Assignment #3

Scenarios
Revised Personas
Comparative Analysis
Interaction Flow Diagrams
Initial Sketches
Appendix

Comparative Analysis

What is a portal?
Horizontal Portals - AOL for Broadband and My.Yahoo
Vertical Niche Portals - WebMD and Covisint
Enterprise Portals - e.piphany and MyUW
Standard Educational Channels
RSS Feeds
Cameo Channels
Influencing Trends in Educational Technology e-portfolios and Course Management Software

"A homepage doth not a portal make" - Howard Strauss 03.01

What is a portal?
Portals have fundamentally changed the way information is presented on the web. In the earliest versions of the web, organizations presented a one-size-fits-all webpage. Advances in web services in 2000 and 2001 enabled a greater degree of interactivity, but the user still had to know how to navigate to or browse for information that is relevant to her. The portal limits the type of information available to a user based on their role and then allows the user to select and arrange the informational components that are most important to her. The net effect is that each person has a webpage that is customized to her needs and tastes.

The major types of Portals are:

Horizontal Portals

These are generally offered by Internet Service Providers or Search Engines as a central location for frequently used links. We chose to review two Horizontal portals: AOL for Broadband, an ISP content provider for users with a high-speed internet connection and my.yahoo, a search engine providing customizable home pages.

AOL for Broadband

Main page

AOL for Broadband is a relatively new service provided by AOL targeted at high-speed internet users that are looking for a all-in-one Internet application. AOL for broadband combines a browser, email client, and community functions like chat and bulletin boards.

Pros:

• Information navigation is easy. Every setting and topic has a single keyword that can be used in the search feature to subsequently locate the information.
• Search bar, enhanced by google on front page.
• Integrates features well. Users can easily insert a link or a video into an email, send an IM or add it to your favorites with one click of the mouse.
• Uses a desktop and window metaphor for the browser functions. Each linked article opens in a new window within the AOL browswer (i.e. there is only one AOL item on the taskbar). Those windows can be moved, minimized and closed. There are some limits to the metaphor however, for instance it is not possible to use 'right click' on links or images.
• Unique community features integrated with portal. For instance, the 'Send Out a Shout' feature shown below presents a question for users and allows them to submit a comment. The comment is then broadcast to everyone with the 'Send out a Shout' feature activated (It also appeared to have some automated review feature for inappropriate content).

Shout Out: A unique feature

• Settings for every AOL tool were located in one place and could be accessed by one of three methods: essentials, by category, and an alphabetical list by feature name.

• Initially content is setup with "canned" interests. While this enabled quick sign up, the interest topics were very narrow (financial, entertainment, nightlife, small business).
• Weather only available for one designated “home city.”
• Feature navigation did not follow consistent logic. The user can get to the same feature from multiple places making remembering where to find things difficult.
• AOL window is one item on PC task bar, but multiple windows could be open within that window. Having too many windows open gets confusing as shown below. Additionally, it is difficult to review what windows are open.

Too many windows open!

• Features associated with icons are not intuitive. The 'Write' icon maps to the email program and no other programs such as a notepad. The 'People' icon opens 'People Connection' a page that brings together celebrity entertainment news and chat applications. It also has quick links to manage the user profile there. (Return to Top)

My.Yahoo

Yahoo! is a prominent search engine that provides its users with the ability to centralize much of the information they need on the web. Like AOL for Broadband, they also provide a number of other Internet applications such as webmail, calendaring functions, and bookmark management.

Main page

Pros:

• Style is predictable and consistent throughout site. Instructions and menus were well placed. Feedback on errors was helpful and not disruptive. For instance, when a module was removed from their service offering they broadcast a message saying it is no longer supported rather than just removing it.

Outdated cameo

• Good balance between reuse of user information and privacy. The mapping feature is a good example of this. It saves the most recently mapped addresses to facilitate mapping them again. While providing a clearly visible option to clear mapping history as well.

Map Cameo

• Weather channel allows multiple city setup and easy search feature by city name or zip code
• Setting up features is streamlined and intuitive. When changing the content and layout of my.yahoo, available and chosen channels are easy to review and change. Modules are labeled as narrow or wide so that users can maximize layout space. Unlike other products we looked at, navigation between content setup and layout is easy. It also has a number of 'on the fly' features for setup that are well placed and can be hidden.
• Nice preview feature of colors chosen for customized color scheme.
• Unique cameos, or mini-applications, available. Cameos provide a limited amount of functionality without having to go to or spawn another window. Results can be shown directly within the channel. My.yahoo has a number of unusual but helpful cameos such as a package tracker, saved searches, and Evite, a third party event planning website.

Available Cameos Evite Cameo

• Currently beta testing allowing users to add custom RSS (Rich Site Summary) feeds in addition to pre-defined news channels. RSS feeds provide highly flexible access to information sources.

Cons:

• Very general content, not much option to specialize information, however this is the nature of a horizontal portal.
• Layout is busy. (Return to Top)
  

Vertical Niche Portals

Vertical Niche Portals are designed to serve an audience with a very specific interest. The most common types of vertical niche portals are those focusing on a specific topic such as WebMD, which provides medical information for patients and doctors, or catering to a particular industry like Covisint, a business-to-business portal for the auto industry.

WebMD

WebMD provides information and services to assist physicians, patients and health plan providers manage the complex healthcare system. They provide a comprehensive medial library for reference, patient subscriptions for services such as weight loss and fertility, and a desktop application for physician billing. We focused on My WebMD, a customizable service for patients.

Main page

Pros:

• The Site conceives of medical information in its broadest definition—health care, diagnosis, health maintenance, products, etc. They provide a great deal of medical information which is beneficial especially if you know what you are looking for.
• Information includes trends in the medical industry and various opinions on those trends.

Cons:

• No information channels available for My WebMD page. Information feeds are only available as email newsletters.
• Navigation through the site is counter-intuitive. Features of one section are actually part of another component making it hard to know what parts of the site you have already seen. When you click on the symptom checker, shown below, for example, a window with a header that says medical library is the next thing you see.

Symptom Checker

• Benefits for registration are unclear. A registered user does not receive much more functionality than an unregistered user. Most of the useful applications require a subscription and have a free trial. Unfortunately however, the subscription/free trial has yet another registration process that requires much of the information same information that was just entered upon registering for My WebMD. (Return to Top)

Covisint

The Covisint product line is divided into three categories: Connect. Communicate. Collaborate. Their portal product comprises the communication component and attempts to be an informational nexus individuals in the automotive industry.

Main page

Pros:

• Very targeted information based on organizational relationships and individual user roles.
• Based on a user's role, content setup makes recommendations about which content would be most important to a given user.

Customize

• Providers of content can brand the look of their content on a customized portal. Trading partners can add their logo and change the color scheme that their customers see.

Trading partner page

Cons:

• Rather than actual Cameo Applications that would allow some functionality on the homepage, Covisint applications launch in separate window.
• Information might be too comprehensive to browse making search functions more important. (Return to Top)
  

Enterprise Portals

Enterprise portals deliver organization-specific information in a user centric manner and can incorporate the best features of the other two types of portals. Additionally, due to the authentication process, the portal application can know a good deal about the user and the types of information a user of that sort will want. In addition to presentation change, the enterprise portal is often portable between hardware formats like a PC and PDA. Lastly, this type of portal tends to aggregate content from internal and external resources. We looked at two types of enterprise portals for comparison: e.piphany savant, a tool for e.piphany employees, and MyUW, which provides University of Washington's diverse student, faculty, employee community with important university information.

e.piphany Savant 2.5

e.piphany is a company whose products include a suite of Customer Relationship Management tools. Internally, they provide e.piphany Savant for their employees to manage personal and shared information. The tool incorporates the functionality of an email client, calendaring program, contact management, and search engine.

Pros:

• Simple content setup. Wizard highlights the most important features. Easy to identify which features have been added and which remain. Accommodates advanced users with 'Finish' button so that they may exit the wizard gracefully.
• Layout and presentation are easy to modify. Each gadget is noted whether it is narrow or wide. Also easy to add/remove columns with preview of what it will look like (radio button seems like good technique for this). Color customization easy to review and see how various components will look.
• Assists with navigating company content. The portal provides both document search capability and the ability to save your searches.
• Well designed people search cameo. The user can search or browse for contacts from multiple directories all in one location. It also allows for search by first name which is a nice organizational-centric customization.

Cons:

• Page layout and content can not be edited 'on the fly.' Only pre-defined color schemes available.
• Channels are called gadgets, might not be intuitive name for users. (Return to Top)
  

MyUW

MyUW is a comprehensive portal to University of Washington information for all campuses. It is available to students, faculty, and staff. It also provides access to frequently used UW applications such as Pine, an SSH email client, campus directories.

Pros:

• Very comprehensive information source. Ranges from most general of National News, Local News, Countrywide University News, UW news, to specific UW organization news. Navigation is possible based on your role (Student, Faculty, Alumni) or the specific information a user seeks (News, calendar). This helps to provide context for the wealth of information available. The portal provides access to the bulk of information a student, faculty, or staff member would need to access UW resources.

• Allows users to add custom bookmarks to the front page.

Cons:

• While very comprehensive, the portal is a collection of links. Applications open in new pages rather than from within the channel.
• Content is assigned to fixed locations within the portal. Users cannot customize names of tabs or what information can appear there. Therefore it is not possible to group informational items together according to userneeds. However, users can customize which tab the application defaults to when they log in.
• Page layouts easily become busy. While its nice that all of the available information is centralized on one page, its difficult to navigate what information is available during setup. Below is a screenshot that shows approximately one-quarter of the information channels that are available for the front page alone. Also, there is not an option to see or customize layout. (Return to Top)

Content

Another aspect important to our project is providing helpful and relevant content for SIMS students that will encourage the use of a MySims page. Content in portals is provided in entities called channels that allow users to easily add, remove, or change the layout of various content components.(Return to Top)

Standard Channels

We surveyed a number of educational enterprise portals and found that most sites contain the standard channels listed below. We have included a screen shot from the versions we thought were most effective and a few notes about their limitations.

• Calendar

Texas Tech provides an easily editable calendar channel for students. Users are able to add events from the view calendar mode. Required fields are designated and frequently used locations can be saved.

• Email client

The Univeristy of Hong Kong uses a standard format for their email client. Of the email clients we found during our research, this version made the best use of space without being excessively cluttered.

• News and Announcements

Deakin University's news feature has good division between sources. It is easy to tell the source of an article and whether or not the news item has been read, however it wastes a lot of space on the screen.

Deakin University News Channel

• Weather

Two features seemed particularly salient for a weather channel: forecasts and viewing the weather for multiple cities. Virginia Tech's calendar uses graphics and simple text to allow the user to easily see the 3-day forecast.

Virginia Tech Weather Channel

Another feature that seemed important for Bay Area residents is being able to see the weather for multiple cities like Deakin's weather channel below. It provides detailed current weather information, perhaps too detailed, but also allows users to show weather for multiple cities.

Deakin University Weather Channel

• Bookmarks allow users to collect URL's that are important to their academic and personal lives. CalPoly's uses a standard format for their bookmark channel, show below, uses file folders as a metaphor for organization. The folders enable the user to see the hierarchy of links.

Cal Poly Bookmark Channel

• Search

Most educational portals incorporate some search feature. Cal Poly uses a google search engine and allows students to designate the body of information to be searched between general WWW and just within the Cal Poly community. It also provides access to other reference resources such as directories and an index.

Cal Poly Search Channel

In addition to these standard channels, we began to brainstorm based on our interviews with students and our own experiences as students about other information that would be useful on a customizable student portal. (Return to Top)

RSS Feeds

RSS stands for Rich Site Summary and is an XML format for syndicating Web content. Traditionally, if a web site owner wanted to allow other sites to publish some of its content, he would create a RSS document and register it with a RSS publisher. The most frequently syndicated content includes items such as announcements, events listings, news stories and headlines, project updates, excerpts from discussion forums or blogs. Recently, however, the most exciting development in RSS feeds is that they no longer need to be published. Websites like NewsTrove and MyRSS are allowing users to build custom RSS feeds. In the case of NewsTrove, they provide a search engine that indexes and categorizes news articles gathered twenty-four hours per day from over 25,000 individual high-quality news sources. Custom RSS feeds can then be built from searches on their database. The feed address can then be added to any news reader and be treated as a regular news source. We believe tools like this will allow the information available to users to be highly customized and thus more useful. (Return to Top)

Cameo Channels

Almost if not as important as access to information are the tools used to manage it. Cameos are abbreviated versions of applications that run within a channel on a portal. Cameos allow users to work centrally without opening a number of applications. In the course of our research, we found a number of interesting ideas for cameo channels. They are described below:

• Campus Map feature allows the user to select a location and see where it is located on the map. The map is launched in another browser window.

• Library Collection Search allows a user to search by title, keyword, or subject. Advanced search capabilities to limit search to certain formats or libraries might also be desirable.

• Student Poll is similar to the 'Shout Out' tool in the AOL for Broadband package. It seems helpful for building community amongst users.

• Calculator is a frequently used tool that can be beneficial to have on a desktop. Can also be minimized when not in use.

• Games like this old classic need not stay on your PC desktop.

(Return to Top)

Two Influencing Trends in Educational Software

e-Portfolios

A more general trend in education are applications called ‘e-portfolios.’ Usually, they are highly personalized, customizable, web-based information management system that allows students to demonstrate skill development and academic achievements over time.

Typical Features for an e-portfolio are:
• Academic Advising and Planning
• Career and Resume Planning
• Create Learning Communities (to share and manage information)
• Integration (encourage involvement in curricular programs, student groups)
• Life-long Learning Tool
• Program Evaluation
• Reflection on Coursework; Demonstrate Mastery
• Student Evaluation and Grading (publish multi-media projects)
• Teaching Portfolios (teacher evaluation tool)

While these features are not within the scope of our current project, we could see how a MySims portal could incorporate academic planning and skill development modules as e-portfolio systems are developed and deployed.

Course Management Software

Blackboard

Course management software assists faculty and others who maintain class resources for students. It centralizes access to course notes, URL's, related documents, and course bulletin boards for discussion without those managing the class having to invest a lot of time in website creation and maintenance. This functionality, like e-portfolios, is also beyond the scope of our current project. However, if course deadlines and announcements were formatted into an RSS feed they could then be subscribed to like any other source of announcements. (Return to Top)