Project: Site and User Goals

Post this assignment as entry labeled "P1: Site and User Goals" on your journal site.

This project gets you started on the Topical Site you'll eventually build. In this first step, you'll

1. Identify a topic you'd like to cover
2. Do some background research on the users you'd like to reach with the site
3. List some basic goals for the site
4. Roughly define what features the site will have (based on the above)

The form of the answers to the above questions will be a short report posted to your journal site (rather than the typical "J" entry in your index, list it as "Site User Goals Report").

Note that this should be written as a semi-formal report, not just a list of bulleted points in response to each numbered item above (you may want to use bulleted lists at some points in your report, but there should be more than just bulleted points). Use headings and (if necessary) subheadings.

Note: The majority of this site will need to be based on information you generate. You can use some creative-commons licensed images or short quotations from other sites (that you credit accordingly), but the bulk of the site will need to be material you create (because part of this assignment is learning how to write text appropriately for your website).

Overall Project Word Count/Length

There's not a firm word-count for how long this should be, but I'm thinking something in the 1,000-word range would be enough. (For comparison, this project description you're reading is around 800 words.)

Intentify a Topic You'd Like to Cover

This may the most complicated part for some of you: Come up with a topic that you'd like to develop a website about. This could be a musical genre you like, a general activity (travel, MMORPGs, base jumping, restoring vintage calculators--whatever). Pick something you're at least slightly interested in, because you'll be spending some time working on this (and subsequent projects).

You may want to think a little bit about how much you want to restrict your topic. For example, a topical website on, say, "cooking" might be a little to large to cover in a site that only has a handful of pages. You might do better restricting it to "cajun cooking" or "wok cooking". Likewise, don't be too restrictive: "Days of the week that begin with W" might not give you enough to work with. You might do better with "Days of the week that begin with T" (possibly still too limited) or "A Brief History of Different Types of Calendars".

Do Some Background Research on Primary Users

Who will use this site? Go beyond "People interested in days of the week that begin with T." Talk about what kind of person might use this site—are they an expert in the area you're covering or a novice? Are they computer or Web savvy? What about topic [x] interests them (or is likely to interest them)?

Note that your website may include some info for secondary audiences: A site on a music genre might assume that users already know the basics of the genre (bands, themese, music), but one page might be "an intro to [x]". At this stage, you don't have to deal with secondary audiences--just describe your primary audience.

You should do some background research on those users (beyond what you already know based on your own experience). Visit other websites or discussion boards on your topic. Who participates on or reads those sites? Why? (You'll need to guess about some of this--a particular website may not tell you who its users are. But guess based on evidence of what you can see on the site.)

Important: You need to show me that you did this research, so when you're describing your users, point to specific features of the sites or other places you visited and that you're basing your user analysis on. If you're basing portions of this on your own experience, you can include that, but you should also include additional research you did to figure out who your primary users will be.

List Some Basic Goals for the Site

This section can be a list (with a brief intro paragraph): List out the five or six main things that you want you teach your primary users or help your primary users to do (e.g., find advanced resources at other sites, learn one or two specific techniques, etc.). Go beyond "Give info about [x]" and specify some concrete goals.

Roughly Define What Features the Site Will Have

You'll probably have already alluded to some of these things above, but in this section spell out some specific things that your site will have: Extensive graphics? Step-by-step instructions on techniques? Links to other sites? Your site will need to have at least five or six pages, so spell out (briefly) what type of content will be covered on each page.

You should also think about where you're going to get resources or background info. If you plan to feature photos, where are you going to get them?