Assignment Author
CWRL Assignment DatabaseSoftware / Hardware
Internet
Pedagogical Goals of the Assignment
RATIONALE:
This assignment is a good one for the following reasons:
• It fosters collaboration.
• It provides students with an opportunity to learn about usability by both analyzing usability problems and by providing solutions in their re-design.
• It provides students with an opportunity to develop a skill that they could use in their profession (95% of all large scale web design is now web re-design).
• It asks students to consider the relationship between graphics and content on a web page.
• It challenges student’s critical thinking skills.
• It provides a clear reason for learning HTML code instead of relying on Dreamweaver.
Assignment Description
SUMMARY OF THE ASSIGNMENT:
This is a collaborative project which involves an imaginative redesign of a section of an existing informational web site (I have used the UT Registrar and ITS web sites). The site may be clumsy, confusing, hard to navigate, aesthetically unappealing, or simply outdated and in need of restructuring. It may lack enough content to interest readers, or provide so much content that is hard for readers to navigate.
Groups of 4 to 6 complete the assignment in three main stages: Inventory and Analysis; Prototype; Final ReDesign.
The following required text is used throughout the assignment, with each stage of the assignment corresponding to a section or sections of the book: Kelly Goto and Emily Cotler, Web ReDesign 2.0: Workflow that Works. Indianapolis: New Riders, 2005. The assignment also makes reference to another required text: Jakob Neilson, Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity. Indianapolis: New Riders, 2000.
Links to the assignment from past semesters:
Spring 2005, Project 1 (note that the assignment is longer and more involved here as a result of collaboration with UT ITS)
Fall 2004, Project 1
Spring 2004, Project 1
SKILLS:
visual rhetoric, usability, critical thinking, web design, graphic design, HTML coding
DURATION:
The assignment usually takes 6 weeks to complete. Site Inventory: 2 weeks; Prototype: 1.5 weeks; Final ReDesign: 2.5 weeks. Groups present their work to the class when the Prototype and Final ReDesigns are complete.
QUICK TIPS:
This assignment could, I think, be smaller and less ambitious in scope if you are only interested in looking into the basics of re-visualizing a certain web page. Students could use the usability and design theories to re-design a web site home page.
For the coding, I recommend HTML-kit on the PCs and Taco on the Macs. We have HTML-kit in the lab; Taco is available at http://tacosw.com/.
Students should learn the basics of HTML before starting the project.
ILLUSTRATION:
See links to past assignments above.
See attached examples work from one group from each stage of the project:

• Current UT Registrar Site
• Flow chart of current Registrar Site
• Flow Chart of Proposed Registrar Site
• Two sketches of proposed redesign
• Skeleton of proposed redesign
• Prototype of proposed redesign
• Final Proposed ReDesign