Before applying for the Green Light Award, please check to make sure that the website you’re submitting is qualified to win this award by reading the Disqualification Criteria. Each site submitted for consideration will be graded upon the following criteria in five categories:

Design and Appearance of the Home Page - (6 points) The Home Page is what creates a first impression for most of the visitors to your site. It is from here that they should be able to reach all portions of the site. Web authors that accomplish this with a pleasing design, original graphics, and content will earn with these points.

Design and Appearance of Site - (4 points) The site should have a consistent and uniform appearance at least within major sub-sections. Is it pleasing to look at? Consistency in design is a valuable aid in the presentation of quality graphics and information, and it is vital in allowing visitors to easily navigate the site. In addition, it is a good practice to use a consistent font throughout the site.

Color Harmony - (3 points) The graphics and fonts should show color harmony at least within major sections of the site. We look for graphics and fonts that complement and blend in well with the overall appearance of the site.

Image Quality - (4 points) All of the graphics that are used should be clear and sharp. We will deduct points for graphics and pictures that are excessively pixilated and/or indistinct, or those that are not functional. If you know how to create and use the proper graphic formats for the net (GIF and JPEG) then you will earn these points.

The Intelligent Use of Images (White Space) - (4 points) There should be good use of images with a minimum of white space. "White space" are the parts of the page that have nothing on them. Pictures should break up long passages of text, and when they are placed properly will elaborate on appropriate passages in the text. We mark down sites that use text only, and sites that are only a collection of images that are crowded together without any explanation for their existence.

Type Set - (4 points) The fonts that are used should complement the graphics and the text. For example, the use of the font "Comic Sans" would be inappropriate when talking about railroad fatalities of the 19th century. The font should also be consistent in type and color at least within sub-sections of the site, and it should be easy to read against the selected background. Small text that makes our myopic evaluators squint will loose points here.

Consistency vs. Creativity - (5 points) It is here that this award parts company with many other awards on the net. While "Consistency" is important, especially when concerned with the navigation of a site, applying this principle to a whole site sometimes interferes with the content and graphics that are being conveyed. When this happens, we award these points to sites who have ventured on the side of "Content" and "Creativity," and that give us a definite reason to return.

The decision to issue the Green Light Award is based on your point score of the above criteria. 70 out of a possible 106 points are needed to win the Green Light Award. The decision of our judges is final. Wining recipients will be notified by email.

There is a two month waiting period for resubmitting a site for reconsideration.