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Compare A-level schools website (feedback needed)

This is my A-level Computing project. Comments are welcome and might end up in my documentation for some examiner to read.

Specifically, I would appreciate it if told me:

- What happened when you first visited the site? Were you able to figure it out quickly? Was something odd?

- Once you selected a subject, were you able to figure out what the bars mean? What each of the numbers show when you mouse over them?

- Any questions that popped into your head while navigating the site?

And of course, any ideas how it can be improved.

alevels.herokuapp.com

(And messy source code that makes this work)
I like it, quite innovative and a lot better than the other comparison websites I have seen.

No Welsh colleges though:/
Reply 2
- What happened when you first visited the site? Were you able to figure it out quickly? Was something odd?
Everything was surprisingly easy to navigate. I like sites that use a clean and simple design.

- Once you selected a subject, were you able to figure out what the bars mean? What each of the numbers show when you mouse over them?
I didn't notice the bars at first, I was just taking in the grades used but after a little browsing I did notice them

- Any questions that popped into your head while navigating the site?
I was actually browsing this site in my ICT class and my teacher spotted me. He came over and asked where in terms of grades was our college. Once we found the college he seemed happy that we only got a "C" when all of the other colleges around the area were at at least at a grade "A" average. I asked him why and he said ; "All of the other colleges have less than 100 people, we have just over 400 people and are only 1 or 2 grades lower than them, in my eyes were better than them." I guess an algorithm to take into account the grade and the number of students could be beneficial or maybe it's just how you interpret the data.
Reply 3
Original post by fnatic NateDestiel
I like it, quite innovative and a lot better than the other comparison websites I have seen.

No Welsh colleges though:/


Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find public school data for Wales, or anywhere in the UK except England. (Any data sources I'm not aware of?)

Original post by ispiked
- Once you selected a subject, were you able to figure out what the bars mean? What each of the numbers show when you mouse over them?
I didn't notice the bars at first, I was just taking in the grades used but after a little browsing I did notice them


Did you select subjects to compare? It sounds like you're talking about the bars showing the grades. Maybe it's a bug in itself that the subjects weren't noticed.

Original post by ispiked

- Any questions that popped into your head while navigating the site?
I was actually browsing this site in my ICT class and my teacher spotted me. He came over and asked where in terms of grades was our college. Once we found the college he seemed happy that we only got a "C" when all of the other colleges around the area were at at least at a grade "A" average. I asked him why and he said ; "All of the other colleges have less than 100 people, we have just over 400 people and are only 1 or 2 grades lower than them, in my eyes were better than them." I guess an algorithm to take into account the grade and the number of students could be beneficial or maybe it's just how you interpret the data.


I guess it's how you interpret the data. :smile: "Better" can mean different things to different people. Maybe the schools were independent, in which case it's an unfair comparison, in my opinion.

...which also causes me to ask myself if anyone calls them "independent". Now changed to "private".

Thanks for the comments. :smile:
Reply 4
Original post by gavrilov
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find public school data for Wales, or anywhere in the UK except England. (Any data sources I'm not aware of?)



Did you select subjects to compare? It sounds like you're talking about the bars showing the grades. Maybe it's a bug in itself that the subjects weren't noticed.



I guess it's how you interpret the data. :smile: "Better" can mean different things to different people. Maybe the schools were independent, in which case it's an unfair comparison, in my opinion.

...which also causes me to ask myself if anyone calls them "independent". Now changed to "private".

Thanks for the comments. :smile:


Oh I see the bars your talking about now! Yeah I didn't notice them at all the first/second time round but maybe I'm just being a bit dim.

Just out of curiosity, how long did this take you? Were you ever worried you were spending to much time on the project and not enough time on the write up? What grade did you end up with?
(edited 9 years ago)
It would be better if the html markup actually met one of the known specifications beginning with a proper doc type declaration. From the technical standpoint that is a big failure.
Reply 6
Original post by ispiked
Oh I see the bars your talking about now! Yeah I didn't notice them at all the first/second time round but maybe I'm just being a bit dim.

Just out of curiosity, how long did this take you? Were you ever worried you were spending to much time on the project and not enough time on the write up? What grade did you end up with?


I've slowly been building it since December, and no, I'm not worried. The documentation is currently 80% written and 0% edited, and the deadline is in less than a week. I guess it's all about good time management and setting the right priorities.

Original post by Old_Simon
It would be better if the html markup actually met one of the known specifications beginning with a proper doc type declaration. From the technical standpoint that is a big failure.


Whoops, hehe. You're so XHTML strict.
Original post by gavrilov
I've slowly been building it since December, and no, I'm not worried. The documentation is currently 80% written and 0% edited, and the deadline is in less than a week. I guess it's all about good time management and setting the right priorities.



Whoops, hehe. You're so XHTML strict.

Well the site is kind of neat but a few techie improvements would really polish it. HTML 5 is the way to go. Plus you didn't give any thought to search engines finding the site by coding it up properly. But it is a great effort for sure. Oh - last thing: I can not make head or tail of private / public schools what the heck is that all about ? They are completely mixed up.

OMG I just read your CSS what the heck ??????????????
(edited 9 years ago)
- What happened when you first visited the site? Were you able to figure it out quickly? Was something odd

Nothing unusual happened when I first visited. I was able to figure it out quickly.


- Once you selected a subject, were you able to figure out what the bars mean? What each of the numbers show when you mouse over them?

I understand all of the bars except the average grade one.


- Any questions that popped into your head while navigating the site?

What year is the data from? Is it from the school year 12-13?

And of course, any ideas how it can be improved.

I think the white background is too much. Could you use a slightly off white? Like what TSR has? Other than that, I think this is great! You should be proud of yourself for making something this useful to such a high standard! :smile:
Reply 9
- What happened when you first visited the site? Were you able to figure it out quickly? Was something odd?
I liked how the site was clean, easy to understand. Everything worked smoothly.

- Once you selected a subject, were you able to figure out what the bars mean? What each of the numbers show when you mouse over them?
Yeah, the 'average grade' thing was a tiny bit confusing though.

- Any questions that popped into your head while navigating the site?
Is this 2013 data?
Congrats on such a easy to navigate site. (Was personally helpful, although would appreciate school a bit further away included as well)
- What happened when you first visited the site? Were you able to figure it out quickly? Was something odd?
I could use it very easily and the layout was very clear.

- Once you selected a subject, were you able to figure out what the bars mean? What each of the numbers show when you mouse over them?
I had no problems with this at all- in fact it's better than many other sites I would normally use

- Any questions that popped into your head while navigating the site?
What year is this data from?

And of course, any ideas how it can be improved.
I honestly can't think of anything- it did what I would expect it to (and more! I love being able to view the individual breakdown of subject results!)
Reply 11
Original post by Old_Simon
Well the site is kind of neat but a few techie improvements would really polish it. HTML 5 is the way to go. Plus you didn't give any thought to search engines finding the site by coding it up properly. But it is a great effort for sure. Oh - last thing: I can not make head or tail of private / public schools what the heck is that all about ? They are completely mixed up.

OMG I just read your CSS what the heck ??????????????


Whoops.. the Private/Public thing is fixed now.

What do you mean by HTML5? Rename the tags?

And I agree, it's not very friendly with search engines, since most of the HTML is generated on the client. I put more effort in making it friendly with people though :smile:

The CSS is minified, to save some bytes. If you're into those kinds of things, check out the original CSS code.

Original post by rayquaza17
- What happened when you first visited the site? Were you able to figure it out quickly? Was something odd

Nothing unusual happened when I first visited. I was able to figure it out quickly.


- Once you selected a subject, were you able to figure out what the bars mean? What each of the numbers show when you mouse over them?

I understand all of the bars except the average grade one.


- Any questions that popped into your head while navigating the site?

What year is the data from? Is it from the school year 12-13?

And of course, any ideas how it can be improved.

I think the white background is too much. Could you use a slightly off white? Like what TSR has? Other than that, I think this is great! You should be proud of yourself for making something this useful to such a high standard! :smile:


The bars are probably the most problematic. Maybe I'll eventually find a better way.

And that's a good question, it probably should say which data is used. It's 2012-2013 :smile:

A grayish tone doesn't quite fit the current design. The whole design actually needs some work, but, not being so good in that area, I just keep things simple and "make buttons do the right things".

Thanks for the feedback. :smile:
I wasn't referring to the compression but to the CSS itself. It is full of etc blah blah xx px.
Reply 13
Original post by Yiechang
- What happened when you first visited the site? Were you able to figure it out quickly? Was something odd?
I liked how the site was clean, easy to understand. Everything worked smoothly.

- Once you selected a subject, were you able to figure out what the bars mean? What each of the numbers show when you mouse over them?
Yeah, the 'average grade' thing was a tiny bit confusing though.

- Any questions that popped into your head while navigating the site?
Is this 2013 data?
Congrats on such a easy to navigate site. (Was personally helpful, although would appreciate school a bit further away included as well)


Yes, 2012-2013 data. The postcode search limit is now increased to 50 (it was 30 before). Did you mean more than 50?

Original post by ThePhoenixLament
- What happened when you first visited the site? Were you able to figure it out quickly? Was something odd?
I could use it very easily and the layout was very clear.

- Once you selected a subject, were you able to figure out what the bars mean? What each of the numbers show when you mouse over them?
I had no problems with this at all- in fact it's better than many other sites I would normally use

- Any questions that popped into your head while navigating the site?
What year is this data from?

And of course, any ideas how it can be improved.
I honestly can't think of anything- it did what I would expect it to (and more! I love being able to view the individual breakdown of subject results!)


I'm glad you found it useful and hope you were able to figure out what all those messy bars mean. :smile:
Original post by gavrilov
Whoops.. the Private/Public thing is fixed now.

What do you mean by HTML5? Rename the tags?

And I agree, it's not very friendly with search engines, since most of the HTML is generated on the client. I put more effort in making it friendly with people though :smile:

The CSS is minified, to save some bytes. If you're into those kinds of things, check out the original CSS code.



The bars are probably the most problematic. Maybe I'll eventually find a better way.

And that's a good question, it probably should say which data is used. It's 2012-2013 :smile:

A grayish tone doesn't quite fit the current design. The whole design actually needs some work, but, not being so good in that area, I just keep things simple and "make buttons do the right things".

Thanks for the feedback. :smile:


I was in the 12/13 school year for A2, so I found it quite interesting to see how well my peers must have done based on the information on the website! :smile:
Reply 15
Gavrilov, I'm about to start my A2 computing project. I'm just wondering, who did you use for a client in this project?
Reply 16
Original post by ispiked
Gavrilov, I'm about to start my A2 computing project. I'm just wondering, who did you use for a client in this project?


I used GCSE student(s). Although I never spoke to or interview a GCSE student. Maybe not the best idea.

My project got 67/75 pre-moderation and can potentially go lower, as I didn't include some of the things the mark scheme seemed to require. I couldn't really find good past projects to get a clearer idea of what examiners want, apart from a few, including Damask-'s project (which helped a lot! thanks Damask-).

Anyway, good luck.
Reply 17
Original post by gavrilov
I used GCSE student(s). Although I never spoke to or interview a GCSE student. Maybe not the best idea.

My project got 67/75 pre-moderation and can potentially go lower, as I didn't include some of the things the mark scheme seemed to require. I couldn't really find good past projects to get a clearer idea of what examiners want, apart from a few, including Damask-'s project (which helped a lot! thanks Damask-).

Anyway, good luck.

Did you bother to obtain permission from the department of education for using their data?
Reply 18
Original post by ispiked
Did you bother to obtain permission from the department of education for using their data?


It's published under the Open Government License.

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