Project 3: “WebSolutions, Inc.”
This project is worth 20% of your final grade.
(Proposal = 20 points; Analysis of client/user needs=10pts; work schedule, progress report, and final group evaluation = 30 points; presentation = 40 points; final report = 100 points).
Timetable:
11/6--Proposals presented in class.
11/9--Groups selected and work contracts due by class end.
11/13—Written Analysis of client and user needs due.
11/27--Progress Reports Due
11/30--Prototype and First submission 3.1 due for peer critique
12/4--Presentations of Report and Prototypes
12/10--Final Submissions 3.2, Prototypes, and Group Evaluations due by 5pm
The specific goal for this project is for you to work as part of a team to develop a recommendation report and presentation for building or upgrading a web site. Your client will be an organization (e.g., a department, group, company) that currently lacks a web page or wishes to expand, improve, or upgrade one. This organization should also be committed to the idea of usability -- that is, learning more about who uses their site and how their target populations use the site, all in order to improve the quality of the site and the client's approach to managing it.
For this project, the class will operate as a simulated consulting firm called WebSolutions. Because WebSolutions prides itself on well-researched and user-centered solutions (our clients believe not just any old web page will do), you have several research goals to meet to ensure that your team can produce a quality report:
- Improve your knowledge of usability, user-centered, and web design.
- Practice your research, design, note taking, analysis, and reporting skills.
- Improve your knowledge of what makes web pages more or less usable for specific user groups.
- Clarify what the client and user group(s) you select may need and want.
There are several parts to the project:
- A proposal in which you identify a client that either has a site that could benefit from an upgrade or does not have a site and would like you to develop one. For this part you will need to have done some preliminary research to see if they would be interested in working with you and also write a clear and compelling problem statement. Every person in the class will write a proposal and present it to the class (in 5 minutes or less) on Nov. 6
- After teams are formed you will write a group contract and work schedule detailing individual responsibilities and deadlines for task completion.
- Awritten analysis of client and user needs. This part will require additional research.
- Development of a prototype site that meets the client and user needs and employs the good design practices we have been learning in class. The site should include at least 3 screens for each group member.
- A presentation of your analysis of the client needs and your response to them (in the form of design prototype) to be given on the penultimate day of class.
- A final document which includes the final version of the site prototype to be viewable online (the URL should be emailed to me).
- A final memo summarizing the client/user needs and goals and how your redesign meets them. This memo should be turned into the class dropbox and also to the client.