UQ Students should read the Disclaimer & Warning
Note: This page dates from 2005, and is kept for historical purposes.
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<title>COMP1501 Assignment 2</title>
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<h1>COMP1501 Assignment 3</h1>
<p><em>Note: Many of the pages/sites linked from this page have now been removed
so links may not function correctly (May-2004). </em></p>
<p>Results are out of 15.</p>
<dl>
<dt>12</dt>
<dd><a href="COMP1501-A3/sam.html" title="Sam's assignment 3">Sam</a></dd>
<dt>11</dt>
<dd><a href="COMP1501-assignment-3" title="Ned's Assignment 3">Ned</a></dd>
</dl>
<h1>COMP1501 Assignment 2 </h1>
<p><strong>Disclaimer:</strong> I present these sites and links here merely for
my own personal reasons. You probably shouldn’t be here, and if your
site is linked here and you don’t want it to be – <a href="contact" title="Contact me">panic</a>.</p>
<dl>
<dt>100%</dt>
<dd>http://users.tpg.com.au/pollardz/watoomba/index.html (Alexander Pollard) </dd>
<dt>90%</dt>
<dd><a href="http://home.no.net/vphp/template.php?page=Home" title="Vidar Einlien">http://home.no.net/vphp/template.php?page=Home</a> (Vidar Einlien) </dd>
<dd><a href="http://nedmartin.org/uni/steve/" title="Steve Gordon">http://nedmartin.org/uni/steve/</a> (Steve Gordon) </dd>
<dt>83%</dt>
<dd>http://cgi-bin.spaceports.com/~suriyar/Login.php (Darsh) </dd>
<dt>81%</dt>
<dd><a href="http://nedmartin.org/uni/tonges/" title="Ben Tonges">http://nedmartin.org/uni/tonges/</a> (Ben
Tonges) </dd>
<dt>79%</dt>
<dd><a href="http://nedmartin.org/uni/peter/home.htm" title="Peter Latham">http://nedmartin.org/uni/peter/home.htm</a> (Peter
Latham) </dd>
<dd><a href="http://nedmartin.org/uni/taryn/" title="Taryn Stieger">http://nedmartin.org/uni/taryn/</a> (Taryn
Stieger) </dd>
<dt>78%</dt>
<dd>http://users.bigpond.net.au/fireblade/comp1501/ (Johnson
Page) </dd>
<dd><a href="http://nedmartin.org/uni/robbie/" title="Robbie Usher">http://nedmartin.org/uni/robbie/</a> (Robbie
Usher) </dd>
<dt>77%</dt>
<dd>http://www.clintfelmingham.com/dump/1501/ (Clint
Felmingham) </dd>
<dd><a href="#ned" title="Ned Martin">http://nedmartin.org/uni/</a> - (Ned Martin)
Upgraded to 96</dd>
<dt>75%</dt>
<dd>http://www.gaters.net/watoomba/ (Anonymous
Teen) </dd>
<dt>72%</dt>
<dd>http://www.users.bigpond.net.au/lucas/watoomba_web_service/ (Lucas) </dd>
<dt>60% </dt>
<dd><a href="http://nedmartin.org/uni/ben/" title="Ben Snortin Funiistüf">http://nedmartin.org/uni/ben/</a> (Ben Snortin Funiistüf) </dd>
<dt>53%</dt>
<dd><a href="http://nedmartin.org/uni/diane/" title="Diane Robertson">http://nedmartin.org/uni/diane/</a>
- (Diane Robertson) Upgraded to 87</dd>
</dl>
<hr />
<h2>COMP1501 - Assignment 2</h2>
<p>Note: Copied from http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/~comp1501/Assignments/Assignment2.html.
<br />
Formatting is my own. Grammatical and spelling errors aren’t.</p>
<p> Due Date: 5pm Friday 16 May, 2003 (week 10) </p>
<p> Submission: on-line</p>
<p>Weight: 35% (Note that all assessment items must be handed in for you to be
eligible to pass this course.) </p>
<p>You are the web master for the company <strong>Watoomba Web Service</strong>.
The only function of the company is to hold a course Internet Interface Design.
Design the web site for the company including all the necessary pages for
the complete course administration. </p>
<p>Please make sure to also familiarise yourself with the School's policy on student
misconduct. </p>
<p> Do not put any personal identifying material on the web pages so that your
site can be graded without knowledge of who did the pages. </p>
<p>The assignment expects that you will do the following:</p>
<ol>
<li>A user analysis to find out the needs of the web site. </li>
<li> A design of an appropriate web site to meet the needs of users forseen
in above. </li>
<li> Users of the site include students, staff and administration workers
of the company. </li>
<li> It is expected that some sort of registration, payment and information
pages would be on the site. This would of course come from a good user
analysis. </li>
</ol>
<h2> Assessment:</h2>
<p> Assessment will be according to the amount the following criteria are satisfied:</p>
<h3>Visual Clarity </h3>
<p> Information displayed on the screen should be clear, well organised, unambiguous
and easy to read.</p>
<ul>
<li>Is each screen clearly identified with and informative title or description?
</li>
<li> Is important information highlighted on the screen? </li>
<li> When the user enters information on the screen, it it clear:
<ul>
<li> where the information should be entered? </li>
<li> in what format it should be entered? </li>
</ul>
</li>
<li> Are different types of information clearly separated from each other
on the screen? </li>
<li> Are bright or light colours displayed on a dark background, and vice
versa? </li>
<li> Is the information on the screen easy to see and read? </li>
<li> Do the screens appear uncluttered? </li>
</ul>
<h3> Compatibility </h3>
<p>The way the system look and works should be compatible with user conventions
and expectations.</p>
<ul>
<li>Are colours assigned according to conventional associations where these
are important? (eg. red = alarm, stop) </li>
<li> Where abbreviations, acronyms , codes and other alphanumeric inforation
are displayed:
<ul>
<li> are they easy to recognise and understand? </li>
<li> do they follow conventions where these exist? </li>
</ul>
</li>
<li> Where icons, symbols, graphical representations and other pictoral information
are displayed:
<ul>
<li> are they easy to recognise and understand? do they follow conventions
where these exist? </li>
</ul>
</li>
<li> Where jargon and terminology is used within the system, is it familiar
to the user? </li>
<li> Are established conventions followed for the format in which particular
types of information are displayed? (eg. layout of dates and telephone
numbers). </li>
<li> Is information presented in a way which fits the user's view of the task?
</li>
<li> Does the sequence of activities required to complete a task follow that
the user would expect? </li>
<li> Does the system work in the way the user thinks it should work? </li>
</ul>
<h3> Explicitness </h3>
<p> The way the system works and is structured whould be clear to the user.</p>
<ul>
<li>Is it clear what stage the system has reached in a task? </li>
<li> Is it clear what the user need to do in order to complete a task? </li>
<li> Where the user is presented with a menu is it clear what each option
means? </li>
<li> Is it clear what part of the system the user is in?</li>
</ul>
<h3> Consistency </h3>
<p>The way the system looks and works should be consistent at all times.</p>
<ul>
<li>Are different coulurs used consistently throughout the system? (e.g. errors
always highlighted in the same colour) </li>
<li> Are abbreviations, acronyms, codes and other alphanumeric information
used consistently thoughout the system? </li>
<li> Are icons, symbols, graphical representations and other pictoral information
used consistently throughout the system? </li>
<li> Is the same type of information (e.g. instruction, menus, messages, titles)
displayed:
<ul>
<li> in the same location on the screen? </li>
<li> in the same layout? </li>
</ul>
</li>
<li> Is the method of entering information consistent throughout the system?
</li>
<li> Is the method of selecting options (e.g. from a menu) consistent throughout
the system? </li>
<li> Are there standard procedures for carrying out similar, related operations?
(e.g. updating and deleting information, starting and finishing transactions)
</li>
<li> Is the way the system responds to a particular user action consistent
at all times? </li>
</ul>
<h3> Appropriate Functionality </h3>
<p> The system should meet the needs and requirements of users when carrying out
tasks.</p>
<ul>
<li>Is the way the information is presented appropriate for the tasks? </li>
<li> Does each screen contain all the information which the user feels is
relevant to the task? </li>
<li> Are users provided with all the options which they feel is necessary
at any particular stage in a task? </li>
<li> Is the system feedback appropriate for the task? </li>
<li> Is task specific jargon and termonolopy defined at an early stage of
the task? </li>
</ul>
<h3> Information Feedback </h3>
<p> Users should be given clear, informative feedback on where they are in the
system, what actions they have taken, whether these actions have been successful
and what actions should be taken next.</p>
<ul>
<li>Are the instructions and messages displayed on the screen concise and
positive? </li>
<li> Are the messages displayed relevant? </li>
<li> Do instructions and prompts clearly indicate what to do? </li>
<li> Is it clear what the user needs to do in order to take a particular action?
</li>
<li> Is it clear what shortcuts, if any, are possible? </li>
<li> Does the system clearly inform the user of any delay, making it clear
that the users's input or request is being processed? </li>
<li> Is it clear to a user what should be done to correct an error? </li>
</ul>
<p> PHP is not required in the assignment. I am simply strongly encourageing the
use in order to make consistency and maintaince easy. </p>
<hr />
<h2 id="ned">My Submission</h2>
<p>Watoomba Internet Interface Design Website.</p>
<p>A template/mock-up of a website designed for an internet company offering a
course, Internet Interface Design, is included here.</p>
<p>Also included are the same files in a directory called “basic”,
but the CSS stylesheets have been removed from that directory. This is to
demonstrate that the site degrades nicely when stylesheets are disabled or
not supported. The code in the directory “basic” is identical
to that in the directory “SITE” except the CSS stylesheets have
been deleted.</p>
<p>User analysis showed that the website for a company teaching Internet Interface
Design had to demonstrate good design techniques itself, and a priority was
to demonstrate accessible web design and standards compliance. Accessibility
and Standards icons from the W3C have been placed at the footer of each page
to indicate that the page is both accessible and conforms to the relevant
standards. A minimum of images have been used, as it was felt they tended
to become clutter and were unnecessary. It was also felt necessary to include
an alternate print layout for monochrome printing, as large sections of the
site would often be printed. This can be accessed from the bottom left of
every page.</p>
<p>The design employs a template system, with a PHP function parsing through well-formed
XHTML files, extracting the relevant sections, and displaying them in the
relevant page. The <body>, <style> and <title> tags are
extracted from the XHTML source file and inserted into the PHP template and
displayed. This has two advantages. Firstly, it makes site maintenance much
easier, by simply updating some templates entire sections of the site can
be updated. Secondly, it allows anyone to create a basic XHTML file and have
that displayed in a consistent way across the site.</p>
<p>An example is the default front page, viewed <a href="SITE/index.php" title="Sample page in template">here</a>
inside its PHP template, and viewed here as its <a href="SITE/_src/default.html" title="Sample page">XHTML</a>
source.</p>
<p>To view the site, click <a href="SITE/index.php" title="Full Site">here</a>.</p>
<p>To view the basic site with the CSS file deleted, click <a href="basic/index.php" title="Site without CSS">here</a>.
</p>
<p>One other thing which might not be immediately evident, but which user analysis
brought to light, is the placement of the menu. The menu has been placed so
that it will load last on a slow connection, allowing the main content of
the page to be the first thing that will load, as this was found to be what
users wanted to see.</p>
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