Survey Of 404 Error Pages For JISC 5/99 Project Entry Points

The following table gives a summary of 404 error pages for JISC 5/99 projects. The data was taken from the listing of DNER Development Projects.

A summary of the column headings is given below.

Project: Name of project and link to project Web site
Tailored 404 Page?: Y if Web site appear to have a tailored 404 page, and does not use the server default
Description: Brief comments on the 404 page
Rating *-****: * - simple 404 page with little, if any branding
** - 404 page with some elements of branding, navigational bars, help information, etc.
*** - sophisticated 404 page which is fully branded and contains navigational bars, help information, etc.
**** - sophisticated 404 page with additional functionality, such as personalisation.
Try It: View the project 404 page

The ratings have an elemnt of subjectivity. To help in interpreting their meaning additional information is given below.

**Table : Explanation Of Ratings**
Rating	Description	Example
*	May mention name of the Web site but has little or no branding, navigational bars or help information.
**	Has some elements of branding, navigational bars or help information, but not all.
***	Has all elements of branding, navigational bars and help information.
****	Has all elements of branding, navigational bars and help information. In addition provides additional functionality, such as personalised information, information on referrer field, etc.

**Table 1: Access to Teaching and Learning Resources**
	Project	Tailored 404 Page?	Description	Rating -***	Try It
1	ANGEL	N			Check
2	FAILTE	N			Check
3	ICONEX	N			Check
4	RESULTs Network	N			Check

**Table 2: Enhancing JISC data services for Teaching and Learning**
	Project	Tailored 404 Page?	Description	Rating -***	Try It
5	Biz/ed Virtual Learning Arcade	Y	Branded page with links to several area and help information	***	Check
6	CHCC	N			Check
7	Enhancing Beilstein CrossFire	N			Check
8	e-MapScholar	Y	Branded page with links to several area	***	Check
9	Geo-Crosswalk Gazetteer
10	Go-Geo!: The Geo- data Portal Project
11	Timeweb	N			Check
12	Using Numerical Data	Y	Branded page with links to several area and search box	***	Check

**Table 3: Images**
	Project	Tailored 404 Page?	Description	Rating -***	Try It
13	ARTWORLD
14	BIOMED	Y	Gives link to project home page	*	Check
15	BuilDNER	N			Check
16	Crafts Study Centre			No Web site
17	Designing Britain 1945-1975	??	Error - 404 page not available		Check
18	Filter	N			Check
19	PICTIVA	N			Check
20	Textile Images			No Web site

**Table 4: Moving Image and Sound**
	Project	Tailored 404 Page?	Description	Rating -***	Try It
21	Click and Go Video	N			Check
22	HOTBED	N			Check
23	LIFESIGN	N			Check
24	TRILT	N			Check

**Table 5: Museum Content**
	Project	Tailored 404 Page?	Description	Rating -***	Try It
25	Biota of Early Terrestrial Ecosystems	N			Check
26	Digital Egypt for Universities	N			Check
27	LEMUR	N			Check
28	MIRACLE
29	PATOIS	Y	Logo and simple navigational bar	**	Check
30	Virtual Norfolk Project	Y	Branded page with navigational bar, search box	***	Check

**Table 6: Miscellaneous**
	Project	Tailored 404 Page?	Description	Rating -***	Try It
31	EBONI	Y	Simple error message	*	Check
32	INHALE	N			Check
33	PELICAN	Y	Simple error message with search box	**	Check
34	VDML	N			Check

**Table 7: Infrastructure projects - JOIN-UP**
	Project	Tailored 404 Page?	Description	Rating -***	Try It
35	Docusend	N			Check
36	Xgrain	Y	Branded page with links to several area	***	Check
37	ZBLSA	Y	Branded page with links to several area	***	Check
38	ZETOC	N			Check

**Table 8: RDN projects**
	Project	Tailored 404 Page?	Description	Rating -***	Try It
39	British Education Portal	N			Check
40	Computing Gateway	Y	Link to home page	*	Check
41	Euro Subject Portal for the RDN
42	History online for learning and teaching	N			Check
43	Maths Portal
44	NMAP	Y	Attractive	***	Check
45	Physical Sciences Subject Portal for the RDN
46	RDN Virtual Training Suite	N			Check
47	SAD-I	N			Check
48	SAD-II

**Table 9: Z projects**
	Project	Tailored 404 Page?	Description	Rating -***	Try It
49	Gate-Z	Y	Branded page with links to several area	***	Check
50	JAFER	N			Check
51	MIMAS Metadata for the DNER	N			Check

**Table 10: Evaluation projects**
	Project	Tailored 404 Page?	Description	Rating -***	Try It
52	EDNER	Y	Contains logo and link to home page	**	Check

**Table 11: Studies**
	Project	Tailored 404 Page?	Description	Rating -***	Try It
53	INSPIRAL	N			Check

The information in the table was collected on 7^th October 2002.

Notes

Please note the following:

Only the projects with a Web site have been analysed.
Only the entry points have been analysed.
Only an automated analysis has been carried out.
The online version of this page allows the latest findings to be obtained.

Summary

A summary of the findings is given below.

**Table 12: Summary**
Tailored 404 Page	14	33%
Default 404 Page	28	67%

* Rating	3	21%
** Rating	3	21%
*** Rating	8	57%
**** Rating	0	0%