Week 10 preparation (12/9/2009): Website design proposals- final presentations

I am looking forward to seeing your presentations. Remember that the focus of this class has been the discovery and planning phase of web development process. Your proposal and presentation should include the updated business analysis (summary, objectives and goals from the earlier brief) with additional analyses on competitive sites, technical requirements, audience and users, initial structural design (sitemap and a couple of key DRAFT wireframes) and project budgets and schedules.

Please upload to the mp402 group the final versions of your proposals (Word .doc) and presentations (Powerpoint, .ppt IF you have them) to the Files area and clearly mark the links to them on your team's project page in the Pages area. You will need to run your presentations from the Instructor's workstation so you can either access the files from the mp402 group, or bring them on a USB flash drive or run them off a laptop that can be hooked up (VGA connector) by the instructor's workstation. Each member of the team should be prepared to make a part of the presentation. There should be 20-30mins per presentation including Q&A.

Each team should also create a zip archive of all their project files (e.g., earlier project brief, competitive analysis .xls file, and other key docs) and upload to the mp402 Files area.

Hopefully we will be finished promptly to have time for some celebratory and well deserved liquid refreshment at the Market Street Pub. I will have a 10pm bus to catch, so it will not be an extended social session!

See you soon,
Richard.

Week 9 preparation (11/30/09): Website design proposals- putting it all together

Your week 8 reading assignment was Chapter 6 (Build, p.144-176) & Chapter 7 (Launch, p. 180-208) and your week 8 coursework was to create a breakdown of your budget ($20,000) and timeline (10 weeks) for your projects, along with any details and assumptions that were made for these. Remember, this is an exercise and should get you think about the amount and distribution of the work you propose. Does it seem feasible? Are you allocating too much/too little to a section?

For week 9's class, we will focus on each group completing their proposals, and I will be available to address any concerns or issues that you have. All the sections you should have so far are,

• Project overview- project summary, objectives & goals
• Competitive assessment - review of potential features
• Technical assessment - prioritized feature list
• User assessment - personas and scenarios
• Design assessment - sitemap, wireframes, and user task paths
• Project planning - budget, timeline & any details or assumptions

These sections should be compiled into one, final project document. You can use this to present from, or if you like, you can create a slide show (Powerpoint, or PDF, etc). There is no reading assignment for week 9 and you will be able to focus on preparing and practicing your presentations for week 10.

See you soon,
Richard.

Week 8 preparation (11/19/2009): Web project planning and budgeting

For week 8's class, we will focus on project planning and budgeting. Your week 7 reading assignment was Chapter 3 (p. 65-85) which helps with this week 's coursework assignment to draft project plans and budget estimates for your website projects. No worries if you missed that as I will also present some information on this in class and clarify the deliverables for the assignment.

Teams should also be working on their site structures including their site maps and user tasks/protocols (using Inspiration) and simple wireframes (using Powerpoint or other basic drawing program). We will dedicate some time at the beginning class to review and complete this assignment as well as answering any questions/clarifications.

This week's reading assignment is Chapter 6 (Build, p.144-176) & Chapter 7 (Launch, p. 180-208) which rounds out the material in the book.

We do not have class next week (11/26) as it is Thanksgiving break. We will spend some time toward the end of class reviewing the final class deliverable so you can take advantage of the extra week to catch up on any parts of your assignments, and begin compiling the final project document. That will also be the focus of the coursework in week 9's class.

See you soon,
Richard.

Week 7 preparation (11/12/2008): Web site structures and design assessment

For week 7's class, we will focus on website design assessment looking at the site structures including information architecture, navigation, wireframes and user tasks/protocols. Your week 5 reading assignment was Chapter 4 (Structure, p. 88-116) & Chapter 5 (Visual, p. 120-140). This will have helped prepare you for the week 7's coursework assignment which is to draft the organization of the site (information architecture/site maps/user paths or protocols) for your website projects.

I am excited to have Kieran Lynn from Second Story presenting in tonight's class. Please be there promptly at 6pm to hear about how Second Story develops their web projects, their back-end development and how a CMS can support a website and interactive works in general.

Teams should have completed their audience personas and scenarios though we can take some time to review these in class if necessary. This week's reading assignment is Chapter 3 (p. 65-85) about creating project plans and budget estimates which we will cover in next weeks class.

See you soon,
Richard.

Week 6 Review (11/8/2008): Web audiences, accessibility and usability

In week 6, teams worked on their web technical assessments as in figure 9.9 and 9.10) and user personas and scenarios (more information on this in Chapter 3, p49-59, and the User Surveys article). Teams should aim to complete their technical assessments and user analyses by week 7.

In week 6's class, I presented on web accessibility (PDF), and this week's reading assignment is Chapter 8 (Usability, p. 212-231). You will also want to review Chapter 4 (Structure, p. 88-116) & Chapter 5 (Visual, p. 120-140) to prepare you for the website design assessment step in week 7.

Have a good week,
Richard.

Week 6 preparation (11/4/2009): Web audiences, accessibility and usability

Since we are still focused on audience profiles and scenarios in week 6, I am moving my presentation on Web accessibility to this week, and we will focus on web design assessment next week.

Teams should have developed a prioritized list of technical features and requirements for their projects and we will spend the first part of class reviewing these.

We will also work on audience personas and scenarios. Teams should identify 3-4 user personas (at least 1 persona per team member, persona_chart.doc, Adaptive Path) and 3-4 user scenarios (at least 1 scenario per team member, persona_chart.doc, Adaptive Path).

This week's reading assignment is Chapter 8 (Usability, p. 212-231). This will provide additional information for you on the importance of web usability and accessibility in web development.

See you soon,
Richard.

Week 5 Review (11/2/2008): Project status updates and Web technical assessments

In week 5, teams presented their web design briefs and project status updates. There was a wide range of detail provided, which is great since you are all obviously thinking hard about your projects. Teams should take time to update their briefs (project_brief_tmpl.doc) based on the feedback you received. You should also complete the technical assessment assignment for your projects as this will help you review the different features that you have proposed, and give you a framework in which to prioritize and focus what features and deliverables you will actually propose. I will allow some time to review these in class. Your technical assessment tables should include the following information (as in figure 9.9 and 9.10 though you can make one table rather than two),

• Feature number (use a grouping system if needed)
• Title
  
• Description
• Owner/Main stakeholder (the primary person/user who will benefit/use this feature)
  
• Business need addressed by this feature
• Priority score
• Risk score
• Ranking score (Priority + Risk)
  

In week 5's class, I presented on audience assessment, and in next week's class you will be working on the personas and scenarios (more information on this in Chapter 3, p49-59, and the User Surveys article). This week's reading assignment is Chapter 4 (Structure, p. 88-116) & Chapter 5 (Visual, p. 120-140) which will prepare you for the website design assessment step.

Have a good week,
Richard.