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HCI 201 -- Ex7 -- Hobby Website Plan

IMPORTANT:   Hard copies of this exercise will not be accepted. Either draw the sketches for the Information Architecture and Low Fidelity Designs in MS-Word directly, or draw the sketches by hand, scan them in, and imbed the drawings in the document that you submit.
Ask me if you need help.

Do NOT use screen dumps of the completed website as your Low Fidelity Designs.

Show preliminary versions of your Hobby Website Plan to your classmates or friends for the feedback section.

1. Needs Analysis   With one or two sentences, briefly indicate the topic and general goal of your Web site.
    
2. Information Architecture   Sketch out how the content of the site will be organized across several Web pages. Show what will appear on each page but not how it will appear visually. Usually this information is specified as rectangles indicating the pages and arrows indicating the links from one page to another.
    
3. Low-fidelity designs   Specify how each page appears. Include as much detail as possible. Many choose to create paper and pencil drawings because they are quick and easy to create and allow for many fast changes. Some Web designers test their ideas by showing their designs to potential users and asking them how they would perform core tasks. For your project, create some page designs with paper and pencil and use them as a starting point for creating your Web site. Include these low-fidelity designs as part of your project. As you design your pages, consider the following principles:
    
1. Maintain a consistent layout and style across your pages. (You will use a .css style sheet for the Hobby Website.)
    
2. For each page, consider what you want your user to first see. Use visual variables such as size and font style to draw the user's attention the most important elements first. You will also want to consider the colors you will use.
    
3. Decide what elements should be grouped on a page. Use placement and similar heading styles to show the user which elements are thematically grouped.
    
4. Carefully consider the fonts and colors that you use on your pages.

4. Rationale   Write a rationale for your design choices (about one page). Discuss why you chose your information architecture, fonts, color schemes, and page layouts. You may also discuss here any feedback you got from showing your plan to other people.