Week 9: Rubric

CurrentSF has launched! Here is my Rubric Critique!

Design: 4 points
"The page design is visually pleasing, supports the page content, and is appropriate for its intended audience"

Images: 4 points
"The images are well designed and mechanically effective, without distortion, excessive dithering, haloes or other negative graphic effects; images include Alt, Height, and Width attributes (may be in CSS) and offer initial thumbnail graphic if file size is large . The images were created with Fireworks."

Layout: 4 points
"Pages use an effective and uncluttered layout, using background color to enhance the readability of text and the appearance of graphics; users with a 800 X 600 monitor don't have to scroll to the right."

Text: 4 points
"Text on the site is well written and presented effectively, using readable fonts and text design and without major mechanical errors (grammar, punctuation, and spelling)."

Navigation: 4 points
"The site is well organized and easy to navigate; the relationship between pages is clear and it's easy to find an individual page; each page is clearly linked to another; links are appropriate, clearly labeled, and have a definite purpose; page titles are appropriate to content and have a definite purpose."

Mechanics: 6 points
"Everything on the site works: there are no missing graphics or broken links; it can be read with Explorer (Windows) and Safari and shows equally well on PC and Mac."

Download time: 4 points
"The site download time is reasonable, and doesn't make extreme demands on the user's patience; multimedia elements load quickly or file size is indicated with option to download."

HTML/XHTML/CSS: 6 points
"The XHTML/HTML code is largely clean, although there may be a few questionable tags. Some pages validate as XHTML compliant. The site uses some CSS elements to control portions of design, content and layout."

Credibility: 3 points
"Site includes author, contact person with e-mail address, date created or updated, and no copyright infringement."

Instructor Review Only
Flash MX 2004 Techniques

Total Score: 39
(not including instructor review).

Week 8: User Testing

Since CurrentSF has launched, I decided to network with a couple of buddies who weren't web designers. I thought they should test the site and give me feedback. In my mind, I thought this would be a perfect idea since they are the in the range of our target audience.

Here's what Angel Jomar Cruz Vega said:
"Simple, clean and easy to navigate. Also very readable. It doesn't look busy with images but it doesn't look empty either. I find it to be well balanced."

Here's what Lia Farantos said:
Visually pleasing, design looks very well done. I like the transitions with the headlines."

JQuery - Scroll to Top

I just did a JQuery tutorial that I thought was quite interesting. Using this JQuery code allows you to scroll to the top of the page without even scrolling at all. This could be a convenient use for the user, if he/she wants to start from the top again.

Here is the link to my example:
http://tsouzasf.aisites.com/jquery-prac/

In case you want to try, Here is the link to the tutorial I did:
http://blog.netisme.com/tutorials/xhtml-css/scroll-gototop-apparition-jquery-css.html

Team Alpha Update: Progress

This week as an individual, I worked on getting our design document ready. I'm trying to make it as clean, professional, and pretty as possible. I think this adds to the overall success of the project because it gives the client a clear-cut explanation of what's going to be on the site, how the site is going to work, and how it's going to effect the users. It also makes the client more comfortable with the team and the overall website itself.

I think we have a straight forward objective, and how we are going to achieve that goal. Although I think we are handling usability well, I think we need an extra "edge" that will make our website really stand-out from our competitors.

Team Alpha Update: Layout

I think our layout and idea are coming into place. It's already been halfway through this process, and I'm getting really confident with myself and my team overall. I love how we are putting the pieces together. I remember weeks one and two when this project was a scrambled, unfinished puzzle.

I really think we are putting the pieces of this puzzle into place. Design speaking, our layout shows great hierarchy, and is definitely visually pleasing. Trying to think like I'm a user visiting this site, I think the user would be happy that the articles are placed on the left side, making it visually comfortable for them.

I think the overall goal is to make the site convenient as possible for the user. I think being the content editor in my group, I think this is a very important piece to solve.

Update on Team Alpha

It seems like as each day that passes in this quarter, our project looks like it's progressing. Working hard each week to meet our deadline, I say we are doing a swell job so far.

As for me this week, Sam, our project manager asked if I could start to the process book. So lately, my job has been to organize the book and gain a little more research for our site, for example, our target audience. Knowing our target audience is a huge advantage at accomplishing great usability for our site.

My goal as the content editor is to make sure that we know our target audience and to more than accomplish our specs to compete with our competitors.

Team Alpha Update(Sitemap)

For this week, my project manager assigned me a simple sitemap to work
on. Also, he wanted me to research other competitive sites so we can have
an "edge" over them.

For the site map, I simply laid it out so it can show how the navigation
will flow. This is so our team has a better understanding visually how
the navigation is going to be displayed and how it's going to flow. Although,
this diagram is simple, it is clear and to the point. We as a team,
are trying to avoid too many pages. This seems to be a problem on SFStation's
site when I researched their site. If our navigation is simple and to the
point, users will be less likely to get "lost" in the site and not have a
hard time navigating on our site. This might just be merely my opinion, but
it is my purpose for keeping the sitemap simple and clear. As a team, we want
roughly 4-5 pages. This includes: A home page, a food section, an art section,
a music section, and an about us page that will have the team's bios.