Thursday 11 October 2007

Still deliberating over the design

Setting myself a list of targets to complete every week, I am on track to getting the unit completed for Saturday. Allowing myself one day of checking before submitting on Monday. Feeling quite apprehensive at the moment, I seem to be consistently adding bits to my web plan or tinkering with the screen design. I just need to leave everything alone and complete the evaluation report.

After carefully considering everyone comments, find below the current screen designs.


My main target audience is a 68 year old retired naval officer, originally from New Zealand. Diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis a few years ago, it has affected his co-ordination and now he has Deutanopia colour blindness; subsequently due to his condition, simple tasks like controlling the mouse or viewing information can be difficult if not on a contrasting background.

At the Library, he uses a PC with a broadband connection and is on-line communicating with other people with the same condition or gathering research about maritime history. At home, he’s on a 56k modem, he is frustrated when poor navigation sends him down the wrong path and similar to a teenager would rather visit another site than wait for a site to download.

Bearing in mind the target audience, please could you think of any suggested improvements?.

3 comments:

Chris Towell said...

Hi Mark, I don't think they need any improvements. Your screen designs look really good, better than any of my first screen designs.

I really like the top banner and I think the layout works really well.

Mark Torrington said...

Cheers Chris,
Thank you for the comment!

I was under the same impression, until I conducting a Critical Analysis. I created a questionnaire and distributed it to my work colleagues. These are the results:

1. Don’t use continued… (in relation to WAI-CAG 13.1 linked text should be meaningful when read out of context)
2. Use a fluid site rather than a fixed
3. Use “Do not wish to”, instead of “would rather not” (feedback sheet)
4. Include Access key to facilitate key stoke actions for navigation
5. Provide re-size icons on page
6. Provide – printer friendly function

Taking all these points into account, there is still plenty of work to do before it is perfect!

Chris Towell said...

Yeah as the developer in our team project it looks like I may be reciting them in my sleep as our Interactive Media project needs to adhere to at least Priority 1.

Thing is they are so vague its unbeliveable it would be nice if they were written in simplified English.

Most shouldnt be hard to attain for example (probably not important to the first year at the moment) to create a print page all that is required is a link to a XHTML document with a print CSS document attached. Wish they were all that simple.

Good luck for the assignment