Standards of a properly designed website and scoring Rubric.
My journey as a self-taught developer began with a burning curiosity. Growing up in Uganda, where resources were scarce, I couldn't afford a formal education. Instead, I relied on handwritten notes from friends and online tutorials. As time went on, I got good at building websites for local businesses, each project proving my self-taught skills. But my dream of joining a major tech company seemed unreachable. Rejections piled up, all due to my academic background and self-doubt crept in. Then, a turning point. A friend I had shared my knowledge with landed a job at a promising startup in Kampala. He believed in me and recommended me. For five years now, I've been working remotely for that very company. They saw the potential in passionate, self-taught talent. But my heart is saddened by the millions in Uganda and the world facing the same challenges. That's why I am sharing my knowledge on this platform and other social platforms. My expertise is in PHP, JavaScript, WordPress, Technical Writing and business leadership. If you want to learn from me or collaborate, consider to follow or send me a on X.com/davidofug
A properly designed website should be usable, accessible, fast, and consistent. At a minimum, it should help visitors find what they need quickly, work well on mobile, and follow web standards for HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, along with accessibility guidelines like WCAG.
Core standards
· Valid, semantic code: clean HTML, CSS, and JavaScript that browsers can interpret reliably.
· Accessibility: keyboard navigation, alt text, good color contrast, proper headings, and form labels.
· Responsive design: layouts that adapt well to phones, tablets, and desktops.
· Performance: fast loading pages and optimized assets.
· Clear structure: consistent navigation, visual hierarchy, and obvious calls to action.
Good UX signs
· Users can understand the site quickly without much explanation.
· Important information is easy to find.
· The design is visually consistent across pages.
· Content is readable, concise, and relevant.
· Contact or next-step actions are easy to locate.
Practical checklist
· Use one clear primary purpose per page.
· Keep navigation simple and predictable.
· Make buttons and links obvious.
· Test on mobile and multiple browsers.
· Check accessibility with tools like Axe or WAVE.
· Include SEO basics like page titles, meta descriptions, and descriptive URLs.
Use this rubric to score a website from 1 to 5 in each category, where 1 = poor and 5 = excellent. A strong website should score at least 4 in the most important categories: usability, accessibility, mobile responsiveness, and performance.
Category | 1 | 3 | 5 |
Purpose and clarity | Unclear purpose, confusing messaging | Main purpose is somewhat clear | Purpose is immediately obvious, messaging is focused |
Navigation | Hard to find pages, inconsistent menu | Usable but not always intuitive | Simple, predictable, and easy to scan |
Visual design | Cluttered, inconsistent, or outdated | Acceptable but uneven | Clean, balanced, consistent, and professional |
Responsiveness | Breaks or looks bad on mobile | Works on most screens with minor issues | Adapts smoothly to all common screen sizes |
Accessibility | Missing basics like alt text or labels | Partial accessibility support | Keyboard-friendly, well-labeled, good contrast, semantic structure |
Performance | Slow loading, heavy pages | Moderately fast but not optimized | Fast, optimized, and efficient |
Content quality | Hard to read or too much filler | Useful but not polished | Clear, concise, relevant, and easy to scan |
Calls to action | No clear next step | CTAs exist but are weak | CTAs are obvious and well placed |
Trust and credibility | Looks untrustworthy or incomplete | Some trust signals present | Strong credibility cues: contact info, policies, proof, consistency |
SEO basics | Missing titles/descriptions or poor structure | Some SEO basics in place | Good page titles, meta descriptions, headings, and clean URLs |
Scoring guide
· 45–50: Excellent, production-ready.
· 35–44: Good, but needs refinement.
· 25–34: Average, with important issues to fix.
· Below 25: Weak, major redesign needed.
