Assistant Professor Michael Scott Sheerin of Florida International University's School of Journalism and Mass Communication addresses standing room only crowd after receiving the award for Best Web Design at the annual AEJMC convention in Washington, D.C. Photo Credit: O'Connell, 2007

The SJMC website (http://jmc.fiu.edu/ ) received top honors in the AEJMC sponsored “Best of the Web” Design Competition in the School/Department category. Other categories in the competition were “Teaching,” “Journalism,” and “Creative.” The school’s Assistant Dean of Technology, Michael Scott Sheerin, was the lead creative and producer of the site. Additionally, Carlos Alvarez and Brian Friedman, SJMC’s network administrator, wrote the code and implemented the streaming protocol.

According to the rules, “each site was evaluated by two independent judges, who completed an online form. The results of each evaluation were stored in a database, and the scores were used to determine a short list of top sites in each category. The final award decisions were made by the judges through deliberation and were not based on numerical scores alone.”

Here are a couple of comments about the site from the judges:

“As a Web site, this is a brilliant effort characterized by creativity and excellent variety of information. This is an ingeniously devised and well thought out Web site. It deserves credit for producing a vivid impression on the mind of the reader.”

“This site was beautifully designed. The design was predictable (a good thing in this case), making the design both appropriate and easy for the university audience. Site links on the left hand side were carried through the site, and the graphic appeal and the color choice were well selected to give a unified and consistent look through the site.”

Professor Sheerin presented the website as part of the Communication Technology and Visual Communication division’s panel at the annual AEJMC convention in Washington, D.C. on August 11, 2007.