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Your project is to design
and do a preliminary implementation of a needs and usability
assessment protocol; and to write a report for management on your preliminary
implementation that describes and justifies a full-scale assessment
project.
Choose an information system
or service, such as (but not limited to) a web site, for which you will
plan a detailed needs and usability assessment. You will
field test your plan and revise it based on your preliminary findings.
You may choose an existing system or service, or one under development.
The more real it is, the better the project.
You will design needs and
usability assessment for the site. Your plan should include, at
a minimum:
- A statement of the purpose
of the system/service/site to be evaluated.
- An identification of
(1) the targeted users (2) other users, if applicable.
- A discussion of the
goals of your assessment.
- A description of the
methods chosen, with rationale. You must use at least 3 of the
methods discussed in the course. The rationale must include
why each method is appropriate for this site and this
audience. Discuss both their strengths and weaknesses, individually,
and when used together for this site/system.
- As detailed an implementation
design as possible, e.g. if you propose to do surveys, you must
develop a draft survey instrument, and plans for administering and
analyzing it.
- A field test of your
design. E.g., if you propose to use surveys, pre-test the survey
instrument and revise it. Include in what you hand in both the
preliminary and the revised survey instruments and a report on the
pre-test.
- A design for a
final assessment based on your field test.
The final product is a report
that you would give to management describing what you have done, and detailing
and justifying the assessment that you plan to undertake. Include
in your justification the likely benefits of the assessment for the organization,
the service or site assessed, and the target users. Also include
in your report a discussion of possible larger impacts and issues that
might result in revised goals for the site, or a revised implementation.
The idea is to consider issues at many different levels, not to be stuck
in only looking at, say, the interface.
Don't consider yourself
limited to what's described above. Part of your responsibility
is to determine what will be most useful in matching this site to its
users' needs.
Assume that your management
is skeptical about the benefits of what they fear could be a time-consuming
and costly project. You must both answer their concerns and ensure
that the project is as lean and fast-paced as possible to get good results.
Exact due date yet to be
determined, but will be around the last class meeting.
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