Your final design project will consist of three items:

• A web design document, which will provide details of how you plan to design, implement, and promote your web site. 200 points. Due March 28th.
• A plan for testing a beta version of your web site. 100 points. Due April 16th.
• The completed web site. 300 points. Due May 1st.

This page contains information on the first stage of the project, writing the design document. The design document is a (paper) report that describes your overall plan for the design, development, implementation, and promotion of your web site. The purpose of the document is to help you identify and address the issues that you will face as you plan and code your site. You might think of this document as similar to a specifications document in software design, or a storyboard in media planning. Ideally it should facilitate communication among all people in the design group, function as a guide when coding the system, and help others who may be brought on to maintain or update the site after it is completed and online. Listed below are several items you should consider when writing the document.

Conceptual Analysis
This is a general description of who the web site is designed for and what its purpose is. It should include:

• An analysis of the intended audience or audiences for the web site. This should be as detailed as possible, and include such items as the audience's experience with computers and with the Web, their education level, age, gender, occupation, income level, computer platforms used, method of access to the site, etc. Be as specific as you possibly can. See page 142, in Designing Business, where Clement Mok writes about profiling users. Try to apply the principles he presents there to your own website design.
• The objectives of the web site. This is a general overview of what the purpose of the site is (entertainment, education, marketing, decision-making, corporate identity formation, etc.)
• The specific tasks and scenarios that users of your site will be performing. Again, be as specific as you possibly can. On page 53 of the article I handed out in class a few weeks ago, "A Heuristic Evaluation of a World Wide Web Prototype," there are four examples of "expected usage patterns" for the website described in the article. I expect similar descriptions for your design document.

In addition, for help in writing this section (and others) look at Chapter 6, "Integrated Case Studies" in Designing Business. Each case study presents a brief "business goal," "technology mandate," and "design challenge." Your document should include similar information (but go into even more detail). For instance, each case study includes past tense discussions of the thought and rationale that went into the design. As you read these case studies, if you transcribe the descriptions into the future tense, you'll get an idea of the general description I'm expecting for this section.

Content Analysis
This is a discussion of the content that will be included in the web site to meet the objectives. This discussion will include:

• Considerations of who you need to contact to obtain information.
• Descriptions of what information (text, graphics, animation, film footage) currently exists, the form it is in, what needs to be done to the information (e.g., text rewriting; file conversion, photo digitization, etc.).
• Descriptions of what other information needs to be created (e.g., text to be written, photos to be shot, graphics to be created, etc.) to meet the objectives outlined in your conceptual analysis.

Web Structure, Content, and Interface Design
This section includes details of how the actual site will be structured, how the pages will look, and how the user will navigate the site. It should include:

• A diagram and description of the web's entire structure. (Again, go to the case studies chapter, and look at the diagrams presented there for ideas of what I'm looking for. (See pages 151-153, in Designing Business).
• A description of the content (graphics and text) within each section of your web, or a description of the content of each page, if your entire web is five pages or less. (See particulary page 182 in Designing Business.)
• A description of the "look and feel" of your web pages. This includes screenshots showing representative screen designs for different sections or levels of your web, or screen designs for the entire site, if it will be five pages or less. (For example, see page 181 in Designing Business, and pay attention to the description of the screens.)
• A discussion of how users will navigate between different pages, including a description of the navigation tools and cues you'll provide to orient your users. (For instance, see pages 158-159, the discussion of GUI design.)

Development Information
This section includes any information you need to specify to facilitate smooth development by all members in your group, including:

• A discussion of any standards you need to specify to keep the content, interface, and graphics consistent.
• A description of the directory structure, including discussion of the server where the web site will be put online.
• Any outstanding issues that you foresee arising during the development process.

Web Promotion and Maintenance
This section includes considerations of how you intend to let your audience know of your web site's existence (how it will be indexed, how it will be announced in other outlets and other media etc.) and a plan for who will be responsible for maintaining and updating the site when it is put online.

For help in determining what to include in this document, consult chapters 4 through 10 in John December and Neil Randall's HTML and CGI Unleashed. This book is in the library.