Queensland University Of Technology: A Leading Research Essay In Australia.

Select and undertake an in-depth evaluation of the following website: Website: 

Upon the completion of the task, you are to provide a formal report documenting your critical evaluation of the website. The review is to be carried within the context of responsive web design (RWD) and development principles. The report should draw particular attention to the interactive aspects and design aspects relating to responsiveness of the overall website. Support your critique with appropriate RWD principles. 

About Queensland University of Technology

One of the major University of Australia is the “Queensland University of Technology”. In the field of research, it has been claimed to be one of the fastest growing university. The provided courses are of high demand amongst the various students from various parts of the world. Various things are awarded to the students of this university from various parts of the worlds. The University claims to have provided experience to about 50,000 students. Along with this the university also claims to have provided the world’s first creative for various faculties who belongs to various backgrounds (Ragusa, 2017). Collaborative research can be done very easily as it provides a better environment as they have invested a lot for the purpose of collaborative learning. The report mainly discusses about the university’s website which has been provided. Along with this the later portion of the report consists of the main features of the website. Analysis has also been done for the purpose of highlighting the negative as well as the negative aspects of the website. the report also provides an analysis about the various resolutions of the websites (Peake et al.  2015). The advantages and the disadvantages of the chrome device simulator is also provided in this report.

Overview 

Being one of the major University of Australia, Queensland University of Technology also provides an outlook globally along with focusing on the real world. This university claims itself to be one of the fastest growing research university amongst the other universities present in the nation. There are several courses which are being provided by this university and along with this all the courses are almost of high demand (Ewing and Thomas, 2012). An inclusive of eight Rhodes scholar is provided to the students graduating from this university amongst which five of them are rewarded to the students in the last five years of the course. The University is also considered to be very much collaborative and ambitious due to the fact that it provides the students with an appropriate equipment which helps them in developing their skills that are needed by them for the purpose of overcoming the issues or the challenges that are growing day by day in the whole world. It is also claimed by the university that they have helped a lot in transformation of the experience of all its 50,000 students. The University also places an accreditation over the different international along with the professional degrees in a premium way. Queensland University of Technology also has a Science and Engineering center which has won several awards that is considered to be the home of the “cube” which is considered to be the largest digital interactive space for the purpose of learning along with displaying in the whole world (Sarina, Waclawik, and Zhu, 2013). Besides all this the University also claims to have established the first creative industry in the whole world along with a large investment in the collaborative learning which also provide an environment for the research in an interdisciplinary manner.

Website Features

The University has claimed itself to be the leader of the next generation in the industry of research along with the society. The achievement of this is only possible when new changes will take place along with the developments that will be included in the process of learning and teaching (Ma et al. 2014). The design of the University is made in such a way that can meet all the needs of the coming generation. The researchers, executives and the staff members are considered as the leaders in their respective fields as claimed by Queensland University of Technology. 

Description

Queensland University of Technology is a very much well-known University which is associated with the public research and is located in the coastal city of Brisbane which belongs to the state of Queensland and is located in Australia. This University can also be referred to as the University for the Real World due to the fact that it helps in proper linking of the real world with the proper application of the research and the teaching techniques. Different courses are developed and upgraded by the contributions of the different representative professionals as this helps a lot in providing the practical knowledge to the various theoretical data. The staffs associated with the academics having different education background helps in providing consultation to many industries along with working on a numerous number of projects which often requires the involvement of the students as well which in turn helps the students in increasing their knowledge (Christie and Misson, 2012). From the establishment of the University there has been a lot of changes and along with that it is also expected to have several changes in the coming future. It has been claimed by the University that it has adopted various innovative ideas from the time of establishment of the “Brisbane school of Arts” in the year of 1849. Along with this another thing which has been claimed by the University is that they have the capability of understanding the leaders of the next generation for the decisions that they are taking along with the leaders of the various organizations related to business or the leader of the citizens so as to maintain a balance in the sustainability for the generation of the future.

The University has also started of thinking to prepare itself for the upcoming challenges that are to be faced in the future. The institutional plan consists of the blueprint of the website. The main focus of the blueprint is on the various priorities and the larger strategies that are mainly located in the central portion of the planning process. Another focus of the University is to encourage its students for the purpose of encouraging and promoting the various researches along with the engagement of the students in different domains like the science, engineering, math’s and other things related to the technology (Sarina et al.,2014). There is also a vision of the university regarding the real world learning in the year of 2020 and the main outline of the vision clearly states the aspiration that they are having for their graduates along with providing a learning experience which be very much consistent in creating a proper identity in the real world.

Advantages of Responsive Web Design

Key features of the website

Various features like the “study”, “research”, “industry”, “about the university”, “alumni”, “international students”, “news”, “professional development” and many more are provided by the website of Queensland University of Technology. The tab for study provides an idea about the various opportunities regarding the studies and the courses that includes things like the “undergraduate study”, “postgraduate study”, “PHD” and many more things related to the studies or events related to studies. Along with this another feature which is provided by the website is the scholarship and flexible study and also the feature of online learning center is also provided (Vos, 2013). Followed by the study tab is the research tab which provides feature like the life as a researcher, the list of the researched that has been conducted by the University and also the scholarships which are available for the professional researchers. Another thing which has been claimed by the University is that they are associated with the promotion of the integrity as well as the ethics for the researches that are conducted by the university. Things like partnership is available for the industries for the purpose of working individually with the help of the students or the graduates. There are various experts in the university who will be helping commercial researches along with the development at the workplaces and training in a proper way. After is the about tab that is providing the information regarding the university and the various peoples who are associated with it. Another tab present in the website also provided for the international studies where the students from different regions are able to get an idea about the application they are making along with this scholarship are also provided for this students who are very much good in their studies. Another tab which is present in the website is the news tab which makes easy availability of several news for the students and this includes topics like the alumni, business, health, creative industries, health, science, engineering and many more things which are helpful or related to the students.

Different aspects of the Website

Positive

There are several prospects of the website of Queensland University of Technology which include things like the making use of the web designs which are responsive in nature and this includes thing like the experience for the students of the university, SEO in an optimized manner along with a maintenance in a proper way which has initially cut the need of the mobile website of this university. The website of QUT is a very good responsive website which provides a lot of information and this is done by the use of the several devices according to the requirements. The same website can be accessed by different students belonging to different educational backgrounds and this can be done by any device irrespective of their size. Being responsive it is one of the best tool provided which is similar to the tool kit used by Google. By the use of this method various types of websites can be accessed by the making use of the mobile devices without any change in the resolution. So the need for updating both the mobile site as well as the main site is not needed. This will initially help in saving time as well as effort of the admin of the website (Bean, 2014). This also helps the students in saving their time as they are no redirecting to other separate websites of the Queensland University of Technology. As considered by Google the redirection is negative term as it consumes a lot of time in searching the contents over the internet. Being flexible in nature the website can be accessed very easily from different locations from different devices (Blunn, 2013). Along with this the method is also cost effective as the involved cost in a single website is similar to the costs of the various websites from a various range of the devices.

Disadvantages of Responsive Web Design

Negative

Along with various positive sides the website of Queensland University of Technology is also having few negative sides one such is the time required for loading of the website having responsive web design is more. There are several cases where it has been seen that the users or the students are transferring the HTML/CSS codes to different domains (Demirel, Halic and Kockara, 2014). Along with this there are several cases where it has been seen that the resizing of the images cannot be done or there might also be a negative effect on the time needed for the loading of the websites. Another drawback of the website is that it does not provide the freedom to change few things like the description of the title along with the other contents that are available in the website. The design of this website or the responsive website is made in such a way by which it is capable of providing resolution as required by the user (Chopin et al., 2012). It has been considered that the responsive web designing has made a remarkable evolution in the field of designing the websites. The web designers from various parts of the world are invited for the purpose of taking up various challenges along with coming up with various new ideas (Zhang and Han 2013). By adopting various precautions during the planning and the updating stage of the website can help in avoiding various consequences of the responsive web designing. 

Websites Review

There are several reviews regarding the website few of them are listed below:

1. A student perusing law under this university stated that this University is the not the best one and along with this it was also stated that the university website requires improvisation in certain areas. The student will be giving the final exam at the QUT and the lecturers that were being provided to him by the professors were not updated so there is also a need of updating the notes as well from the previous years. The student also stated that the word technology is associated with the name of the university but till now lagging in the quality of the equipment’s provided by it which makes the lectures unwatchable.
2. Another review by a 20-year-old student who is pursuing the degree of engineering from this University states that there is an essential need for the University to make some modifications. The student also stated that the basics of the lectures and the theories provided by the lecturers of the university were not taught to them. It was also stated that the lecturers and the tutors were warm along with being friendly and provided them with a non-circular support. The university also has other drawbacks which includes the use of the old case studies along with this their curriculum not being updated according to the requirements of the students associated with the marketing field.

Advantages 

The environment provided by the “Chrome Device Simulator” is very much convenient for easy setup and along with this the Chrome Device Simulator is also considered to be very much fast. The general use of the Chrome Device Simulator includes the analysis of the nature of the application. Simulators for the browsers like the Chrome simulator is mainly applied for the purpose of simulating the environment of the browser (Rainer et al., 2012). The main work of this simulator is to analyze the various functions of the particular website which is preformed until there is a requirement of the testing for the device. The major advantage of the simulator is that it is having a low price and along with this in many cases it has been seen that it is totally free of cost. There are also many cases where it has been seen that the purchasing of the device required is not possible in short span of time and for that the similar is used for the testing. Amongst all the available client software’s, simulator is considered to be the simplest one and it also runs on machines which requires less time than the real time machines so it can be easily concluded that the use of the simulator is the fastest model or the technique. By making use of google simulator it is possible to simulate a situation in an easy manner which might seem to be harder in the real devices. When a testing is being done of a running simulator and the battery suddenly goes does down then it is possible to easily update that to the simulator (Moskal et al.,2013). The testing process in the simulator is very much easy along with being simple. What the user needs to do is just download the respective software and after that installation needs to be done which will make it ready for the testing. Another problem which is easily solved by the simulator is the problem of taking screenshots during the process of testing. There are lots of devices which are present in the market but purchasing all those devices are very much tough along with making of choices regarding which one to choose. Simulator is mainly when the person performing the test is not sure about the right choice for the right mobile device in which they need to do the investment.

Disadvantages

The use of the simulator or the emulator can create a negative impression of the users. By the use of the simulators the testing person is not performing the test in the same platform along with the network which is being provided by the student. The results of the test might be perfect but still it is not sure if the data obtained after the testing can be applied to real devices or not. Another major disadvantage of the simulator is that the hardware and the software features that are supported by the devices that are acting as the simulator in the different versions of the OS as well and along with this the updating of the simulator is generally not done for the purpose of acting in the different versions of the OS (Imai and Takeichi, 2015). The design of the simulator is not done for the purpose of representing all the available testing devices that are present in the market. The thing which is not considered in case of the simulator is that it is not the hardware requirement for the file. Use of the outcomes of the simulators are very hard for checking the various incomplete availability of the data that are containing the important information. The simulation of the proper colors of the display of devices cannot be done properly by the simulator when it is operating in the sunlight or dark. The environment of the operating device determines the running of the emulators. When compared to the mobile emulators that are running on the PC real handsets, then it can be considered that they are having less resources (Mikowski, and Powell, 2013). The simulators that are not connected to the mobile networks are not eligible or does not support interoperability testing. 

There are also other tools like the “Google Simulator “which are used for testing and some of them are listed below:

• Gridset- This helps in providing a platform which can be used by the designers and the developers for the purpose designing the prototype in an easy way along with the building of the responsive layout for the projects (Lea and Nicoll 2013). As required or needed the grid can be created very easily by the users of this tool.
• Wirefy- This tool is used and is mainly required for the purpose of designing the responsive web which can be easily achieved by some of the knowledge of the CSS and the HTML (Bean et al. 2014). It can be also stated that the wirefy tool is nothing but the collection of the HTML templets and snippets which mainly works with the idea that the resizing of the browsers are easily available according to the device.
• Adobe Edge Inspect: An overview of this presentation of the corresponding responsive website is provided by this tool along with providing the platform. Along with this the need of the several devices for the purpose of viewing the different available platforms is also eliminated.
• Gumby 2: This is a responsive website designing tool which is built with a CSS preprocessor. The downloading and customization of this tool is done according to the need or the requirement of the user (Vandelanotte et al. 2014). This includes various tolls which are required by the grids, toggles and the switches that are related to it.
• Adobe Edge Reflow: This tool increases the possibility of the visual design of a website. What the reflow actually do is converting the Photoshop files into a HTML and CSS and which is followed by the adjustment by the use of the breakpoint in the reflow.

Conclusion: 

The report helps to conclude that one of the well-known university of Australia is the Queensland University of Technology. It has been claimed by the University that it is one of the fastest growing University in the field of research and along with this the courses that are being provided by the University are of high demand amongst the students from the various parts of the world. Particularly it can be stated that this University has provided experience to around 50,000 students. Along with this it can be also concluded that there are various drawbacks in the website of the University despite of having many positive aspects. The different resolutions provided by the websites according the type of device being used for accessing the website is very much helpful for the users. Along with this various tools have been discussed which can be helpful in the process of testing. The reviews provided by various students including the two reviews presented in this report helps in understanding various drawbacks and the advantages of the website. 

There are certain number of recommendation which can be given to the website of this QUT university.

• The loading time of the website should be improved so as to save the eliminate the problems of delay.
• Some option should be provided where an admin can easily make changes regarding tittle description and other matters can be easily change.
• Some negative aspects of the website like responsive web design which can be simply overcome by putting stress on the planning and updating stage for this given website.
• Pictures which are stretched cannot be simply resized which also puts a negative impact on the time of loading for this university.   

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