CEMCEMA

If you’ve ever looked at a website so full of animations, graphics, and poor color choices that you didn’t know which way to turn, be thankful for the Interactive Media Awards. This competition seeks to raise the standards of what constitutes a “good” Internet site. The governing body is the Interactive Media Council, Inc., an organization of web professionals with experience in design, development, and advertising. Winners are rewarded with online tools they can use to increase traffic and market their success.Entering costs 125, or 75 for nonprofit categories. While this entry price is a little steep, the IMAs offer over 70 very specific categories, improving your chances of winningyou won’t be judged against a site of an entirely different genre. However, the categories are dispersed over the four quarters of the year, so only a certain number can be entered at any given time. The Council also emphasizes the rewards that can come with winning an IMA, including highlighting your site’s expertise in a specific industry and getting an evaluation by qualified professionals.While the announcement ceremony may not be as exciting as the Webbys, there is no shortage of winners. You can easily search the winner archives, or you can look at the Top 10 Sites for each of the last four years. These winners are selected by a panel of Judges from the sites with the best scores among the “Best in Class” sites. Sites are judged on five criteria: Design, Content, Feature Functionality, Usability, and Standards Compliance/Cross-Browser Capability. With more companies vying for the IMAs, we should see better sites all around, which should mean less wasted hours trying to figure out exactly where to click. If that sounds good to you, check out the Interactive Media Awards site to find out who’s doing it right.