Designing a site (2/4) Conceptual Design – 1h

1. Designing a site (2/4)Conceptual Design – 1h

2. Lazar’s Development Lifecycle Define the mission & target users Collect user requirements Create and Modify Conceptual design Perform usability testing Create and modify physical design Evaluate and improve the website Implement and market the website

3. Conceptual Design • Navigation, Information Architecture • Page Design • Designing for Multiple Browsers (?)

4. Navigation, Information Architecture (1/2) • Organizational Structure of the Home Page • Topic grouping • Audience splitting • Metaphors • Amazon.com • Information Architecture • Tree structure: broad and shallow vs narrow and deep • Three clicks and you’re in • Chunking information: 7±2

5. Navigation, Information Architecture (2/2) • Navigation • Where, Oh Where, Oh Where • Topical sections • Path Analysis • Multiple routes • Technology • Screen layout

6. Lost in Hyperspace? • Where am I? • How did I get here? • What can I do here? • Where can I get to? • How do I go there? • What have I seen so far? • Where else is there for me to see?

7. Page Design (1/2) • Technical Considerations • Download • Plug-ins • Animation • Feature creep • Design Considerations • Information overload • Backgrounds • Colour palettes • Text • Styles

8. Page Design (2/2) • Content Considerations • Quality • Layout considerations • Positioning • Resizing/Scaling

9. Design Challenges • Designing for Accessibility • Legislation • Web Accessibility Initiative • The Browser Challenge • Explorer v Netscape v Opera etc. • Define a baseline specification or create alternatives ? • Currently much less of an issue with the dominance of Internet Explorer • But what does Firefox introduce? • Older incompatibility problems e.g. <object> vs <embed>, scripting languages, layers. • Standardization • Markup languages get stricter (html  xhtml  xml) • de facto standards vs W3C • Need for Testing • Early & Often

10. Requirements Specification • Mission Statement • Aims of Application • Target User Analysis • Contents • Screen Layout Guidelines • Navigation Guidelines • Technical Requirements

11. Navigation Maps • Linear • Hierarchical • Non-linear • Composite

12. Linear

13. Hierarchical

14. Non-linear

15. Composite

16. History 2 Equipment 3 Team Home Page 4 1 Simulation 5 Museum Exhibits 6 In-Out Structure

17. Storyboarding • A storyboard starts as a diagram. • It is a design, not a screen-shot • Shows where blocks of content go • Shows where local and global links are grouped • Labelled to show the result of clicking on links and multimedia • Label OFF the diagram! (Draw lines linking label to feature). • Labels tell what the multimedia does. • First draft drawn in schematic form by hand or drawing package (e.g. MS Word, PowerPoint, Dreamweaver). • Later may become a detailed design using collage and better drawing tools • Show a few possible solutions to client – who will invariably want to make changes! • Coded only after design and approval

18. Vertical Navigation System

19. Horizontal Navigation Bar

20. Vertical and Horizontal

21. Example: A storyboard for a web home page

22. Storyboards

23. Detailed Storyboard