In-Class Final Exam

SECTION 1: WEB DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

Complete the name of each of the following five steps in Goto and Cotler's core web development process.

1. Define [blank]
2. Develop [blank]
3. Design [blank]
4. [blank] & Integrate
5. [blank] & Beyond

For each of the five steps above, explain briefly(!) what takes place during that phase of development.

1A.
2A.
3A.
4A.
5A.

SECTION 2: RESOURCE TRIANGLE

The concept of the resource triangle consists of three parts. Name them.

1.
2.
3.

4. If a project has a tight timeframe and a limited budget, what area of the triangle is likely to be compromised and why?

SECTION 3: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE

Information architecture as a discipline is often expressed as a Venn diagram showing three overlapping circles. Name each of the areas represented by these circles.

1.
2.
3.

4. What is the single most important thing to know in order to create a website that is user-friendly?
5. Explain the difference between website goals and business (or organizational) goals.

SECTION 4: INTERNET AND WEB HISTORY

1. Who is credited with inventing the World Wide Web?
2. Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn invented HTML -- that's why they're credited with creating the Internet. (True or False)
3. The launch of Sputnik, a Soviet satellite, was an important event in the creation of the Internet. (True or False)
4. HTTP is a set of rules that facilitates the exchange of information in HTML form. (True or False)
5. Netscape was developed before the World Wide Web was created. (True or False)

SECTION 5: WEBSITE DOCUMENTATION

1. The information about website structure contained in a content inventory can most easily be represented graphically by:
(A) a wireframe
(B) a site diagram

2. A [blank] is used to represent the structural elements of an individual website page or page type (like a template), rather than the information structure of a whole website.
(A) a wireframe
(B) a site diagram

3. What's the purpose of including a key (or legend) in a site diagram?
4. Explain the difference between a high-fidelity wireframe and a low-fidelity wireframe.
5. Give an example of how (or when in the site development process) each might be used (that is, when one might be preferable to another).

EXTRA CREDIT

1. What is the name of Patrice's business?
2. Must a business' domain name correspond exactly to a business' legal name?
3. When is the best time to decide how to measure a website's success?
4. Who succeeded Steve Jobs as CEO of Apple?
5. What is likely to be Mark Zuckerberg's biggest legal challenge in managing the growth of Facebook?

Link to Your Blog Post for November 30

Please post a link to your tenth and final article review.

Link to Your Blog Post for November 23

Please add a link to your penultimate article review.

Link to Your Blog Post for November 16

Please add a link in the comments to your eighth article review. Remember that linking from these posts is your official submission of work.

Content Inventories, Site Diagrams, and Wireframes

The articles below provide a review of the documentation techniques that we discussed in class on Wednesday night (November 9). Each article concentrates on one of three subjects: content inventories, site diagrams, or wireframes.

Everything you read should sound familiar, although each author offers a slightly different perspective on what we discussed in class. The first article is the most succinct and clear, but all will add to your understanding of these techniques.


1. Doing a Content Inventory (Or, A Mind-Numbingly Detailed Odyssey Through Your Web Site)
By Jeffrey Veen
http://www.adaptivepath.com/ideas/essays/archives/000040.php

Download Jeffrey Veen's sample content inventory spreadsheet at the end of the article and check it out. It's more elaborate than what we discussed using, but it's a good example of how you might use this method to document an existing site.

2. Site Diagrams: Mapping an Information Space 
by Jason Withrow
http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/site_diagrams_mapping_an_information_space

Jason Withrow, author of the second article, also discusses content inventories, but focuses more on creating site diagrams. We discussed in class how site diagrams relate to content inventories, but he adds more information about iconography and additional uses for this type of representation.


3. The what, when and why of wireframes 
by James Kelway
http://userpathways.com/2008/06/26/the-what-when-and-why-of-wireframes/

James Kelway discusses wireframes and their relevance to the development process in this third article. It's a little fragmented, but he makes some observations worth reading about why they still have a place in a world of rapid prototyping.

Link to Your Blog Post for November 9

Please add a link to this week's article review in the comments of this post. As I mentioned in class tonight, please keep an eye on formatting consistency from review to review. Only three more to go!

Link to Your Blog Post for October 26

Please add a link to your article review for this week.

Link to Your Blog Post for October 19

Please add a link to your article review for this week. This should be your fifth review of the semester.

Link to Your Blog Post for October 12

Please add a link to your article review for this week.

Documents from web-redesign.com

The two PDFs most relevant to our work in understanding the project definition and discovery phase of the Web development process can be found on the page below.

http://web-redesign.com/chapter3.html

The specific documents we're most interested in are the Client Survey and Communication Brief Worksheet.

Site Evaluation: occupywallst.org

As another follow-up to our discussion tonight (the part of it that didn't focus on Apple or Amazon and their respective product announcements), I'd like you to check out the main website for the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations.

http://www.occupywallst.org

Consider this site in critical terms from an information design and usability perspective. What information is made available on the site? How is the navigation structured?

How might you categorize the different types of users who might visit this site? How does the format of the site serve the needs of different groups of users?

What about the tools integrated into the site? Does the site make direct use of the Twitter hashtag #occupywallst?

Any other observations? How does it fare in search results? Do they use variants of their URL to capture traffic that might otherwise be redirected elsewhere?

Collect your observations and put them into a short paper (you can organize it using bullet points or an outline, if you prefer -- it need not be fluid prose). I'd like the equivalent of at least one word-processed page (about 250 words, not characters) of observations posted as an entry on your blog by the start of our next class.

News Discussion: Alternate Internets

Here's a link to the article that I mentioned during our discussion.

Fear of Repression Spurs Scholars and Activists to Build Alternate Internets
By Jeffrey R. Young

http://chronicle.com/article/Fear-of-Repression-Spurs/129049/

Link to Your Blog Post for October 5

Please add a link to your article review for this week.

Link to Your Blog Post for September 21

Please add a link to your article review for this week. Follow the format explained in the previous collection post.

Reading for General Web Literacy (Due September 14)

I'm posting some reading assignments to complete before our next class; each article is fairly short (1 or 2 pages, as indicated). These articles appear on public sites targeting a fairly general audience, so the writing tends to be very informal.

Don't let the writing style (or layout presentation) fool you into missing the great details and simple definitions of terms related to the Internet and the World Wide Web that you'll find. Look for terms that you don't understand and research them with a search engine, if you can't get what you need from context.

Try to take good notes on what you find. Even if you already know the general ideas behind these articles, be sure that you can articulate your knowledge simply and clearly.



Begin with this article:

How did the Internet start? (Read first 2 pages)
By Jonathan Strickland
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/basics/internet-start.htm


Next continue with:

How does the Internet work? (Read first 2 pages)
By Jonathan Strickland
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/basics/internet.htm

What's the difference between the Internet and the World Wide Web? (Read first 2 pages)
By Jessika Toothman
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/basics/internet-versus-world-wide-web.htm


Then move on to this article, from another site:

Understanding the World Wide Web (1 page)
http://www.internettutorials.net/www.asp


Finally, take these two very short online quizzes. Some of the questions on these are really silly, while some are difficult and obscure. I don't care how you score (I made a couple of mistakes!), but I want you to make note of the right answers. It's a quick way to learn some interesting facts about Internet and Web history.

Fact or Fiction: the Internet
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/basics/fact-or-fiction-internet-quiz.htm

Tech Talk: Internet Quiz
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/basics/internet-quiz.htm


Please email me if you have any questions about the reading.

Link to Your Blog Post for September 14

Please add a comment to this blog post with a direct link to your first article review. Please include these three elements:

1. your first name
2. the title of the article that you reviewed
3. a direct link to your review

For example, if I added a comment for the sample review that I created it would look like this:

1. Justin
2. "The Dirty Little Secrets of Search"
3. http://webarchitecture-fa11.blogspot.com/p/sampe-blog-post-searching-for-trouble.html

Second Class Meeting: Creating Your Blogs

The second half of our class today will be dedicated to creating your blogs. You'll create individual Blogger accounts to use during the semester.

Your syllabus indicates that a blog title and blog url are due for this session; these will be due by the end of class. Your first article review (blog entry) will be due at the beginning of our next class.

I've posted several links on this site to provide you with information about how to create blog posts (see the "Pages" module in the right-hand column). Please review these carefully as you undertake your first post.

Here's a link to the Blogger site:

Blogger
http://www.blogger.com

First Class: Syllabus, Survey, and Reading

Three important links on your first day of class:

Introductory Survey
http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22CZGATBFEB/

Please complete this survey by Monday, September 5.

Class Syllabus
http://www.capitalistofknowledge.com/adv3560fa11/syll_adv3560_20110831.pdf

A copy of your syllabus will be available in PDF form all semester long at this link.

Reading Assignment

What is 'Information Architecture'?
by Martin Belam
http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/insideguardian/2010/feb/02/what-is-information-architecture

Please read this brief introduction to information architecture before our next class. It's a short blog post, but there's much in it to discuss. You may also be quizzed on the content, so take a close look.