Information Architecture and Design Final Project

iSchool Capstone Website

Jesse MartinezFall 2006

December 7, 2006

http://www.ischool.utexas.edu/~mjesse/385/project/programs/capstone/index.html

Presentation Structure

Organization- Some basic information

Some Early Questions

Design Evolution

Results- Hindsight is always 20/20

Organization

A website that should be familiar: iSchool Capstone project page.

This project is a “ ‘capping’ experience” to all iSchool Master’s candidate students.

To be completed in the final semester of study, but should be aware of this much, much sooner.

This is a requirement for graduation.

Organization

Site information- what kinds of projects are available- practicum, internships, thesis/reports- poster sessions - how to apply- large chunk on Professional Experience Project

Organization

Strait-forward purpose - instructions and information

Lots of content - needs good classification schemes!

Heavy on user browsing - needs good navigation!

1

2

3

Where are we? How do I get back?

Where are we? How do I get back?

Some Early Questions

iSchool Capstone site is part of the larger UT web system

- constrained to particular color and design schemes

- css files, content, and labels are all there . . .

- work on Capstone or work on entire site?

- alter the content, leave the style?

- alter the style, leave the content?

- alter both?

Timeline

Early sitemap layout

Label exercise

Early wire frame sketch

First design

Second design

Third design

Capstone InformationNews

CalendarOverview

Poster Session Capstone OptionsResources

Past presentationsImages from poster sessions

Templates for posters

School Library

Practicum

Preservation Practicum

Conservator Internship

Master’s Thesis

Master’s Report

ProfessionalExperience

Project(Introduction)

GuidelinesRegistration Checklist FAQOpportunities

Most recent site map

1 Template

1 heavily edited CSS file

40 HTML pages

(15 pages had real content)

Some statistics

More Results

- Original HTML code was not very compliant- copy/paste compounded problems even more- Still some issues remaining with compliance

- Almost pure CSS design- Smaller page sizes = faster download- Better labels = better navigation = better browsing

Hindsight

What I would have done differently - spent more time in the design phase - allocated more time for the verification stage - used task flows and user scenarios more - used Dreamweaver templates from the beginning - incorporated a working print.css file

Resources UsedDreamweaver 8 (Mac)

Meadhra, Michael.“How to do Everything with Dreamweaver 2004.” McGrawHill/Osborne, New York: 2004.

Rosenfeld, Louis, and Peter Morville. “Information Architecture for the World Wide Web.” O’Reilly: 2004.

Various CSS tutorials online:

http://www.dynamicdrive.com/style/csslibrary/item/wire-frame-menu/

http://icant.co.uk/csstablegallery/index.php?css=43#r43

http://www.spiffycorners.com/sc.php?sc=spiffy&bg=ff9933&fg=ffffff