INT1035 - Communication and the Community
Unit Brief
Working in groups, we have to produce a web site of our choice. The emphasis of this project is teamwork and communication. Progress will be monitored via fortnightly tutorials and via discussion on an online forum.
Group Members & Roles
Besides myself, there are four other group members:
- Myself - Layout
- Arron Foxley - Content
- Gerald Graham - Content
- Steven Tuffnell - Graphics
- Tom Walters - Content
Proposal
After a lengthy discussion between the group we came up with the idea of creating our own version of the New Media web site as we believe the current site doesn't give a positive message of what the New Media department of the University of Lincoln is all about to prospective students and any other visitors.
We feel that it is essential that we do not disrupt the information that is on the current site as the content is a valuable resource to current students.
Our main reason for deciding to create our own version of the New Media web site is that we do not find it very visually attractive and we felt it could be greatly improved. One of the visual features that we feel lets the web site down the most is the lack of consistency with a house style. For example on the front page it features a gray menu with black links compared to some internal pages which have a sky blue menu or no menu at all.
Often within the current web site there are font colours that either clash or merge with the background colours; meaning that in some cases the text in question is illegible. We feel this is an important issue and could be resolved by deciding on a colour palette which would be used through the site instead of lots of different colours.
My Ideas
My ideas consisted of a tabbed navigation system on all pages. On the home page, notices where put in the middle of the page so they are clearly visible, with links in three columns below them. The internal page would be quite simple with a menu on the left detailing links within the section, related pages and a contact link. You can view annotated sample pages that I've drawn in the sidebar to the right.
Other Group Member's Ideas
Those members who brought design ideas to our weekly meeting came up with similar ideas to mine and all included a consistent tabbed navigation system and each level separated into different tabs. You may see other peoples ideas on their web sites by clicking on their names above.
User's Ideas
In order to get user's opinions of the current site, we decided to make a short survey and hand it out to other students. To view a copy of the survey click on the link in the sidebar.
Research
Survey Results
Results of this survey are shown below. Numbers in brackets show the number of people who mentioned the same point.
What do you like about the current New Media web site?
- Fairly easy to navigate - (2)
- It works - (1)
- Lot's of information - (1)
- Navigation of learning materials section - (1)
- Nothing - (1)
- Quick to load - (1)
- Simple - (1)
What don't you like about the current New Media web site?
- No consistent style - (4)
- Not visually attractive - (3)
- Important information not immediately obvious - (2)
- Links all over the place - (2)
- Confusing navigation - (1)
- Layout - (1)
How would you improve the current New Media web site?
- Have consistent style - (3)
- Better navigation - (2)
- Look nicer - (1)
- Make important information easier to spot - (1)
- More colourful - (1)
- More images - (1)
What would your preferred colour scheme be if the New Media web site was re-designed?
- Black and white - (1)
- Not too dramatic - (1)
- Pastel colours - (1)
- Something brighter - (1)
- Tidy and simple - (1)
What type of navigation would you prefer?
- Combination of both horizontal and vertical - (4)
- Horizontal - (1)
- Vertical - (1)
Any other comments, suggestions or ideas?
- No big colour changes
- Don't take the colour scheme from the Lincoln University web site
Survey Analysis
There was nothing that stood out more than any other point for what people liked about the current New Media web site, but the main thing people said could be done to improve it, would be to have a consistent style. Again, there was no clear point that stood out on people's preference for the new web site's colour scheme, but they seemed to prefer a combination of both horizontal and vertical navigation.
Similar Web Sites
I only managed to find one web site which was similar to the current New Media web site: New Media BA Honours, University of Leeds. The home page is very nice and stylish, and the flash animation is creative. The design and navigation is consistent throughout, unlike the current New Media Hull web site where there is very little consistency in navigation or design. The University of Leeds New Media site gives a good overall impression and communicates to the user what the course is about straight away because of the creative design.
Planning
Chosen Design
Because everybody had similar ideas, the group decided to base the design on my drawings (detailed above). As there was no clear preference for the colour scheme in the user survey we conducted, we decided as a group to use blue as the colour for the main navigation and footer. To contrast with this we decided to make headings a dark red colour.
We plan to only transfer content relevant to Level 1 due to the large amount of information on the current web site which would take a long time to copy over.
Work Schedule
Below is the work schedule detailing what we expect to have completed by when.
- January 24th - Proposal.
- February 9th - Design and layout agreed. Roles assigned.
- February 28th - Basic design and main navigation complete.
- March 7th - Design and navigation approved by everyone in group.
- March 21st - All content complete and put on site.
- March 28th - Web site complete.
Final Piece
The web site our group created can be found at:
http://www.newmedia.lincoln.ac.uk/candc06_c/
We also kept a mini web site showing the progress we made. This can be found at:
http://www.newmedia.lincoln.ac.uk/candc06_c/progress/
Some screen shots showing various pages within the finished web site can be found in the sidebar.
Review
I am pleased with the outcome of this project, despite there not been as many content pages added as we would have liked. The header and footer of the web site looks nice and the tabbed navigation works well.
However, the main content looks a bit plain, especially on the home page. This could have been improved by the addition of some relevant images and more clearly defined borderes between areas of content on the page. The timetable looks really good, and the left menu is well utilised showing the weeks of the semester.
The group worked well together, and we all agreed on the design and layout. We held regular meetings to discuss issues and the progress of development. We criticised each others work, in order to get something which we all liked. Some people were more active in this project than others, but in the end everyone contributed something and we managed to finish the site, apart from some missing pages of content.
