The main goal is keeping clarity both in design and content. We want users to access the content easily when they need it. The content includes course
materials, lectures and outlines, reading links, projects, syllabus and contact information for the professor.
We want to create and implement a design that is easy-to-use for students. The navigation system should be an interactive design that is easy to understand.
In addition, users should be able to find what they are looking for and where they are. So, our goal is to deliver a website with the course contents in a way
that allows students and outside users to easily access the materials without getting lost in the navigation.
We also want to maintain the consistency in our design. Using pleasant color scheme and organization the materials in a readable and accessible way are
what we will be focusing on. Furthermore, providing good design with usability is our long-term solution.
Defining the user experience happens to be arguably one of the most important aspects of a website design process, as it determines
not only who the audience for the website is going to be but also the fact that if the audience would actually want to stay and invest
their valuable time and be successful in achieving their primary motive of visiting the website.
The team conducted extensive discussions about who the target audience for this website was going to be and how using this website would
inturn be fruitful in serving the purpose and the intention of every user of this website so that the user's needs were met in the most
comprehensive manner. Making the website available to the public was a daunting task until the team actually narrowed its scope of target
audience.
The audience was then broadly classified into the follwing set of individual categories:
- Current students in the Website Design & Implementation class
- The General Student body comprising of both RIT, inclusive of alumni and non-RIT students
- Prof.Sonstein & other Faculty & Staff members from both RIT as well as other educational institutes
- The General Web Audience
Name:
Age: 24
Occupation: Current Student
Audience Category: Student
Background: "Name" happens to be a first year grad student at RIT and has taken up Web as his concentration for his masters program.
He is currently enrolled in the 737-Website Design and Implementation class who feels that the learning how to design a clean & user
friendly webiste is the key to becoming a good web developer.
Technical-Know-How: Being a first year grad student "Name" is still setting himself a proper footing as a potential web developer who
is currently exploring how to make the best use of HTML and CSS technologies in helping him build cleaner client-oriented websites. He has
a good hold of Photoshop and hopes to exploit its usefulness in helping him achieve his goals in designing websites.
Name:
Age: 45
Occupation:
Audience Category: Staff
Background: "Name" happens to be a full-time employee at the RIT campus who works as the Web Developer for RIT and is also responsible
for managing the entire institute's website & its web services.She would like to make use of the website in fetching links and keeping
herself updated with the recent developments and issues concerning the Web.
Technical-Know-How: "Name" is well versed with the current flow of technologies concerning the Web Development area and also has the
knowledge of Javascripting & PHP under her belt which she exploits to make the user experince a very pleasant one while designing
websites that are user-centric & user-friendly.
Name:
Age: 48
Occupation:
Audience Category: Faculty
Background: "Name" happens to one of the faculty members on the RIT campus for over 12 years now and handles a few of the classes in
the web domain that are particularly concerned with the client & server-side scripting. However he's been informed that he's
going to have to fill-in for one of the faculty members from the next academic year and teach the Website Design & Implementation class.
Technical-Know-How: "Name" is well reputed & has high regards among students for his command over
Javascript,XML and PHP - the programming languages of the Web & for his interactive ways of conducting classes.
He hopes to make the best use of this opportunity in imparting the most fundamental concepts of
web designing by adding a new technical skill set using HTML and CSS technologies.
Name:
Age: 29
Occupation: Independent Web Developer/Free Lancer
Audience Category: General Web Audience
Background: "Name" as mentioned happens to be an independent Web Developer who has designed some of the most creative and interactive websites
for some of the leading fashion brands. She is well reputed & has great respect in the market for her work.She is always on the look-out
for newer inspiring and more creative ways to designing her websites.
Technical-Know-How: Having been in the field for quite some time now, she knows all that there is to know about designing the most
beautiful websites to be the most sought after free lancer in the field. However she is much more interested in incorporating the newer
HTML5 & CSS3 technologies as she now understands the need to make her websites free from flash but not compromising on the fucntionality
provided by the same.
The team used five sample websites to serve as a basis for the competitive analysis and study.The purpose of this exercise was to
determine the flaws in the existing desing and implementation of websites that served a common purpose to a similar set of target audience
as categorised by us which would help us in understanding the ways in which our website can be further improvised upon so as to make the user
experience most pleasant on this website.
Reference Sites
The following sites were used as reference sites on the basis of which a comparative/competitive analysis was conducted by the team.
The table below shows the results of the study as a point-based evaluation of different aspects of web site designing.
| Site |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
| Content Grouping |
4 |
3 |
5 |
5 |
3 |
| Function |
3 |
2 |
5 |
5 |
3 |
| Content |
3 |
3 |
5 |
5 |
3 |
| Site Summary |
4 |
2 |
5 |
4 |
2 |
| Navigation |
4 |
2 |
5 |
5 |
2 |
| Visual Design |
2 |
2 |
5 |
4 |
1 |
| Overall |
3 |
3 |
5 |
4 |
2 |
Legend: A Comparitive scale factor
- Very Poor
- Poor
- Average
- Good
- Very Good