Assignments: Assignment Two
Website Proposal
Deadlines are listed at: http://www.aber.ac.uk/en/tfts/current-student/exam-assig/.
Introduction
Your mission is to develop a proposal for a website aimed at a target user-group to be agreed in advance (based primarily on key demographics such as sex and age-group). A recommended strategy is for you to choose an existing website on a topic conventionally targeted to a particular demographic group and to re-target it to a group which is normally overlooked, e.g. re-targeting a site about football or cars to women, or a site about cookery or fashion to men. Reworking borrowed content is allowable. The proposal consists of these essential elements:
1. Report: review of published research & demographic data [0-25]
Before you start, you must seek email confirmation from Rod (odm@aber.ac.uk) agreeing to your choice of target group
(include the dated email in the appendix). Specify your target user group and indicate why you selected this group:
it should not normally be a group of which you are a (full) member. Does your choice of group involve particular
targeting challenges? What is known about this group? This section in your written documentation must include a review of
any existing published data underpinning your design decisions. This includes both formal academic research (e.g. studies
of the use of various fonts and colours) and demographic data (e.g. marketing data on a relevant target group, such as the
readership of a particular magazine, for which the best source is the National Readership Survey). You are allowed to refer
to books and research already cited in lectures but extra marks are awarded to those students who also show some evidence
of having consulted additional research sources. There should be a full References list in accordance with the guidelines
for all Media and Communication modules. If you do not review relevant material in the serious design literature
(especially re. typography and colour) then your mark for this section may be zero.
2. Report: evidence of fieldwork/feedback [0-25]
This section concerns primary research by you into the target users. You need to provide evidence that you solicited
feedback from the target user group (e.g. through the use of an online form, email and/or personal interviews). You
must indicate how specific design decisions were guided by this information. Summarise this research within the main
text (e.g. with tables and diagrams showing patterns in the responses and sample user comments). Put all of the
supporting materials in an appendix: this does not need to include all of your completed survey forms-a sample one
is adequate. Marks will be given for well-designed research that references appropriate literature. You are expected
to design your research using techniques such as questionnaires, interviews and focus groups and particular
tools such as the commutation test, the Semantic Differential and Likert attitude scales. Remember to guard the
anonymity of all informants by at least removing their surnames but retaining relevant demographic details such as sex,
age etc. If you do not include clear evidence of user feedback then your mark for this section may be zero.
3. Presentation of design rationale [0-25]
Your presentation should be a carefully argued and well-illustrated rationale for the design of your proposed site
in relation to the target users. It can include selected material from your printed documentation such as commutation
tests (e.g. changing colours or fonts) and user reactions to these. State clearly all of your reasons for the design
choices you have made based on evidence of appropriateness to target users. You are strongly advised to review the key
visual design features of at least one other website (and other relevant materials) targeted at a similar demographic
group to yours (magazine sites can be very useful for this purpose). It can be useful to contrast these with the design
features of similar materials targeted at a very different user group. If you do not make and/or submit a Powerpoint
presentation then your mark for this section may be zero.
4. Visualisation or implementation [0-25]
We do not require you to realise your design in a functioning website (unless you wish to do so). Marks in this category
will be for the graphical realisation of your proposal, whether this is part of your Powerpoint slideset and/or a
free-standing prototype of some kind. In addition to the targeting issues, bear in mind general human-factors issues
(e.g. legibility issues such as contrast, avoidance of red-on-green or green-on-red for people with colour blindness,
access for disabled users) and 'good practice' as recommended by practitioners in the field (e.g. don't mix one serif
font with another or one sans serif font with another). If you do not submit some kind of graphical representation of
the proposed homepage then your mark for this section may be zero.
Key Resources
Rod's Video on Designing a Webpage using Photoshop
http://vimeo.com/89775722
Rod's Video on Analysing Survey Data using MS Excel
http://vimeo.com/88981034
Daniel Chandler and Rod Munday
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