Assignment: Information Design

An exercise in information seeking behaviors on the web.

Our readings emphasized the importance of learning to see a web site through the user's eyes. One way of doing that is to create an activity that tests a web site's functionality. As you move through this activity, you will document each click of the mouse and document your responses.

For this assignment, you will have a user role and a set of tasks.

The product of the assignment will be a WordPad text file, with screenshots included at the completion of each task. Submit via Blackboard.

You will need to record each click of your mouse in your WordPad with the following information:

• Text of the link clicked (copy and paste) or short description of image
• URL of the new page
• Did you find your information here?
• A very short summary of your personal (emotional) response to the search process at each click:
  • is the search going well?
  • are you happy?
  • confused?
  • frustrated?
  • excited?
  • bored?
  • interested in exploring other links?
• Your response should range from one word to one sentence, as appropriate.

When you find the page with the desired information, take a screenshot and paste it into your WordPad file.

Your user role:

You are a 17 year old girl, wanting to study textile design at NC State's College of Design (not the College of Textiles).

Next week you will go to Raleigh for a campus. Your dad expects you to make all the arrangements yourself.

Using only the school's web site (do not phone; do not use outside search resources, such as Google; you may use the NC State site search engine), you need to:

• Begin at the NC State University homepage and
  1. find the application deadline for the upcoming year
  2. find annual costs of attendance
  3. find out if the NC State College of Design has any special application requirements.
  4. sign up for a campus tour
• At the end, write a short (200-500 word) reflection on how this experience measures up to the wayfinding ideals and behaviors discussed in our readings.

Grading:

This assignment is worth 50 points. Grading will be as follows:

• 15 points for recording each click
• 15 points for recording your response to each click
• 10 points for the screenshots of the web page with the desired information
• 10 points for your reflection on the process. The emphasis here is making connections to the readings.