Design Report

The process followed to prepare this report followed the "enhanced" version of the given guidelines by Dr. Laurie Dringus, Ph.D., Associate Professor at Nova Southeastern University (course notes). The enhancement was guided by (based on) a general Software (Systems) Development Life Cycle. (I used over years during my computer professional career as well as was given to my students during pertaining classes). Here are the main entries:

Objective: Present my view of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) as:

• an area of study
• a link to other HCI resources in the Internet

As above stated, in few words, the objective was to build my home page as related to HCI domain. Therefore, a combination of generic home page information was to be provided (name, background, e-mail, etc.) and very specific components, as related to HCI. In addition, techniques to be employed should emphasize on Human-Computer Interaction aspects. And finally, a number of related links should be provided, along a higher academic standard expected from a graduate (doctoral) level student.

Per Dr. Laurie Dringus' course notes, and in addition to the above 'Problem Statement', the following Requirements were gathered:

• My HCI Web site will be linked to the "hci" online study area for the course so that my work is shared with other students
• Design my HCI Web site for graphical viewing (e.g., Netscape) or for text viewing (e.g., Lynx)
• The theme of the Web site MUST BE an HCI-related theme
• Provide a full URL (http://www.scis.nova.edu/~clifford) address for my Web site (make sure to open file permissions, etc.)
• Special requirement: conduct a rough usability analysis of my design. To accomplish this, TWO fellow students from the doctorate class are to evaluate my design based on usability heuristics and strategies presented in class
• Present the above results in the Design Report (to be about 20 pages in length)

The following list of key items were identified to be considered:

• Key Web Design Challenges
• User Types and Motivation
• Site Strategies and Themes
• Task Flow Design
• Site Structures
• Page Types
• Controls and Displays
• Operations
• Layout
• Color, highlighting, and background
• Wording
• Graphics
• Geographical Differences
• Testing for Usability

DESIGN ( a.k.a. "thinking process")

A number of considerations were pursued during the design of this home page:

• Use of Graphics, Pictures, Animations, Text
• Integration of literature to support the design strategies I have chosen to incorporate in my home page
• Present a view of the Web site and the subsequent submenus and links

Some of the most common - and easiest to avoid - problems I was confronted during the design phase, according to Seven Deadly Web Sins (based on/excerpts from an article with the same title by Fred Langa, Director at CMP's Personal Computing Group):

• "J-pigs," and GIFs that aren't jiffy
• Create small Web graphics at the lowest acceptable pixelation and color depth
• Try saving your graphics as both GIFs and JPEGs to see which gives you the smallest file size at an acceptable resolution
• If you must use large graphics, don't spring them on your site visitors without warning
• Avoid huge image maps
• Use similar smaller-is-better logic for all page elements
• Hard-to-find pages
• Type that doesn't provide enough contrast with the background color, such as blue on black
• Busy background that compete with the type, making it hard to read
• Reliance on specific color palettes or fonts rather than standard Windows palettes
• Teeny, tiny type that becomes illegible on a less-than-perfect screen
• "This page under construction"
• Don't roll out half-baked pages or sites
• Recycle - but not on the Web
• Web content can be almost anything except repackaged print material or stuff that merely duplicates what's readily available in hard copy
• Advanced-feature abuse
• Don't use feature just because it's cool, e.g., don't use Frames when an ordinary table will do it
• Unequal access
• Don't use technical features that requires specialized equipment, e.g., (advanced) Multimedia
• Untested waters
• Don't turn your visitors into guinea pigs, e.g., before going public test your site on a variety of systems, monitors, etc.

Five Keys To Home Page Design (based on/excerpts from an article with the same title by Andrew Wanliss-Orlebar, Director at Total NY, Inc.):

• Get Organized:
• Make sure you work out who you are serving and for what purpose
• Think about giving people reasons to come back to your Web site and what they might expect to find
• The site should reflect what you do best
• Prioritize Icons And Content
• Whatever material is new and important should get the best screen
• The more clearly you highlight your underlying structure when collecting and formatting content for the site, the easier it will be for you to approach its visual front-end
• Make Browsing a Breeze
• What is clickable should be absolutely distinguishable from what is not
• Suggesting where you are in a site is as important as showing where you can go next
• People observe the Web through an ever-increasing variety of Web browsers, so pages have to be endlessly adaptable
• Don't Over Design
• All color graphics should be tested on different types and sizes of monitors and machines
• Checking the functionality of the pages on different computer systems is essential if you want people to appreciate your site
• Most popular new technical tricks are generally visible only through the latest Web browsers and should be adopted with caution
• Also, remember to consider payoff at all times
• Phone lines are certainly getting faster, but with most people's modems, the Web is still less than enthralling
• Personalize Your Site
• Creating user-definable preferences or fields of interest will ensure that everyone can find the information they want from your site
• A number of Web sites advise users on their home page about what is new since their last visit

The following were considered:

• Usability
• Functionality
• Appealing
• Consistency
• Easy to navigate

• Fellow students evaluation of my home page
• First Student
• Second Student
• Third Student
• Fourth Student

Other Evaluation Criteria [according to Mara Lenuzza in VAR (Value Added Reseller) magazine]:

• Ease of navigation: searchability, speed and ease of access, and organization
• Design: overall appearance, functional graphics, simplicity, organization of elements and consistency
• Content: frequency of updates, straightforward and concise information, usefulness of data and variety of information
• VAR-friendliness: VAR-specific information and user access to VAR's sites

"Reaction" section that specifies my view of design from experience and perhaps some of the limitations that THIS design produced.

This was accomplished by other students feedback as well as "Lessons-Learned" areas (see above).

(Additional) Selected Bibliography (in addition to many other sources cited within this home page)

Graham, Ian, S. (1996). HTML Sourcebook. 2nd Edition. New York, N.Y.: John Wiley & Sons.

InterActivity Magazine.

Presentations Magazine.

Sicicliano, J.A., Levin, J., Horne, G. (August, 1996). Using HTML for Organizing Student Projects Through the Internet. T.H.E. Journal. p 51 - 56.

Syllabus Magazine.

Technological Horizons in Education (T.H.E.) Journal.

Tools for creating Web pages: Kevin Richardson's Home Page c/o Nova Southeastern University includes:

• Paint Shop Pro 3.0 - a shareware graphics program that allows students to create and edit JPGs and interlaced, transparent GIFs for their web page
• Homesite 2.0 - an excellent powerful HTML editor that helps students learn true HTML code as they create their home page.

WebMaster Magazine.

Windows Magazine.

If you have comments or suggestions, email me at clifford@scis.nova.edu

This page created with Netscape Navigator Gold


"People would rather live with a problem they cannot solve than accept a solution they cannot understand." - Woolsey and Swanson (1975)