Participatory Design Workshop & Report Writing

Using the research and the preparation that I completed for the workshop, plus the help of one fan, player and coach, I was able to successfully complete a series of participatory design sessions to aid the design of the university rugby portal. Unfortunately, the fan was unable to make the workshop on the same day as the player and coach, which meant that they were in a workshop on their own, which may have affected the results obtained.

The main outcomes of the workshop include a good idea of how the users want the website to look and 'feel', and the kind of features that they would like to see present on the site. After the workshops, I thought it would be worth while to draft up these features, and assess what ones are firstly feasible, and secondly necessary for this type of site. A mistake that I could make at this stage is to listen to the user too much, and put in everything that they ask. My priority is to find the right balance between what the users want, and what is actually needed from the perspective of a web designer.

Now that the general idea of what needs to be on the rugby portal has been established, the next step is to actually do some hands on designing, taking into consideration all the data obtained throughout the project (eg. interview findings) to really start designing for the users needs. I aim to have the design proposal for the rugby portal completed by the end of February, providing a good amount of time for any necessary changes, as well as finishing the final report.

Lastly, since the last post I have been using the feedback provided by my tutor for my final report plan to start the first draft of my final report. I now have a good idea of the structure for my report, and what needs to go in each section. I will be emailing my tutor with my introduction and the early sections of my report by Thursday (11th).