for the MA in Creative Digital Media
Dublin Institute of Technology
Autumn 2009
thursdays, 10am - Noon
Classroom exercises
Lecture Topics
Consumer Review Websites: Paper Prototyping and Draft Homepages
More Fun Examples
Design Task 2: Paper Prototyping and the Consumer Review Website
Each Group had to create a draft design for a Consumer Review website. I showed the example of cell-phones and camera review sites for ideas on structure and presentation. The brief was to create a paper prototype showing five or six screens, that demonstrated how the site would work through four or five layers of information. They then had to mock up two screens in photoshop to show the look and feel of the site.
As usual, the class went far beyong my expectations, and the presentations were excellent. The groups then had to act as subjects for user testing, and write up their initial impressions. It made for a pretty involved exercise.
Group 1: The Bus Stop: gig reviews.
Owen Sweeney, Daniel Singleton, David O’Carroll
[review by Group 2]
"Search on homepage is possibly not that obvious. Perhaps the search should reflect the different areas of the site better, ie. venue, albums, review vs. preview. 6/10
Very thorough website/design. Covered a lot of pages, well thought out. 8/10
Graphically very strong, very creative and original, good use of colours/images, clean and uncomplicated. 9/10
Covered a lot of material: reviews and previews of bands, gigs, albums, venues, etc. 9/10.
Improvements: Perhaps change ‘Preview’ to ‘Upcoming Gigs’
Overall: 8/10"
Group 2: Omar O’Sullivan, Ciaran Hale, Ali O’Reilly
[review by Group 1]
"The site is perfectly clear and allows beginners and professionals to find the perfect camera for them. The site is thorough and well plannedin terms of coherence and progression. The user gets where he needs to go using this efficient interface. The design is basic to provide maximum functionality. The interface is clear and the colours are neutral, my only fear is that if the site was accidently confused with a pop-up ad. The structure is very well orgainised and makes it very easy to use. Improvements: maybe more visual treats (without dropping functionality)
Overall 7/10"
Group 3: CoCo-Loco
Clare McEvoy, Stephen Higgins, Henry Jackson, Jonathan Berry
[review by Group 4]
"Clear idea (it’s about chocolate). Menu is good, clear, easy to navigate. Very coherent, reviews, user ratings. Home page is missing graphics, nice background, colors are chocolatish. Useful nutrition information, missing info for allergies. Need few pics on homepage, missing price info, chocolate animations, more useful details Good visual, catchy name."
Group 4: MobileFridge.com
Niamh Ryan, Sana Ullah, Matej Bozon, Sevgio Calabvia
[review by Group 3]
"Need an ‘about’ page to explain who is writing the reviews. Need more search options ie. not just manufacturers.Very coherent. How do I write review? Where does it appear? Missing contact info, ie. address, telephone number. Very good graphics, the buttons are easy to find. Image gallery is very good. Information is well structured, but it is structured by manufacturer only. Improvements: more search filters, about page, buttons to quickly find cheap phones. Very good visual layout. good simple button interface. Easy to find new models and keep up to date with latest phone news."
Group 5: CamCom
Lorraine Cusack, Stephen O’Neill, Vedran Zagorac
[review by Group 6]
"Paper prototypes very clear. PSD files a little unclear. Imagery too dominant. Very coherent-obviously aimed at amateur/social user. Modern, user-friendly inerface, colourful and obviously aimed at target market. Individual pages are well structured. Main navigation tabs are confusing: unfamiliar criteria (eg. social?). Unclear how to navigate site. Improvements: rollovers for navigation to guide users. Imagery too dominant. need more emphasis on content. Overall effective design. Accurately aimed at target user. Minor problems can be ironed out at next stage."
Group 6: CameRa Review
Dave Lacken, Chris Foley, Marco Castorina
[review by Group 5]
"Clear and concise. Simple design. Easy to use, Intuitive. Very thorough. A lot of information.Stark appearance but info presented well on homepage. Clear information structure. User shouldn’t get confused navigating through site as it follows many user review conventions. (We are) unsure the amount of info an expert would need would fit on a single page without scrolling. Info may be cramped in current design. Overall- 7.5/10 Maybe a bit too basic for experts."
Group 7: GigEd; gig reviews
Edd McMullin, Brian Malone, Ray Boucher-Hayes
[review by Group 8]
"Controls/content immediately obvious and accessible. Core functionality and navigation covered and controls transparent. Detailed connections between pages well laid out. Consistent theme – prominent site navigation bar. Minimalist; could appeal to a large cross-section of music lovers. Map page is a little spartan; could use some info bubbles; instructions, maybe a few sentences about the artist; where they are, where they’re headed. Translation feature-incorporate more than user reviews. Text alignment shoud be justified. Ads are too prominent in their position – should be clearly labelled. Keep radio in a fixed location, needs stop button.
Overall: 98.8%"
Group 8: Team ICU: Investigative Camera Utilities
Nicole Storck, Barry Downes, Haijie Zhao, Jonathan Lynch
[review by Group 7]
"It’s clear what the site is for. Different elements separated nicely into sections using borders and different colours. Where’s the price list? Site a little busy. Different size of font in some places hard to read. Logo effectively communicates website’s purpose. Well layed out, important information is easily apparent. Improvements: font usage, 6 different fonts, font size.
Overall successful, well stuctured, it’s good fun, has a funny sci-fi look to it. 9.5/10"
