Web Design and Marketing Week 3 Reading - Usability.gov – Topic: Design Process and Evaluation – online book (FIRST CHAPTER ONLY!!!)

http://usability.gov/guidelines/index.html

Chapter 1 – Design Process and Evaluation

1. Provide useful content
   If the content is not good, then all the usability features in the world will not help.
2. Establish user requirements
   Get as much interaction with the end user as possible so that you know what they need.
3. Understand and meet user’s expectations
   Users expect navigation and formatting to be similar to other sites so it is best to follow convention.
4. Involve users in establishing user requirements
   Users are valuable in helping a designer know what it should do, but not in how to design the system to do it.
5. Set and state goals
   Determine the audience, content, function, and look and feel.
6. Focus on performance before preference
   If performance is important then focus on the content, format and navigation before colors and graphics
7. Consider many user interface issues
   Consider multiple interfaces when creating the website.
8. Be easily found in the top 30
   Know how to use tools to get in the top area on major search engines or site will be ignored.
9. Set usability goals
   Know what you expected the user to be able to do on your site and test to see if it can be done in timely fashion
10. Use parallel design
    Have developers offer many designs and choose the best from each one.
11. Use personas
    Know who you expect to use the site and build information of the typical user. The look at the site through their eyes. 

Web Design and Marketing Week 3 reading 1 - Usability.gov – Develop a Plan:

http://usability.gov/methods/plan/develop.html

1. Create a plan
   1. Way for all to agree what site
      1. is to do
      2. in what time frame
      3. with what resources
      4. at what cost
   2. Before starting think on these things
      1. Scope
      2. Audience
      3. Objectives
2. Determining Scope
   1. Entire organization/small part of one
   2. What is topic
   3. Will it be for a particular audience
3. Identify User Audience
   1. What groups do you want to reach
   2. What are their needs
4. Set Objectives
   1. What do you want to achieve with web site
      1. Not just ‘give information’
      2. Think of it in business terms

The book that we are using for my Web Design and Marketing Class.  Also available for free on line (but a little harder to read) at http://www.webstyleguide.com/wsg3/index.html

Web Design and Marketing Week 3 – Web Site Goals

Power Point Notes

1. Know what you want your site to accomplish ahead of time
   1. Mission
   2. How design meets that need
2. Mission is designed by owner
   1. Extension of corporate mission statement
   2. Find out the goal of the company and the niche of the company
   3. Use it as a guideline for the site.
3. You need to define mission because of limits on you
   1. Limits of time – spend time on things not important
   2. Money – easy to go over budget
   3. focus – scope of site expands (scope creep)
   4. If you are contractor you have to fix these things out of pocket
4. Shneiderman’s Taxonomy of Web Site Missions
   1. Selling Products
      1. Need to organize the products for ease of finding them
      2. Make the site to look good
      3. Have a shopping cart
   2. Advertising Products
      1. Some products cannot sell on line
      2. Sites need to be equipped to give information
   3. Informational and Announcements
      1. Non-profit – Sell ideas and opinions
      2. City – sells it as place to live
      3. Museums and Universities  - educate public on research and current events
   4. Access
      1. Libraries – access to Books/journals
      2. Newspapers – News/classifieds
      3. Scientific organizations – grants and technical articles
   5. Offer services
      1. Government sites provide access to forms, etc.
      2. Public Utilities – services offered
   6. Create discussions
      1. Input from communities on topics of note
      2. Open source discussions on needs of projects
   7. Nurture communities
      1. Political Groups – get and keep members interested
      2. Profesional organizations
         1. Add members
         2. Discuss topics
         3. Advance knowledge
5. How is mission defined?
   1. Ask clients why he wants web site
   2. What will user do
   3. How is success going to be measured
      1. increase in sales
      2. decrease in support calls
      3. increase in visitors to site
      4. repeat customers
      5. site ranking on Google
6. Mission statement should:
   1. Explain what site is to do
   2. Why the site exists
   3. Communicate clearly/honestly
   4. Covey values
   5. Convey niche
   6. Be brief (3 to 4 sentences)
7. Who is target population
   1. meet their needs
   2. advertise to them
8. Splitting
   1. Target population subdivided (School has students, future students, parents, etc.)
   2. Address these groups on home page – take them to the information that interest them
9. Market research what each split group needs – colors, layout, etc.
10. Market Segmentation is when you divide target population into homogenous groups
11. Ask client
    1. who is target
    2. different user groups?
    3. different user profiles to develop
    4. can we contact people from each group easily
12. Redesign a site
    1. only when necessary
       1. feedback says problems
       2. pages outgrow navigation
       3. new content/functionality that requires it.
       4. People will get lost in new design
13. Ask in redesign
    1. Same target
    2. Same mission
    3. same interface
    4. original documentation exist
    5. Original design team still around for assistance in what works and does not
    6. Any political or organizational eggshells  not to step on

New School, same old stuff

Now taking classes at TCC since I work there and can take them for free.  Just posting stuff that I am reading since I take them all on line.

 

Hope it helps fellow students. Need to change the side bar.  Not changing the URL though