Design Document Homework
(Week 4, Tuesday 9/18)
Using what was discussed in the readings and in class on Tuesday, write a first draft of the strategy and scope for your personal portfolio site (project 2).
Due: By start of class on Thursday, 9/20.
Strategy: User Needs & Site Objectives
Start by clearly defining who you anticipate will be using your site. Co-op employers? Full-time employers? Freelance job customers? People writing letters of recommendation? Be specific in describing your potential audience(s).
For each potential audience, discuss what you think those users will be looking for when they visit your site. What are they looking for? What will make this a successful experience for them? What are your ideas here based on? Things you've read? People you've talked to?
For example, audiences for my RIT site include colleagues (both at RIT and outside of RIT), current students, potential students, grant agencies, conference organizers, and freelance clients. Each of those groups has a different reason (or set of reasons) for wanting to visit my site. Some want to to see current syllabi and assignments, some want to know more about the Dubrovnik study abroad program, some want to read about my research and game development projects, some want to know what kind of professional work I've done. I would write a brief description of each of those audience types, and what I think they'd be most interested in using my site for. (You will probably have fewer different audiences that you're targeting.)
Scope: Functional & Content Requirements
What specific technical functionality will your users expect? (And/or what specific functionality would you like to implement?) Should they be able to search the site? Fill out a contact form? View a gallery of your work? Play a game you’ve created? Download/print your resume? What kind of navigation will you need provide? Access content on a phone? Write this up, in as much detail as you can, and add it to the document. (You may want to reference other sites as examples.)
What content needs to be included to meet the needs listed in the strategy step? Make a list of all the content you expect to include in the sites, with descriptions. In particular, think about what individual pieces of work you’ve done that could or should be included.
Submitting the Draft
On Tuesday, we will randomly assign students to one of five groups, create private channels in Slack for each group, and add you to the appropriate channel. When you've completed your draft document, you should share either the document or a link to it in the channel. This must be completed by the start of class on Thursday.