HCI 454

Spring 2017

Craig Miller

Weekly Notes

Assignments

Team Project
Card sorting and information architecture
Due Tuesday May 30 before 11:30pm

Overview

Your team will design the information architecture for your assigned project. Main deliverables include the site map and wireframes showing the high-level organization of the site.

Root concept

The team project requires a root concept, that is, a domain with an information navigation problem. Good root concepts have these properties:

  • Suggest enough content items to require non-trivial information navigation
  • Require minimal use of formal user research methods
  • Permit access to users for card sorting

Hobbies, common work activities, entertainment or household responsibilities could be sources for ideas. An informational web site is a probable candidate for the project, but the proposal does not need to be limited to that. You may also consider existing sites that could use a major reorganization.

Projects from previous quarters: Chicago Farmers Market (for vendors and visitors), local zoo website, volunteering opportunities, Amtrak website, costume inventory, Chicago library site revision, game recommender, unified movie and TV show finder, wedding planner, wine inventory, science principles for non-scientists.

Process

Much of the process involves required steps and individual responsibilities:

  1. Root concept. Each individual should propose a root concept before Thursday May 11 and the team should finalize the concept, by consensus or vote, before Saturday May 13.
  2. Content inventory. Each individual should contribute approximately a dozen content items. Their descriptions should be specific enough to support a card sort. Individuals should provide content items by Tuesday May 16.
  3. Card sorting. Each individual should recruit at least 3 users for the card sort by Saturday May 20.
  4. Individual analysis. Each individual should develop a candidate information architecture by Tuesday May 23. Individual work should include preliminary versions of the site map and wireframes showing high-level organization of the site.
  5. Consolidation. Everyone reviews all individual contributions. Final deliverables are created by consolidating or selecting individual contributions.

Team members are not obligated to consider individual contributions that are provided late.

While everyone participates throughout the process and contributes to the final report, the team may want to assign the following roles to faciliate the process:

  • Project manager. Ensures that the project is on schedule. Send reminders to submit deliverables on time.
  • Card sort manager. Sets up the card sort. Organizes the inventory.
  • Deliverable consolidator. Receives deliverables from individuals and consolidates them according to discussion.
  • Report editor. Finalizes report and submits it.

Deliverables

The team report should include the following:

  • High-level description of the project
  • Site map
  • Wireframe(s) showing high-level organization of site or app
  • Overview of the design process with references to appendix materials
  • Appendix including individual deliverables

Appendix materials do not need to be polished documents. They may include sketches, initial drafts, and notes.

Submission

The submitted document should use a common presentation format, ideally PDF. Submit the document through D2L. A rubric for grading the assignment is present with the dropbox submission folder.

Grading

This project is worth 30 points and will be reviewed using the following criteria:

  • Ease of review. The document is organized and content presented to faciliate review of the above criteria.
  • Completeness. Documentation and diagrams should cover all required tasks and functions.
  • Effectiveness. The design should address appropriate user-experience goals including efficiency, learnability and reliability.
  • Process documentation. The document should provide details of the design process and motivate the resulting design. Note: final document should provide easy access to the resulting design, with process details appearing later.