DWC Module Introduction

Designing Web Content - Module Introduction

Designing Web Content - Introduction.

Designing Web Content is split between two lecturers. This site covers the assignment, assessment critieria, and the parts of the module concerned with the methodical development of web sites. The parts of the module concerned with graphic design are not covered here, although you may find some useful links at appropriate points in the development cycle. The supporting materials for this part of the module are organised in the usual grey - green - blue scheme explained on the teaching home page.

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1. Notes and Supporting Materials.

Week 1	strategy / planning	web sites and books	independent learning
Week 2	concept design	readings	independent learning
Week 3	content analysis	readings	independent learning
Week 4	structure / navigation	readings	independent learning
Week 5	technological choices	readings	independent learning
Week 6	page design	readings	independent learning
Week 7	page design (cont.)	readings	independent learning
Week 8	prototyping	readings	independent learning
Week 9	implementation / testing	readings	independent learning
Week 10	launch / maintenance	readings	independent learning

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2. Lecture and Tutorial Programme.

	Lecture	Tutorial
Week 1	introduction and orientation
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9
Week 10	implementation and testing - orientation	assignment application - low-level design
Week 11	troubleshooting and contingency	assignment application - implementation / test
Week 12	troubleshooting and contingency	assignment application - implementation / test

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3. Assignment.

The government's website 'ukonline' is an attempt to create a forum for 'friendly' and accessible communication with uk citizens. Whatever one might think of such a site (and terms like 'propaganda' do start to rise up at the back of one's mind), such broad-banded, popular communication on the web is certainly a design challenge. Your brief is to construct a sub-site, to be accessed via ukonline, that attempts to educate citizens on the problems of global warming, the impact it might have on the uk, and how developed world lifestyles are part of the problem. Your site should be approximately 8-10 fairly dense pages - but might be fewer if content is packed into Flash animations, java applets, etc.

This specification gives you broad design parameters within which you are free to work in ways that appeal to you. In particular:

you need not follow the graphic design styles adopted in ukonline - for the sake of argument we will say that you are producing an independent sub-site;
there is a vast amount of material on global warming - you can select from it as you wish, and you are not expected (since this would be impossible) to cover it all;
you can select any overall approach you wish - you can focus on science, politics, culture and lifestyle, etc.;
you can adopt any narrative device or mode of presentation that you think is appropriate - you don't have to represent 'the voice of government', you just have to get a message over;
your site should be aimed at 'the general citizen', but develop your own image of who they are and how you should address them.

You are free to use whatever development tools you wish. It is anticipated that you will use our standard toolset of Dreamweaver, Flash and Photoshop; but you might wish to use others (if you have your own machine, try installing and using IBM's 'HotMedia').

Your site should fit onto a 3.5" floppy disk - i.e., it should weigh in at less than 1.44Mb. This may seem like a draconian restriction, but accept it as a challenge: make all of your graphics as small as possible, find the right compression for photographs, keep your Flash animations lean and spare. Do not use this restriction as an excuse for only producing a simple site. Try and use all the tricks you can to make your site dense and interactive, but 'light'.

You are less free, however, in the process that you adopt to develop your site. The notes, readings and self-directed exercises of the module take you through a structured design process with extensive readings and research to flesh out design ideas. Each week's notes has a number of exercises relevant to your assignment. Do these exercises as specified and you should find the module quite easy to pass. You must document your design work under the headings specified in the notes. Your documentation should not exceed 25 pages; but a fair amount of this space will probably be diagrams and screenshots - you should not write more than 2000 words (although I won't be very strict on this).

Both documentation and implementation must be handed in by the end of week 12.

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4. Assessment Criteria.

Approximately equal weighting will be given to each of the criteria below, but you should notice that they aren't fully independent. For example, you can't really produce a 'good' design for a web site without a clear purpose, audience and objectives - since it isn't clear what you are trying to design. Also, a convincing prototype can prove that an odd-looking design does actually work. It is also impossible to separate low-level design from the final product - the framework from the design will appear in the final pages ... but they may have been executed more or less competently. You should think of all of these criteria as interlinked to form something which will be judged as a package. Whilst I will treat this marking template as a checklist, there will also be some deeper assessment of coherence going on behind the checklist.

Web Concept. The student should establish and document:

the purpose of the web site and its general nature, setting a direction for subsequent development
the intended audience of the web site, to a sufficient degree of detail to derive design consequences
the detailed objectives of the application (benefits for producer and consumer, constraints) in the form of a list that can be checked on completion of the development

Comments:

High-Level Design. The student should provide:

the content of the web site, organising it in the form of a map divided into logically-distinct categories, with appropriate connections
a translation of the content of the site into a suitable structure, expressed in the form of a storyboard of linked screens (only need rough outline of each screen)
a navigation mechanism to steer a user around the site structure, expressed as an overall idea and as an outline menu (etc.) system
an indication of the design style adopted - look and feel, colour schemes, influences and models, etc.
the set of implementation and delivery technologies chosen, with justifications
an account of the prototyping and evaluation cycles used to validate the design

Comments:

Low-Level Design. The student should provide:

an account of the guiding principles used to derive page designs, and ensure their usability
page designs for representative pages (not every page) - this can be in the form of a post hoc page print-out, but with explanations and justifications added
a selective account of the testing and integration of the web site, with honest reporting of any difficulties encountered and overcome

Comments:

Delivered Site. The student should provide:

a working version of their site on the specified medium, within the specified size constraints
a site which demonstrates sound design principles put into efficient operation
a site which demonstrates the student's mastery of their chosen implementation and delivery technologies (including any graphical, animation, etc. elements)
a site which demonstrates the student's ability to communicate with/persuade/influence etc. their chosen audience in the web medium
a site which corresponds closely with that projected in the design documentation

Comments:

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