In-Class Peer Review
In class on November 4th, a "skeleton" of your project (examples of each type of screen with basic navigation and enough development of sample content to give the reviewer a general sense of the "look" and "feel" of your site) is to be in place so that peer reviews may be conducted. These will be done in groups of approximately three students. You are required to bring hard-copy questionaires at the start of class (at least two copies - one for you, the designer, to take notes and one for the instructor; if you wish, you may have additional copies for your group members to fill out). This questionaire, along with your attendance and participation in the review, are worth 5% of the course grade.
From your 403 directory, you will access the first/intro/main page of your project ; this should be the actual first page of your project. From this intro/main page, the reviewer should be able to progress through all key pages. As a result of this phase of development, you are to have your page templates in a more final form (if you found it necessary to make modifications), your navigation in place, and you may have begun to insert content (although full content is not expected at this point, the page allocation has been decided, files have been named and several pages should be outlined).
For this assignment, create web pages, using the filenames you assigned previously in the design phase of the development. If you will be using them, insert the banner and/or the logo you have chosen. Insert your proposed menus and/or other navigational options. Essentially, what you will have is a skeleton of your site showing an extensive representative sample of the intended pages, each with at least minimal content, through which the reviewer can navigate. The purpose is to allow the reviewer to see the basic screen design and the type of content, and to be able to experience the various navigational options. (Remember that this "outline" will become the final project; this is not a separate set of pages).
Each group will review each other's projects. The developer will guide another group member to click their way through the site while the designer is taking notes on comments. As the outlines will be in place, there will be a significant portion of the project completed, which means that there will be adequate development to allow for a worthwhile review. Each individual review will take anywhere from 15 to 20 minutes; therefore, the process may take an hour - your timeliness to class is expected.
This is an informal and formative review. The reviewers are to take the position of "expert" (an "expert review") rather than as the "target audience" (though, in some cases, these could be one and the same). The critique will be in terms of good interface design and adherence to interface design and human factors principles and guidelines. The review will also critique the metaphor and treatment choices, the adequacy of the pages to fulfill the stated purpose and meet the requirements of the site, and the ability of the design to get and keep the user's attention. Clarity of navigation and variety of navigational choices will also be reviewed.
The project author will take notes as the "experts" offer their opinions. These opinions will then be used to rectify any problems, make any additions or modifications, and for guidance in completing the project. Your questionaire should have at least 25 questions, and these should cover heuristics (Shneiderman's "Eight Rules of Interface Design" or Nielsen's heuristics) as well as design issues. The appropriate text material is from chapters 10, 11 and 13 of Interaction Design. Your questions should solicit feedback that thoroughly judges the "look" and "feel" of your site. This is an opportunity to get constructive criticism and suggestions early on so that you can modify as appropriate.
As evaluators, it is important to be thorough and thoughtful.