Planning

English 8123 Digital Media Production

Planning is an essential step to the design of any web project. For this assignment, you’ll practice two important steps in the design of your online portfolio: card sorting and prototyping.

Card Sorting
Definition
“Card sorting is a method used to help design or evaluate the information architecture of a site. In a card sorting session, participants organize topics into categories that make sense to them and they may also help you label these groups” (Usability.gov). Card sorting helps you

  • decide the overall architecture of your site
  • group your content into meaningful categories
  • better understand your users’ needs and expectations
  • decide on your menu/navigation structure

Methods
There’re two methods of card sorting, open card sorting and closed card sorting. In open card sorting, participants are provided with no predefined categories and asked to sort information/content into their own categories. In closed card sorting, participants are asked to sort information/content into predefined categories.

More Information on Card Sorting
For a primer on card sorting, visit usability.gov.

Prototyping
Prototyping basically means creating a preliminary design for something, in this case, your website. Prototypes can range from low-fidelity renditions to high-fidelity representations. On the low end, you may have a hand-drawn sketch of what your website may look like. On the high end, you may have an actual html page that is a close rendition of what you want your web site to look like. Somewhere in the middle might be a Word or PowerPoint (or Publisher, Photoshop…) design of what you have in mind.

What You Are to Do for This Assignment
For this assignment, you will turn in two things:

  1. A hierarchical list of content for your website–This may mean a list with headings and subheadings.
  2. A prototype for your website–Low fidelity or high fidelity, it doesn’t matter.

    To Turn in
    For this particular assignment, I think it makes better sense for you to just email the card sorting and prototype to me.