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PBA Front-End. Week 2. Web D evelopment Organisation. In place: Website purpose Website goals Target audience Can we start designing now…? Almost, need to set the team first. Web Development Organisation. Web site development projects cover many diciplines – just as SW development
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PBA Front-End Week 2
Web Development Organisation • In place: • Website purpose • Website goals • Target audience • Can we start designing now…? • Almost, need to set the team first
Web Development Organisation • Web site development projects cover many diciplines – just as SW development • Size and skill set of team determined by • Budget • Available resources in development organisation • Website focus
Web Development Organisation Creative Administrative Technical Production
Web Development Organisation • Core skill set (diciplines) needed • Strategy and planning (Strategic level) • Project management (Tactical/Operational level) • Information architecture • User Interface design • Graphic design • Web technology • Site production
Web Development Organisation • Core development team roles • Project stakeholder/sponsor • Project manager • Usability lead • Information architect • Art director • Technology lead • Site production lead • Site editor
Web Development Organisation • Project stakeholder / sponsor • ”The guy who pays the bills” • Provides purpose, vision and goals • Provides domain knowledge • Point-of-contact to sponsoring organisation • Delivers web site content • Not a call-when-you-are-done role; must participate actively in project!
Web Development Organisation • Project manager (admin) • Keeps the project on track on a day-to-day basis • Point-of-contact between team and sponsor • Manages internal team communication • Project administration (meeting, minutes, notes, plans, schedules, budgets,…)
Web Development Organisation • Usability lead • ”Shape the overall user experience” • The users advocate on the team • User research (interview, field studies,…) • Develop usability standards • Conduct usability tests, and provide feedback to relevant team members • Involved in measuring project success
Web Development Organisation • Information architect • Organise web site structure and content • Develop terminologies, categorisation schemes,… • Ensure consistency across the website • Enure overall content quality • Design web pages at ”wireframe” level, in cooperation with Art Director
Web Development Organisation • Art director • Establish ”look and feel” for the website • Ensure consistency with e.g. corporate identity standards, UI standards,… • Visual interface design • Color palette, typography, illustrations, … • Page design details
Web Development Organisation • Technology lead • ”The programmer guy” • Deciding on web publishing tools, development languages, databases, network,… • Responsible for technology integration • Responsible for back-end development • May manage sub-teams of programmers, database developers,… (back-end)
Web Development Organisation • Site production lead • ”Builds” the website • Converts detailed page designs into actual web pages (HTML, CMS, development tool,…) • Develops page templates (XHTML, CSS) to be filled with actual content
Web Development Organisation • Site editor • Responsible for written content on the website (quality, style and tone,…) • Collect, organise and deliver finished text to website production team • Responsible for maintaining the website content after site launch – ongoing effort • Improving website visibility (Search Engine Optimisation)
Web Development Organisation • Roles, skills and people • What background, education, experience, attitude, etc is needed for each role? • How does our ”resource pool” look? • How large is the project • When are people rolled on/off the project?
Web Development Organisation Large project
Web Development Organisation • Small Project • Project stakeholder/sponsor (in-house) • Project manager • Usability lead • Information architect • Art director • Technology lead • Site production lead • Site editor
Pre- and Post-design activities • In place: • Website purpose • Website goals • Target audience • Development organisation • Can we start designing now…? • Almost, let’s see the bigger picture
Pre- and Post-design activities • The complete development process • Website definition and planning • Information architecture • Website design • Website construction • Site marketing • Tracking, evaluation and maintenance
Pre- and Post-design activities • Website definition and planning • Definition (purpose, goals, target audience,…) – been there, done that • Planning • Technology considerations • Website Lifecycle
Pre- and Post-design activities • Technology considera-tions – why this early? • Can have major impact on • Budget • Delivery date • Needed competences Oh BTW, the website should also work on smartphones! But… we are going live next week!
Pre- and Post-design activities • Relevant technological considerations • Operating systems (Windows, iOS, Android,…) • Browsers (IE, Firefox, Chrome,…) • Hardware platforms (PC, pads, phones,…) • Bandwidth • Advanced features (DHTML, plug-ins,…) • User support channels • Traffic volumes
Pre- and Post-design activities ”Merry X-Mas to all our customers..”!? • Website lifecycle • Websites rarely die… • Who will ensure that the website is always up-to-date (whatever that means)? • ”Everyones responsibility” -> no one’s responsibility
Pre- and Post-design activities • This is a job for…. The Site Editor • The Site Editor becomes the ”custodian” of the website • May edit site directly, or may coordinate the effort of others • BUT, the Site Editor has the responsibility!
Pre- and Post-design activities • Information Architecture • Piles of content has been delivered • How do we organise it on the website?
Pre- and Post-design activities • Making an inventory – what do we have? • Filling holes – what do we need? • Quality assurance – is it good enough? • Sketch out an architecture • Wireframes • Small prototypes
Pre- and Post-design activities • Outcome of Information Architecture work • Detailed site design (not page design) • Content inventory and descriptions • User-tested wireframes/prototypes • Sketches for interface/page design • Technical considerations (updates to previous technical considerations )
Pre- and Post-design activities • Next dicipline: Web Design
Pre- and Post-design activities • We will deal with Web Design in much more detail during subsequent classes • Outcome of Web Design work • Detailed page design specifications • Page templates • Graphics components (logo, illustrations, buttons, headers & footers, etc) • NB: Not finished pages – that is construction!
Pre- and Post-design activities • Site construction • Now the ”physical” pages are produced • Tempting to ”rush” to this stage prematurely, just as coding prematurely in SW development • Still allowed to reiterate designs as a result of concrete experiences (not waterfall) • Also includes any back-end development needed
Pre- and Post-design activities • Outcome of the website construction phase: A website ready for use and maintenance!
Pre- and Post-design activities • Site marketing – informing people that your website exists • ”Just Google it” – not always enough • What is the target audience? • Local/global • Private/commercial • Experts/novices • …
Pre- and Post-design activities • Possible channels for adverting a website • Printed advertisments • Radio/TV • Direct mail • Business cards / stationery • Company communication in general • Press releases • Posters/billboards
Pre- and Post-design activities • Possible channels for adverting a website • Banner ads • Search engines (of course) • Blogs/Wikis • Social media • Sponsorship
Pre- and Post-design activities • Tracking, evaluation and maintenance • Very important, significant risk of neglect (”We’re done, on to the next one…”) • Evaluation should be related to goals • Fairly easy to track many quantitative features of the web site usage
Pre- and Post-design activities • Interesting features to track • Users per day • Page per user • Page popularity • Geography • Recurrence • Browser type • Screen resolution • …
Pre- and Post-design activities • Maintenance - this is a job for…. The Site Editor • Not only the textual content, but also ”look and feel”, link validity, etc. • Can the customer be the Site Editor (CMS)?
Web design elements • For now, we will primarily focus on web design as such • Given the • Purpose • Target Audience • Information Architecture • … • … create ”good” web page designs
Web design elements • Overall principle: Simplicity • KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) • Don’t make me think… • Minimal surprise • The user doesn’t want to spend time on our website (usually)
Web design elements • Design elements to consider • Colors, and other visual elements • Fonts/typefaces • Choice of proper text • Website structure and navigation • Page composition (Gestalt laws) • Using contrast • Overview now, details later
Web design elements • Why are colors important…?
Web design elements • Vision is (usually) the ”strongest” human sense – primary source of information • Humans are good at spotting differences in colors (~10 million hues) • Colors and feelings are closely related • On a website, colors is the first thing we notice – first impression is important!