Project 4 detailed description

Overview:
Your group will research and select a website that offers products and services for sale.

You can EITHER:
- select a site that currently allows users to shop for a product/service, make product selections, and complete a purchase transaction (EX: Amazon, Land’s End, Tire Rack)
- select a site that offers products or services for sale, but their site does NOT CURRENTLY offer transactions over the Internet. Your task will be to design and integrate e-commerce capability for this site.

You are expected to analyze the specific TASKS of completing a transaction, formulate a redesign plan for the website, and execute the actual redesign process: creation of overall layout, cutting up of graphics and coding the final pages. A round of user testing and further design tweaks will follow the initial design phase. The final step in this assignment is to UPLOAD all of the functioning HTML pages to your personal web space.


Basic Steps:
1. Site Selection: Spend time surfing around to find a site that suits your personal interests or shopping habits. Make sure the site has the product and content depth that will provide you with enough material to study. Please email me with the link to the final site that you've selected for this assignment.


2. Assign Roles: Each person in the group will be assigned to a specific role. (EX: content, programmer, designer, project manager, etc.) Another way to approach this project is to spread each of the aforementioned roles across everyone in the group. It really depends on the group dynamics and how you want to structure it. Whatever way you decide to organize yourselves, each of you will be responsible for each role.


3. Site Analysis and Report: Get intimately familiar with your selected site and begin collecting and recording data about the site. This information will be used to create your report that analyzes the successes and failures of the site. Additionally, your report needs to include an "action plan" of how you suggest the site or portions of the site gets redesigned.

Information that should be contained in the report:
1. Lists of individual tasks for conducting transactions
2. Discussion of the navigation model
3. Screen shots of the site
4. Analysis of competitors in the same market niche
5. Aesthetic design analysis and usability
6. Detailed plan for redesign



3. Initial Redesign: After reviewing your site analysis report, I will meet with your group to go over the scope of what you plan on redesigning. I do not expect you to redesign the entire site, but rather tackle portions of the site that focus on the completion of specific user tasks. Using PhotoShop, ImageReady or Illustrator, AND Dreamweaver you will redesign, reconstruct, or start entirely from scratch a new version of the website that you selected.

Specific Canvas information:
The dimensions for your interface should not exceed 800 pixels in width.


4. User Testing: Once the first round of designs is complete you will conduct user testing research on your design. During the user testing phase you are expected to have a list of specific tasks for the user to complete in addition to a list of general aesthetic questions that you will be asking the user. Plan on meeting with at least 4 to 5 individual users. I will hand out a sheet that your individual users will sign and date. Please recruit users that are NOT your classmates.

During the user testing sessions you are expected to record any and all data that will provide you with further direction on how to enhance and fix your design. Please keep your notes. I will collect them at the end of the assignment.



5. Round 2 of Redesign: Based on the findings that you gathered from the user testing, you will go back into your design and fix the items that came up in your user testing and discovery phase.




Summary:
- We will have at least 2 in-class presentations of your group’s work.

- Documents that your group will turn in:

1. Site analysis report
2. Designs: initial round of design (probably 1-2 static JPEG’s), and finally the working HTML pages
3. Organized user testing notes
4. User testing sign in sheet

- Concepts to think about in organizing your tasks and content:
- What are the top 5 tasks a user wishes to accomplish on this site? Rank them in level of importance.
- How will you group your content?
- Task?
- Time?
- Topic?
- All of the above?
- Things to think about regarding transaction capability: accepts credit cards, collects billing and shipping information, etc.