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.