Project two assignment

The second half of the semester will involve a service learning project. Our class will aid the redesign and redevelopment of the web resources of the Department of English & Journalism. The work which we do will contribute directly to the redesign of the site: we’ll be posting reports, design proposals, and other things developed as part of the class to the Web for immediate use by English & Journalism (E&J) staff. We’ll begin the redesign itself, and we’ll create instructions to guide site users.

The E&J site was first developed by Dr. Bruce Leland, who volunteered a considerable amount of time to work on it. We will be re-visioning the site from the ground up so that it is not only attractively designed, but well-organized and highly informational. We will also be creating interactive resources, policies, and instructions for use which will remedy the main problem which faced Leland: he had to do all of the work. Hopefully, we’ll be able to develop usable and persuasive templates, Web forms, and other resources which allow site maintenance duties to be spread out over several people.

Chapter 19 of Technical Communication outlines a plan for a service learning project which will work quite well for our purposes. (If you have not already read Chapter 19, read it before continuing to read this assignment, and refer to it as needed. You should also refer to Chapter 12 and 16 for more information about Web sites.) We will consider E&J our clients, and take the role of consultants. We will perform many of the tasks needed to plan and develop a new web site, producing relevant technical communications as needed.

Overview of project

A web development company taking on a project of this size would devote designers, writers, editors, research, programmers, and other staff. Each person in class will take on one or more of these roles, depending on his or her talents.

1. First, we will evaluate our task by analyzing the current E&J web site, and speaking with professors, current students, and other interested parties. This information will be collected in a large research report. During this time, we’ll begin to form ideas about how the site should be redesigned and redeveloped.
2. We’ll divide up components of the site redesign among several teams. Building on our needs assessment, each team will write a proposal for (re)developing its site component. Teams will complete necessary additional research and consult with me regarding technical specifics. Based on this work, each team will prepare a site component proposal.
3. Each team will then execute the development of the site component as outlined in their proposal (pending revisions from the client and me, of course).
4. Each team will also develop instructions and policies for use which will help faculty, staff, and students use the portion of the site you have developed. (If that’s not possible for your site component, we’ll figure out something else for you to work on.) These instructions will be tested for usability and revised as needed.

A few notes about how this will work:

• Early in the semester, I have scheduled meetings during class time with E&J chair Dr. David Boocker, university Web developer Karmon Runquist, and the faculty member in charge of maintaining the E&J Web site (guess who that is). You will be able to ask these people questions about the site redevelopment—or anything you think is relevant to your task.
• I realize that many of you don’t have the technical knowledge associated with developing a web site. I do, or I know folks who do. So you will rely on me as your technical support staff: you will conceptualize things you want the web site do to, and I’ll tell you if I can make it happen. If not, we’ll figure out something else. Any students who know Web development, especially databases, are welcome to speak up now, and assist me with this task as part of their coursework.
• We’ll be using considerable class time for this project. For the most part, lectures are done, and studio format is here to stay. You will also use the class email list often. Communication among ourselves will be essential for the success of this project.
• Because I will shape the project according to your research and other coursework, I will be updating the course web site continuously to reflect the path of the course. I will also post our work to the development area of the E&J web site.

Groups

For the rest of the semester, we’ll be doing a lot of group work. You will be given considerable time in class to work on your project components. I also imagine that you will need to devote some time outside of class to group work. We will talk a bit in class about some ways to get this done through electronic collaboration.

We have enough students for three groups of four, or four groups of three. We could spread our skills among groups, or concentrate them to create specialties (e. g. all the E&J majors would make a “writing group,” and the folks with computer experience would make a “geek group”). We could keep groups for the rest of the semester, or alternate them pending the sub-projects which we’ll be completing. I welcome your suggestions regarding this matter.

At any rate, I will require groups to post a weekly email to me (via the class list) describing the group’s work, and I will suggest that groups communicate with me much more often than that. I will lean on anyone that I suspect is not contributing to group work as much as he or she should be.

Points and grading

For those of you who like tables:

Research Report and Preliminary Site Goals

The research report will provide a written document that outlines the task at hand: what should the E&J web site do? What is its audience? What content should it contain? Why? Broadly speaking, how should the site accomplish these goals? This document will set policies for the site, and form the backbone of the work we complete this semester. It will be used as the basis for a policy document for the E&J site.

We’ll compile this report from a variety of research sources:

• The web sites of English departments similar to WIU, and of other academic departments at WIU.
• Relevant WIU and State of Illinois web standards.
• The wants and needs of professors, administrators, staff, and students of E&J.
• Web design and information architecture suggestions from Anderson, as well as other outside sources.

(We won’t bother listing the problems with the existing English site in our report. There’s no need to beat that dead horse.)

Research procedures are outlined in Chapter 6 of Technical Communication (pp 124-158). The format for this report will come from Chapter 20 (pp 457-532). I expect that the final report will be 35-50 pages in length. (That’s 2 or 3 pages of writing per student, plus some stuff from me.)

Proposal for Web Site Component

After we’ve completed our initial report, teams will select identified areas of need and develop a proposal for resources which address that need. This may involve additional research and/or contact with E&J staff. For example, the following areas might be considered:

• Information architecture and organization of entire site.
• Faculty and staff directory, and online information posted about each faculty member.
• Resources for alumni and departmental news, events, and other activities.
• Policies and guidelines for use of site.
• Photography and other visuals to be used throughout the site.
• Content and organization for a major department unit (e. g. the writing program).
• Press release and other promotional material to announce the new site and encourage its use (in E&J and the university at large).

I expect that you will come up with a list of potential projects considerably longer than this one, pushing E&J to create a site which is usable and persuasive in form and content. The proposal will follow the format in Chapter 21 of Technical Communication, as well as relevant appendices. Between 8-12 pages are expected, but many more may be necessary. More than likely, your proposal will include the production of sample graphics and other components.

Site Components

Having developed a proposal, you will execute the development of site components outlined in it, pending revisions from relevant E&J authorities (Dr. Boocker and other faculty). As noted above, I will assist with the technical parts of site development. You will complete as much of the work as possible. If completion of work is not feasible, we will determine acceptable alternatives.

Usability Testing Report

After production of a draft component, you will test the usability of the component you develop. This will guide the revision process for your final component. You will prepare a brief report which documents this process of usability testing. The report need not be very formal: the act of testing is more important. To this end, I will be more concerned that you demonstrate (with notes and other materials) that you conducted usability testing which follows the directives outlined in Chapter 14 of Technical Communication.

One final note

As we move forward with this project, I will provide more direction as needed. I trust that any students with questions about the project will use our class email list, office hours, or other means to clear up any misunderstandings.