Poster Presentation, Christmas & The Next Steps

Since the poster presentation, where the first prototype of the proposed university rugby portal was displayed, I have completed the Progress Report and submitted it to my tutor. Within the report, I briefly discussed how the project has been going, and outlined what I will/will not be completing within the remainder of the project. The main 'out of scope' task is the actual development of the rugby portal. As outlined in the initial project proposal, my project is based around goal-directed design, using in-depth user observations to design for the needs of the users. At the end of the project I will have compiled a design proposal, with supplementing documentation that could be passed onto a development team in order to make the portal a fully functioning system.

Over Christmas, apart from a few days break around Christmas/New Year's Day, I will be continuing with the project, moving into the 'Design' stage. By moving out of the 'Planning/Research' and 'Modelling' stage, I have obtained a good amount of valuable information about the users, now it is time to use this and incorporate it into the design of the system.

Uploaded Files

I have uploaded a few documents to support my poster/presentation, as they may been not visible on the actual poster. Below is one of the personas that I compiled from the information obtained within the user interviews. There is also a competitor analysis, which compares the features of the BBC Sport website, RuckU (a rugby social networking website) and the Oxford University RFC website.

Interview Matrix (Outlining Common Themes & Trends): http://sites.google.com/site/anstooy/Matrix.doc

Competitor Analysis: http://sites.google.com/site/anstooy/CompetitiveAnalysis.docx

Persona (Rugby Coach): http://sites.google.com/site/anstooy/Coach.doc

Poster, Presentation & Prototype Preparation

Since the last post, I have been preparing for the poster presentation session which is on Thursday the 10th. For my poster, I have tried to cover all the sections of the goal directed design process that I have based my project on. Touching on the scope & goals, the poster leads a cycle through research, user interviews and early design stages. The prototype that I have prepared is a static HTML wireframe system that will display a few tasks that the final system will complete, for example, adding the details to a player in a player profile.

As well as preparig for my presentation, I have also been going back to the data obtained through the user interviews and drawing more qualitative data out. I did this by compiling a matrix of all the data obtained and outlining different themes and trends that commonly came up throughout the interview process. The next step of the project is to move more towards the designing stages, taking into consideration user centred design tasks such as cognitive walkthroughs.

Compiling Interview Data & Poster/Presentation Preparation

Carrying on from the last post, the majority of the work completed over the last week was completing interviews with prospective users of the university rugby portal. I have now completed interviews with fans, players and coaches, and have obtained a range of valuable information that I can use. The next step before my meeting on Thursday is to put this information into tables and matrixs, and start to analyse and themes and trends that have been reguarly coming up. This will help me when drawing up functional and non-functional requirements for the portal.

As well as interviews, I also completed a few digital wireframes, using previous research and information obtained within the interviews. Using 'Omnigraffle', I was able to map out different sections of the home page, team page(s) and player page(s). Below is a screenshot of the player page in 'edit' mode, which is where an authorised user can edit the page:














The next stage of the project is to start analysing the data, and by Thursday's meeting, have assessed any trends and common themes that have been arising. Once this is completed, I can start compiling my poster and preparing for the presentation.

Interviews, Data Collection & Matrixs

Last Thursday was the second meeting with my tutor and group, in which I determined what work I need to complete within the next 2 weeks and before the poster presentation on the 10th of December. After agreeing with my tutor, it was decided that the next 2 weeks would be focussed around interviews. This gives me time to complete all the interviews (with players, coaches and fans), and the efficiently look through the data. One tool to draw out vital information is the use of 'Matrixs', which analyse and present trends and themes that are common across the interviews, which I will then take to incorporating into the requirements of the rugby portal.

Once this stage has been completed, I will use the following 2 weeks to prepare my poster for the presentation, and begin completing the first prototype for the project. This is likely to be a digital version of the wireframes that have been completing, using simple HTML and CSS to mock up 2 or 3 pages for the proposed rugby portal.

Interviews, Logos & Wireframes

After conducting the Competitor Analysis, I drew a few wireframe designs for the proposed rugby portal. The aim is to show these to the users within the interview, in order to gain initial feedback. As the design of the rugby portal will be user-centred, I hope to include user input for the next batch of lo-fi prototypes which I can present within the poster presentation at the end of term.

This week I had my first progress session with my project tutor, and gained valuable information of semi-structured interviews and what to ask users. I improved on my first attempt on the questions to ask the users in the interviews and am awaiting feedback so that I can begin the interviews with the chosen interviewees.

As well as continueing with expert based initial layout designs, I start to hand draw some logos for the rugby portal, and transferred these into digital versions that could also be shown to the users. I aim to settle with a logo that is effective in displaying the title of the portal, that is also visually appealing but not distracting from the content within the portal.

Over the next few weeks I am to move into the 'Modelling' stage of the project. Taking information from the interviews to assess any trends and patterns that have arised. Also, I aim to start modelling personas on the users of the website, and to create some charts (eg. pie chart) to display the information obtained within the interviews, all of which can be used within the poster that needs to be submitted at the end of this month.

Competitor Analysis, User Interviews/Observations & Initial Designs

After compiling a plan for the Competitor Analysis, and assessing available frameworks and examples online, I decided to use this week to extend the analysis. This is my first change to my project schedule, which should not affect any other tasks that need to be completed. I underestimated the importance and depth that the analysis needs to go into, and feel that it would be beneficial for the outcome of my prototype if I extend the analysis.

I also started to plan questions and observation techniques for the user interviews, in order to obtain initial feedback on ideas. These initial ideas are hand-drawn lo-fi layout designs for the portal, as well as logo designs which I hope to gain feedback on. I hope to have assembled a team of users to use for the interviewing stage by the end of this week, so that feedback and necessary changes can begin.

Market Research, Competitior Analysis and BUCS

This week has seen the first 'hands on' tasks taken place for the Digital Media Project. The first task I completed was a competitor analysis, assessing similar websites that could attract the same sort of users that the university rugby portal will be aimed at. A few examples included 'RuckU', 'BBC Sport' and the official 'BUCS (British University & College Sports) websites. Before conducting the analysis, I did some more background research on some frameworks and approaches to the task, which I read a stored within my project folder for later reference.

I also planned out different methods of market research, that I will be conducting next week when deciding on what users to use for my interviewing. These methods included surveys, focus groups, personal interviews, observation and field trials.

Lastly, I did some background reading on the BUCS website, looking at their terms and conditions around using the data that is stored on their website. I also emailed a member of their staff (which I haven't received a reply from yet) to see their policies on reusing the data on their website. This is vital as if the use of their data is disapproved, I will have to start thinking of alternative methods to use data for the university rugby portal.

Project Beginning Stages

Since the last post, I have completed the Project Proposal document and submitted it for marking. The document outlined my goals, objectives and learning outcomes for the project, and how I am going to achieve this. The document also provided an in-depth calendar outlining what tasks I will be completing within any given period.

Over the next week I have scheduled a Competitor Analysis, addressing competitor websites that prospective users of the rugby portal may be attracted to.

I will also be considering which users to start interviewing for the project, these will most probably be university players, coaches and fans, who the website will be aimed at. As well as this, I will be doing prior planning in order to decide on appropriate interviewing techniques to use when interviewing the users.

Lastly, I need to contact BUCS (British Universities & College Sport) over the next week to ensure that using data and information off their website is allowed, as if this is denied I will have to sort an alternative method of importing data for the portal.

Project Proposal

Since the last entry, I have conducted various types of research to aid me in selecting my project title (and area). After deciding between a usability analysis project and a rugby portal, I have decided to combine the two ideas. Therefore I will be using user-centred and goal-directed design approaches to compile a design proposal for a university rugby portal.

This idea of this portal is that it is designed around the users needs, and what information they want, therefore gaining maximum visitors. I will be conducting in depth usability tests, and using these results to aid me when designing the portal. The plan for the end of the project is to have a design proposal with a series of prototypes that could easily be passed onto a development team to make the portal a fully functioning system.

One of the main reasons I have chosen this approach to the project is that I want to improve my usability skills, as well as catering for the users needs. Although I am not a strong programmer, and taking a programming route for the project may have been beneficial, I feel that improving my usability skills would be more enjoyable and still relevant to my future career. One thing that I do not want to be is a developer who is good with technical skills, but not good at catering for user requirements.

I am currently compiling a 'Project Proposal' document, outlining exactly what I am going to achieve by completing the project, how I am going to go about completing the project and a detailed plan for the process. By next week this document will have been finished and submitted, then I can continue conducting initial research and start planning (and begin) the user involvement within the project.

Project Planning/Research

Over the last 2 weeks I have been planning and thinking about what I could do for a project. By researching other digital projects, reading past project reports and recapping on previous years assignments, I have drawn up two ideas.

The first idea is to use effective analystic methods, including usability and acessibility tests to analyse a popular website or application. BBC iPlayer was one of the first ideas that I thought of, because of its popularity and growth within the last year. The idea of this project would be to analyse the current system and use the results that I had obtained to propose possible improvements (and addons) to the current system. I have been interested HCI and usability testing since studying it in the second year, and would like to persue this path in my career, therefore this project would be enjoyable as well as relevative to complete.

The second idea is to make a online rugby portal (like myUWE) for users to obtain quick information on results, fixtures, photos etc from the world of rugby. Using information provided by the user (eg. current location), relative information would be provided for local teams etc. This idea would require me to gain a quick inderstanding of backend coding such as PHP and mySQL, something that I currently lack.

Within the next week I am planning to complete more research on the ideas I have thought of, thinking about where I could take each project and what I would need to complete each (ie. resources etc). From this further research I am hoping to have narrowed my ideas down to a final idea, which I can draft up a project proposal for by Friday 9th October.