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Abstract
The World Wide Web has grown spectacularly in the last five years, and is used as a source of information by increasing numbers of students, faculty, and others. However, due to its infancy, there are no widely agreed upon style and design standards for Web pages. In this study, a popular search engine was used to find multicultural counseling Web sites. Over 100 sites were visited and categorized by type of content. Common problems in each category were identified and discussed, along with practical solutions. Recommendations were then made for future developers of multicultural counseling Web sites.
One of the more startling developments in the latter half of the Twentieth Century is the growth and popularization of the World Wide Web (WWW). Although the Web was not developed until 1991 and did not become widely accessible until 1993 when the Mosaic browser became available, by 1995 the Web had become the most popular and widely used portion of the Internet (Crossman, 1997). In fact, a study of Web use during the first three months of that year found that as much time was spent using the Web in the U.S. and Canada as the total playback time of all rented videotapes in these two countries (Masotto, 1995).The popularity of the Web extends to almost every walk of life in this and many other countries. Not surprisingly, technology in general and the World Wide Web in particular, have begun to have an impact on the field of professional counseling. In fact, Vacc and Loesch (1994), in a chapter on professionalism in counseling, reviewed the use of technology in the field and concluded "It is likely that the use of technology will continue to be a focus of professional development activities for professional counselors" (p. 78). One indication of the significant impact of the Internet and the Web on counseling is that the National Board for Certified Counselors (1997) has published a document entitled Standards for the Ethical Practice of WebCounseling. Additionally, in January of 1998, a Web search with the AltaVista search engine found 7,838 web sites containing both the words "counseling" and "technology."
Because of recent demographic and other influences in the United States, diversity and multicultural counseling are also popular topics among counselors. In fact, there has been recent rapid growth in the number of articles dealing with multicultural counseling appearing in American Counseling Association journals (Deluccia-Waack, 1996; Dinsmore & England, 1996; Maher, 1996). There is also a journal dealing specifically with multicultural counseling(The Journal for Multicultural Counseling).
As the Web has become more and more popular and as more and more Web pages have become available, counselors, counseling faculty, and students have begun to rely on the Web as a source of information about their field. Although many such professionals and students are beginning to use the Web, the usefulness of this new medium as an information source for multicultural counseling has yet to be discussed extensively.
Anyone who has used the Web as a source of information knows from experience that there are both good and bad Web sites and that bad sites are frustrating and sometimes misleading to users. The quality and usefulness of a given Web site is dependent on both (a) style and design variables, and (b) the quality of the information provided (Maddux and Johnson, 1997).
Professional counselors and counseling students can judge the accuracy and currency of information for themselves. However, because the Web has been widely used for only the last four to five years, there are no widely agreed upon, comprehensive standards for Web page style and design.
Such style and design standards are well-accepted for traditional media. We have come to expect title pages, tables of content, indices and other user aids as basic and indispensable features of media such as academic books. Scholars laboriously developed such standards over a period of centuries, while the technical and distribution problems of publishing were also being slowly solved.
The Web, on the other hand, has had no such lengthy developmental history, and has burst practically full-blown upon the scene in the nineteen nineties. One can only imagine the chaos that would have characterized traditional academic publishing if mass production, distribution, and affordability of books had coincided with the invention of the printing press.
One indication of the lack of agreement about what constitutes acceptable style and design elements is that a recent Web search with a major search engine (AltaVista) located 2068 pages categorized under "web style guide."[For a representative look at some of the more useful style and design guides, interested readers should refer to Berners-Lee (1996); Cook (1997); December (1997); Levine, (1996); Lynch & Horton (1997); McLachlan (1996); and Maddux & Johnson (1997). In addition, Berk and Kanfer (1996) provide an excellent review of major Web style and design guides.]
The lack of agreement about what constitutes acceptable style and design principles is understandable but unfortunate, since even pages containing accurate and useful information can be rendered nearly useless if sloppily or incompetently prepared, or if important style or design features are missing or poorly implemented.
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of the present study is to visit a representative sample of Web pages dealing with multicultural counseling, categorize the sites according to content, come to some general conclusions about design quality of the sites, and formulate some recommendations for developers of future Web pages dealing with this subject. Rather than producing yet another Web style and design guide to add to the several thousand currently available, the authors actually visited multicultural counseling web sites and evaluated them based on strengths and weaknesses experienced by a user who finds the site through use of a search engine. When available, an exemplary site for each category was chosen.
Method
The AltaVista (http://www.altavista.digital.com/) search engine was used to locate Web pages dealing with multicultural counseling. (A search engine is a site on the Web that permits topical searches of a database of Web pages.) The AltaVista search engine by Digital Equipment Corporation was chosen for the present study since it is one of the most popular search engines on the Web (Maddux, 1996). In fact, 18 million different users each month use AltaVista to perform more than 20 million searches a day (Digital Equipment Corporation, 1997). More importantly, AltaVista incorporates technology that permits the indexing in its database of every word on every page on the Web. This is in contrast to many other, less powerful search engines that index only the titles, brief summaries, or initial paragraphs of pages. AltaVista is also one of the most complete search engines, currently containing the full text of more than 100 million Web pages.
The search topic used was "multicultural counseling." AltaVista found 1,132 pages containing the phrase "multicultural counseling." AltaVista, like most search engines, uses software that employs a logical strategy for finding matches that are most likely to be of use, given the search topic. (Variables used for this determination include whether or not the search string appears in the title, the number of times the search string appears on a page, number of times it appears in the first few paragraphs, etc., a limitation of this study.) AltaVista then lists 200 sites, or "hits" from most to least likely to be of use. The title, first few lines, and a link that can be chosen in order to visit the site, is listed for each "hit." In the present study, all 200 hits to the search string "multicultural counseling" were visited and categorized. Each site was then visited and problems, if any, were noted. The URLs of exemplary sites in each category (if any) were recorded.
Results
These 99 sites were visited and placed into 10 categories. The search provided with the categories presented in this study. The names of the categories and the number of pages in each category are as follows:
There are 12 pages in this category, all maintained by libraries, most on university campuses. A major problem with many of these pages is that they contain no information identifying the library to which they are affiliated! On some of these pages, a bit of snooping and clicking on other links leads to this information. However, on three of the 12 pages, there is absolutely no way to find the sponsoring library, since there is no link back to any other page and no identifier of any kind. Three other pages do list a three-letter abbreviation for the campus that houses the library, but it is impossible to determine what the designation stands for. Three other pages identify the campus but do not do so unless the user scrolls to the bottom of the page.
It is probable that in some of these cases, there is somewhere on the Web, a library home page that contains a link to these pages, and any users who find such pages by first visiting a library home page can simply click on their browser's "back" key to return to the sponsoring library page if they forget the location of the library. However, anyone who finds such pages through a search engine has never visited such a home page and cannot, therefore, return to it. Since the page contains no link back to the main library home page, the page is a dead end and can be said to be simply "hanging isolated in cyberspace." This is merely sloppy home page design, as it is a simple and elementary task to provide every page with a link back to a home page, and such links should be considered a routine necessity.
Another common problem with the library pages found is that many are simple text files without graphics of any kind. Such files resemble typewritten rather than printed text and are unattractive and boring. Such pages are the result of erroneously assuming that a good Web page can be developed simply by moving printed text onto the Web.
A few pages make use of too many graphics, causing excessively slow loading, particularly over modems. A few others employ imagemaps, a technique in which "hot spots" are defined in a graphic such as a logo, and users who click on a given hot spot are actually choosing a link to go to another spot in the current document or in some other document. Imagemaps can be effective, but the problem is that they are incomprehensible when viewed with browsers such as Lynx, which are incapable of displaying graphics. Pages with imagemaps should have an alternative text-based menu of links, since many schools still do not have an Internet connection sufficiently sophisticated to permit the use of graphical browsers such as Netscape or Internet Explorer.
Most of the library pages found lack a purpose statement, and several lack a descriptive heading of any kind. Three pages are excessively lengthy and require users to scroll through page after page of text, rather than providing internal links to specific sections, or, better yet, providing a list of links to a number of separate pages, each containing specific information.
The quality of information found is also sometimes questionable. One especially poor example found is an untitled page with the name of the library (obviously named for an individual) centered at the top of the page. However, there is no way to determine where the library is located (city, campus, etc.). The page lists various serials, their call numbers, and their cost to the library for each of two fiscal years. This unattractive text file is obviously an internal working document for library staff and/or policy-makers, and should not be made available to the Web at large.
Exemplary Site. One of the best pages in this category is one maintained by the Eastern Michigan University library at http://online.emich.edu/~lib_blum/multiculturaled.html. The page is titled "multiculturaled," and the first heading seen clearly identifies it as a page containing selected books and videos in the EMU library, 1990-97, together with selected internet sites, mailing lists, and Usenet Groups. Graphics are sparingly and effectively used, and the text font is attractive and readable. There is a table of contents of internal "hot links" to specific spots of the document including a full introduction and explanation of the contents of the site and possible uses for this information.
Each entry contains the full reference and library call number, and selected entries are annotated. The entries consist of 133 books on multiculturalism, 19 videos, 19 books about using the Internet, 14 multicultural Web sites, 4 links to search engines, and an extensive section related to the use of newsgroups and mailing lists dealing with multiculturalism.
There are links at the bottom of the page back to the top of the page, to EMU's library homepage, and to the homepage for the EMU campus. There is an e-mail address listed in case users have questions or comments about the page, but the link is not a "hot link" (cannot be clicked on to automatically open and address an e-mail message).
The site also has a few problems. The words "Eastern Michigan University" should appear in the first screen, but is first listed in the text of the introduction several screens into the page. Also, the page is much too long. All data is found in one very long file. Users are aided in finding what they want by the table of contents consisting of hot links to specific sections, but navigation in the site would be improved by breaking up the data into a series of separate files with hot links from the table of contents to each file. In addition, the footer at the bottom of the page does not list the current URL of the page.
The "University Departments/Programs" Category
There are 16 sites in this category, most (9) describing counseling programs at various colleges and universities. Four pages are merely catalog course listings, two are pages containing general information about educational psychology or counseling departments, and one page is a list of links to other sites considered to be counseling resources.
One of the main problems in this category is the failure to identify the university or college in which the department or program is located. Of the nine program sites, four never identify the university or college and there is no link to another page in which this information could be found, and three pages do not provide such an identifier until the bottom of the page. This is a serious problem for users consulting a search engine to find counseling programs, since such information is useless unless the college or university is identified.
Another common problem is outdated information. One site lists the continuing education catalog only for 1996, and all links on the page are to other pages specific only to that year. There are no links to newer information and one line lists the date that the page was last revised as December 23, 1995. Another page is dated October 23, 1995.
Most of the pages simply end abruptly, with no footer containing current URL, date last modified, hot link to e-mail address for questions or comments, or a link back to the top of the page and to the institutional home page. Several pages have links that do not work or graphics that will not display. Most of the pages are entirely too long, and some of these contain no internal links to specific sections, thereby requiring the user to scroll through many screens to find information.
Exemplary Site. The Indiana Wesleyan University Graduate Counseling Program has one of the best pages in this category at http://www.indwes.edu/Academics/BehavSci/Psych/grad/. There is an effective and informative logo and headline at the top of the page. The page is quite long, but there are excellent internal links at the top of the page to specific sections. The information is complete beginning with a summary of the program, and interested students can fill out and submit an applicationto the program online. There is a hot link to an e-mail address for those with additional questions. Overall, the site has a professional look and makes good use of graphics and color in a simple, but effective manner.
The only problems with the site are that it is too long and needs a more complete footer including a line showing the date the page was last revised.
The "University Course Pages" Category
There are five pages in this category, each a syllabus and other information related to a specific counseling course. Three of the five pages in this category are outdated and deal with courses offered in a semester previous to the current semester. One page never mentions the university at which the course is taught and this information can be found only by clicking on a link at the bottom to a three-letter university abbreviation.
Exemplary Site. The best site in this category is maintained by Virginia Tech University and contains information about a counseling internship. This site, found at http://www.ucc.vt.edu/Internship/Internship.html, has an attractive logo at the top of the page identifying the university, the department, and the title of the internship. There are internal links near the top to all sections of the document. There is a great deal of detailed information about the internship, and users can download zipped application forms to apply for it. There is a footer containing a "hot link" to an e-mail address for further questions or comments, the date the page was last updated, and links back to the university home page and the main page for the counseling center.
The "Miscellaneous University" Category
There are 7 sites maintained by universities that do not fit into any of the other categories. Two are brief news releases, two list counseling services available on campus, one is a collection of ERIC documents dealing with multicultural counseling, one is a list of references dealing with computer-assisted career guidance, and one is the complete text of an application to the American Psychological Association for renewal of accreditation. The most common problems are failure to identify the university at the top of the page, and omission of a complete footer listing date last modified, current URL, an e-mail link for questions or comments, and a link back to a university home page.
Exemplary Site. The best site in this category describes multicultural training and experience of staff at the University of Minnesota office of Counseling and Consulting Services (UCCS). The site, found at http://www.ucs.umn.edu/uccswww/uccs.html, features a small UM Logo at the top of the page and a headline describing page content. The text is refreshingly brief, with four short paragraphs devoted to the above topic. The remainder of the page is a list of hot links to other sites related to services or training programs maintained by UCCS, including the full text of the University statement on diversity, and sites from which potential students can download application forms. There is a footer containing the current URL, a link to the main UCCS home page, and a hot link to an e-mail address for questions or comments. The date last modified is displayed at the top of the page.
The "Commercial Sites and Non-Profit Sites with Something for Sale" Category
The 15 sites in this category are evidence that professional web-site developers often make as many style and design mistakes as do university faculty and staff. Most of the sites in this category (eight) are maintained by commercial publishing houses and offer individual titles or series dealing with multicultural counseling. Although the sites are characterized by sophisticated graphics and extensive use of color, they display many of same errors and omissions as those in other categories, especially lack of proper identification of the sponsoring company at the top of the page, links that do not work, and lack of a footer displaying date last modified, current URL, hot link to e-mail address, etc. One site by a major textbook publisher displays text that will not word wrap when viewed with common browsers on computers such as notebooks with small screens. Consequently, all text near the right margin is not viewable.
Exemplary Site. There are no exemplary sites found in this category.
The "Personal Home Pages" Category
There are 13 sites featuring individual faculty members. The most frequent problems are failing to identify the individual's current university or department, overly lengthy pages with no internal hot links to specific sections, outdated information, and a lack of a proper footer.
Exemplary Site. There is an excellent personal home page located at http://unr.edu/homepage/maddux/. This is a vita with an excellent and complete list of internal hot links at the top of the page leading to specific sections. Graphics are used effectively but sparingly, ensuring fast loading.
The "Organizations" Category
This category is the largest found, containing 19 sites maintained by various organizations. The most common problem is a failure to identify the sponsoring organization clearly and at the top of the page. One otherwise excellent site, for example, features two colorful graphics with large acronyms at the top of the page. However, the text never identifies the organizations for which the acronyms stand. Five other sites display an acronym at the top of the page without identifying the real name of the organization.
Another common problem is the lack of a purpose or other orienting statement that tells the user what types of information can be found at the site.
Exemplary Site. None of the sites in this category is outstanding, but the best siteis maintained by the Texas Counseling Association (TCA). The acronym and the full name of the organization is clearly identified in the title and in the first headline on the page. Graphics are sparingly and effectively used. The content of the page is a brief but informative and competently-written description ofall the divisions within the organization. The footer is effective, and lacks only the URL of the page.
Problems include the employment of blue text, a confusing choice since most browsers are set to display hot links in blue. In addition, the page needs a list of internal hot links to specific sections of the document, thereby eliminating the need to scroll the entire page.
The "Miscellaneous Others" Category
There were 6 sites in this category. Two are maintained by academic journals, one lists articles and books by authors whose last names begin with "H," one is a site dedicated to publishing student papers submitted in a course at a university, one is a copy of a survey dealing with multicultural counseling, and one displays submissions to a newsgroup on multicultural education. All six have extensive problems including all of those mentioned in previous categories, particularly the neglect of a clear identification of sponsoring individual or organization. Footers were inadequate in all cases.
Exemplary Site. There were no exemplary sites in this category.
Summary and Discussion
The multicultural pages found with AltaVista suffer from a number of serious style and design problems. One of the most serious problems is the lack of proper identification of the sponsoring individual or organization. Acronyms are used without listing the complete name, and footers are incomplete or missing. The developers of multicultural counseling-related web pages should bear in mind that many users find pages through use of search engines. Therefore, all pages should be capable of standing alone and should not assume that users will find pages by first visiting another page.
Another problem is technical in nature. Many pages do not have the title of the page listed between <TITLE> and </TITLE> tags of the code that produces the page. This title will appear in the title section of the browser when the page is viewed. Without such tags, search engines such as AltaVista list the page under the designation "NO TITLE." TITLE tags must be used regardless of whether or not the page has an initial headline or banner containing the title of the page. Additionally, all pages should employ the META tag in its code. This tag can be used to specify the description of the page that will be listed by search engines, rather than leaving the exact entry up to the automated search engine software.
Based on the results of the present study and on past experience of the authors, we recommend that Web page developers incorporate the following in all pages:
1. A clear and complete identification of the name and address of the sponsor, located near the top of the page.2. Prominent display of a headline near the top of the page giving the title of that page.
3. A short statement of the purpose of the site.
4. Pages of reasonable length, probably no longer than several screens in length. Extensive data should be "chunked" into many short files with hot links to each document located on the primary page.
5. A link back to the original page located at the bottom of all pages that are reached by choosing a link on the original page.
6. A link back to the top of all pages located at the bottom of each page.
7. Correct grammar, punctuation, and spelling on all pages, and use of professional language at all times.
8. A link to the home page (if any) of the sponsoring organization.
9. Judicious use of images: enough to be attractive, but not so many that the page takes excessive time to load over modems.
10. Small images that are actually links (clickable, thumbnail images) to any large images that can require long loading times over modems.
11. The number of bytes in the larger image displayed below clickable images as described above so that users can decide whether or not they wish to wait for the larger image to load.
11. All images programmed to display a name or description if the page is viewed with a browser that cannot display images.
12. All images programmed with height and width of the image specified to make text viewable while images load.
13. Imagemaps used sparingly and always with an alternative list of links in case the page is viewed with a browser that cannot display imagemaps.
14. External links that are checked at least every few weeks to be sure they continue to work.
15. Pages that have been viewed in the most popular browsers (at least Netscape, Internet Explorer, and Lynx) to be sure that they are effective no matter which browser is used.
16. Footers on every page containing at least a link to the sponsor's home page, a link to the primary page (if a secondary page), the URL (address) of the page itself, a hot e-mail link (displaying the exact e-mail address) for questions and comments, the name of the author of the page, and the date the page was last modified.
17. Graphics that are used only with permission of the owner or after assuring that they are not copyrighted and are in the public domain.
18. A "credits" section near the bottom of the page that gives a hot link to any sites where graphics have been obtained.
19. Frequently revised, up-to-date content that will motivate users to return frequently to the page.
20. TITLE and META tags on all pages so that the viewer's browser will display the title in the title line, and so that search engines will list the title and a clear, concise, and accurate description of the page.
For a complete discussion of these and other recommendations, see Maddux and Johnson (1997).The style and design characteristics of pages found in this study are disappointingly poor. Although it was not the focus of this study, the same can be said for the quality of information found. Although a different search string might have found more important information, pages in this study do not, in general, provide useful and important information about multicultural counseling. Instead, nearly all provide information about programs, departments, or services dealing with multicultural counseling, or about books, videotapes, or other reference material on the topic.
Future developers of web sites dealing with multicultural counseling should make use of the 20 style and design recommendations listed above. They might also bear in the mind the scarcity of web information about multicultural counseling in the first 200 "hits" described above, and endeavor to provide information about issues, trends, techniques, aids and cautions, and other academic information related to the counseling profession as applied to diverse populations.
References
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Edil
Torres-Rivera, is an assistant professor in the Department of Counseling
and Educational Psychology at the University of Nevada, Reno. Before earning
his Ph.D., he was a Behavioral Science Specialist in the United States
Army for over 12 years. Since 1995, he has published over 12 articles in
the areas of multicultural counseling and chaos theory. He currently teaches
classes in group counseling, multicultural counseling and child and family
guidance.
of Oregon and Arizona before earning his Ph.D. from the University of Arizona
in 1978. Since that time he has been an assistant, associate, and a full
professor at four different institutions, most recently at the University
of Nevada, Reno, where he is a professor in the Department of Counseling
and Educational Psychology. He currently teaches classes in statistics
and in information technology in education. He is the author of 14 books
and more than a hundred scholarly articles, many in the area of information
technology in education.