Transcript Powerpoint 97

Charisma or camel?
A sociotechnical approach
to Web redesign
Dave Murie
University of Dundee
The problem
Evolution
Devolution
Revolution
The Dundee history
Web pages started by Librarian;
some liaison with IT Services
 Later transferred to IT Services UNIX
operation
 About 10 departments had home
pages by 1995
 Already a Web-support e-mail list

But

No one taking overall ownership of
information
Library?
 IT Services?
 Admin. function?

No overall look and feel
 Some gripes

Yet
Not all gloom
 Sep/Oct 96 issue of Netuser
identified Dundee as "one of the best
university sites"
 Partly because of varied skills of
original protagonists (librarian +
psychologist)
 Avoid losing baby with bath water

Electronic Publishing
Editorial Board (EPEB)
Formed 1995
 Reports to University’s Information
Services Committee (ISC)
 Reasonably high profile committee

Stakeholder approach
Includes Director IT Services, Librarian,
2 Deputy Secretaries, Information
Officer, 2 senior managers IT Services
 Later expanded to include academic
reps (including HCI interests) and Head
of School of Design
 Also legal specialists from Research &
Innovation

EPEB mission

Look at extent to which University
could have consistent & unified
CWIS policy
EPEB agenda (self-initiated)
Aesthetic guidance
 Distributed responsibility
 Code of practice for webmasters
 Meet legal & ethical obligations
 Aim for protection, not censorship
 Retain control of info obtained via
dundee.ac.uk domain

Agreed model
WWW to be platform
 IT Services responsible for service
infrastructure
 Info providers responsible for
authoring & production
 Home pages to be under control of
EPEB
 Current “home page” too long

One of life's eternal
triangles
Technology
”Techies”
Needs
Aesthetics
Function
“Designers”
Users (consumers &
providers)
Help!
Strategy

2 subcommittees
Code of Practice
 Web design

EPEB to have own e-mail list
 Recently merged School of Design
employed to redesign Web
 Funding from SHEFC

Goal alignment
Design team not experienced in Web
technology
 Computer Science: interests in
disabled
 Postgraduate student project to
focus on restructuring
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4 teams of 4 students
2-way flow ensured HCI needs kept
in mind & designs subject to test
Identified user groups
Potential students, business users,
local users (staff/current students),
academic users from other sites
 Need to cater for physically
challenged

Stakeholders
Service Depts
Staff
Academic Depts
Dundee
Web
Students
Prospective students
Research
organisations
Press/media
Students’ verdict
Present site confused
 Look for ease of learning, ease of
use, increase of speed to achieve
task
 Major challenge to create structure
reader can navigate without getting
lost
 Hierarchy not too deep nor shallow

EPEB verdict
Too much info in cramped layout
 Initial page needs splitting
 2 separate needs: intra- and interorganisational
 Quality of visual image of “lower
standard” than many other
universities
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Important for increasing trend in
student recruitment
EPEB verdict
More prominence to Dept pages
 Load quickly
 Some “quick fix” temporary redesign
by IT Services
 Media Services also volunteered
some sample redesigns

Quick fix response
Faster logo
 More consistent style
 Heading format which departments
could optionally copy
 Offer of help from School of Design
(recently merged with art college)
 Village approach -- good ideas at
conceptual & design levels available
within University
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User tests
Old system inadequate
 Cluttered with information so not
easy to use
 Needs clearer general layout
 More logical title grouping
 Masses of links difficult to track
 Intimidating to new user

Goals identified
Showcase departments & courses
 Communicate University mission
 Publish corporate communications
(e.g.. press releases)
 Recruit new students
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Addressing needs
Academic system users: best highly
graphic design
 Those with slower links will not like
high graphic content
 Disabled: learning disabled prefer
graphics to text but blind can only
use text
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Design brief
Appeal to wide range of target
audiences (internal & external)
 Offer easy navigation with distinctive
& innovative look
 Reflect University’s desired image
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What happened next
Design School showed samples of
existing Web-based work
 Very “designed”. Worries about
practicability of downloading
 Project set up & promised several
options

Design approach
Cater for universal audience
 For identity, only universal thing is
heraldic element
 3D button, animation
 Coloured backgrounds: a laid paper
 8-tier kind of menu
 Lozenge lines of buttons

But
Not dynamic, so looked at existing
stock of library photographs
 For faculty home pages & secretariat
 Provide a library for depts who want
to improve their home pages to fit,
but not mandatory
 Debate about accessibility
 Plea for some testing
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Iterative design
Design School
Web Administrators
Applied Computing
(Postgraduate teams)
EPEB
Deliverables
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New designs develop through 3 layer
structure becoming simpler at the
lower levels
Faster downloads
 Break down visual elements for easier
construction of sites around campus

Tests
Solves problems with older structure
 Information clearer
 More organised
 New user learns more easily how site
structured
 Similarity to other University Web
sites
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Later refinements
Design refined for effective display
on range of browsers
 Too graphic for non-Janet usability &
for blind students
 Plan text-only version of main pages
 Add Web search
 Increase size of navigation buttons
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Controversies
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Paper backgrounds
Mac did not translate well to PC
(Netscape Navigator defaults to
216colour palette)
 Fast download for all browsers
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Camel avoidance!
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Web administrators a great help. Tightly
focused issue, able to experiment, no
camels!
+ points
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Use of multiple stakeholders

HCI, techies, design specialists, users,
departmental webmasters
Supply of tool-kit (page generator,
buttons, lozenges etc..)
 Good compromise of capability with
practicability
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- points
Many sites have yet to take their
disabled visitors fully into account &
the proposed design is no exception
 Did need to hold back some
individuals from latest Javascript
functions -- problems with earlier
browsers
 Moving globe: Quicktime
 Frustrating medium for designers!
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