if they are underlined, make sure that underlines arent used throughout. In Appendix A, both blue and green hyperlinks are used in contrast to black text. Conclusion
Comment [JL11]: Maybe you can say that they will have contextinstead of xyz if kept the original way. Im just trying to understand the problem with the original construction so just make sure its clear. Comment [JL9]: Im a little unsure of what you mean here. Should hyperlinks exclude text, or should they exclude the text click here? or something else? Comment [JL10]: This is ambiguous without a noun following it. Not sure what it refers to. Formatted: Indent: First line: 0"

While the Mr. Bottles site is in need of additional design and editing help, these four areas would dramatically improve the accessibility, readability, and memorability of the website. The website should strive to create an easy, quick, and positive experience for the user. The Mr. Bottles website has the potential to increase sales and to promote the business, but these changes need to be made first. With a bit of editing, this website could become more popular than the owners ever imagined.
Comment [JL12]: Word says this isnt in the dictionary but I think I found it online. Otherwise you could revise to avoid saying memorability.

Works Cited Amare, Nicole, Barry Nowlin, and Jean Hollis Weber. Technical Editing in the 21st Century. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson, 2011.

Appendix A

December 19, 2012 This is an antique Wisconsin Oakton Mineral Spring water jug. Additionally, a nicely decorated Maxfield butter churn and a Hermann cobalt flowered crock turned up. These nice people I met recently went to buy an oil painting. As they walked around the owners home, they realized that there were all sorts of old things. Knowing the guy was moving out of the house and had no interest in the antique paintings, they asked what he was doing with the stoneware. He said everything was for sale. The asking pricewait for it$5 a piece. As usual, I paid a lot more. All three will be in the galleries soon. New images will be up. Nate and I continue to plug away. There are a lot of good things happening in the collecting world, including the Milwaukee Antique Bottle Club taking a proactive role in promoting antique bottle collecting for 2013. Back to Top December 14, 2012 It is hard to believe how some of the great antique bottles and stoneware pieces show up. Look at this Dr Bourbon's Aromatic Forest Bitters pontiled pint from

Madison. Someone found it in an antique shop for $20 with an 18% discount offered. It's mine now, but I paid a lot more. Back to Top December 6, 2012 Its hard to believe that another year is almost over. Great Wisconsin antique bottle and advertising news to report: the Milwaukee Bottle Club will be putting on a second fall show at the Domes! How cool is that? The club is taking the promotion of the antique bottle collecting seriously as they go forward. Additionally, a new MABA Club website is in the works. Content is continually being added. And for the holidays, I have a special little Christmas story for Wisconsin collectors. Back to Top

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