This past weekend we were assigned an individual assignment creating the wireframe for our team website for Apalachee Ridge Learning Center.  Our team was instructed to break the site apart into sections based on primary pages.  Mark worked on the “Home” page, Ben worked on the “Media” page, Joe worked on the “Get Involved” page, I worked on the “Digital Media Camp” page, and Hunter worked on the “Contact” page and the template for each page.  On Tuesday October 28, we discussed Search Engine Optimization, which included the importance of optimizing sites, defining metadata and its role, and the different ways to optimize sites for improved findability.  On Thursday October 30, we worked on a review for the exam on Tuesday November 4.  The review was basically a compilation of all the RAQ quizzes we have taken through out the semester.  The items to prepare for next week involve preparing for the test on November 4th, as well as beginning our next assignment which is Usability Protocol.  I believe this will be revolved around the basic usability of our prototype website we are creating for ARLC.  The purpose of usability is to determine the ease and navigational tendencies of the users on the site. 

Posted: October 30th, 2008 under Apalachee Ridge, Information Architecture.
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This past weekend our overall assignment was to complete the sitemap for Apalachee Ridge Learning Center.  Using Micrcosoft Visio, we created a blueprint style of layout showing the functionality of how our website will work.  We also divided up making corrections to our Client and Audience Analysis to improve the grade we initially recieved for the assignment.  Everyone, as a group, added some primary objectives for the site, explained the technicalities of who and how the site will be maintained, and changed the benchmarking example to relate more to the structure of the Center.  The goal of the changes was to show a better consistency within the report, which was the main issue we needed to address.  Also, the readings and the RAQ for the weekend were extended to Thursday due to Blackboard issues. 

On Tuesday October 21:

We discussed more in depth about Wireframes, going over a few examples, discussing a few things that should be included in wireframes, the different types of wireframes (i.e. Annoted, Low-Fidelity, and High-Fidelity), as well as some guidlines and tools.  We also took some group work time to work on making corrections on the Client and Audience Analysis.

On Thursday October 23:

We discussed the pros and cons of website navigation.  We went through some example websites trying to spot different problamatic issues with signs and websites, etc.  We spent the remainder of class discussing the wireframe assignment regarding who is gonna do which page. 

Posted: October 23rd, 2008 under Apalachee Ridge, Information Architecture.
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This past weekend our group collaborated together and began work on creating our content inventory.  This exercise was an effort to begin preparing us for our card sorting exercise, which also prepares us to successfully create our site map, which will be the next assignment due next week.  This week in class, on Tuesday October, 14, we had a lecture on labeling systems and the different types of labels that are important in Information Architecture (i.e. Contextual Links, Headings, Index Terms, etc).  There was also a discussion on the different cultural styles of labeling; examples included British and Asian websites.  We also went over different tips in creating successful labels.  At the end of class we got into our groups and touched up our Content Inventory lists in final preparation for the card sorting exercise.  Then on Thursday October, 16, we discussed the creation of sitemaps.  Topics included, how they are made, why and who they are made to target. There was also discussion about the difference between sitemaps and wireframes.  Wireframes are just a mock-up of what elements are going to be included in each page, a sitemap is an overview of how the site will be structured.  We also began the card sorting exercise, which involved looking at another teams inventory cards and classifying them into different categories. 

Posted: October 16th, 2008 under Apalachee Ridge, Information Architecture.
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This week we had an individual Personas and Scenarios assignment to work on for Tuesday.  I did my P&S on Dylan, a 16 year old high school student who uses the center regularly for school research, surfing the internet, making music and just a place to hang out after school.  Up next our team has to work on putting together our sitemap of the layout for the new site we are putting together.

This week in class:

Tuesday Oct. 7:  We had a lecture on organizing information.  We discussed two of the main types of information architecture, as well as common organizational schemes and structures.  There was also discussion on how someone would search for information, as well as how to implement it into the website logically.  We also discussed why organization is important abd different ways to organize things using different schemes (alphabetical, chronological, geographical, etc.)

Thursday Oct. 9:  We had a guest speaker from PriceWaterhouseCoopers.  The discussion was mainly about the relationship between their company and information architecture.  We talked about the different types of Architecture within their websites (redundancy, usability, etc).  Ms. Lustria had to move the due dates and lectures because she had lost her voice.  Our inclass activity to prepare our teams for a card sorting activity was to begin work on our content inventory for Apalachee Ridge.

Posted: October 10th, 2008 under Apalachee Ridge, Information Architecture.
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This week our group completed work on the Client and Audience Analysis for Apalachee Ridge Technology Learning Center.  For the most part, we gathered information based on who the primary and secondary audience is.  We also conducted a client interview with Terrance McNeil.  Hunter and I completed the final editing of the document. Ben, Joe and Mark worked on the paper’s formatting.  We will all be signing the printed version of the document on Tuesday.

This week in class:

Tuesday (Sept 30), we discussed how to find differences in Information Architecture by working through a “Where’s Waldo” type of activity.  Charts and maps related to Information Architecture was also discussed during the lecture.

Thursday (Oct 2), we discussed the Personas and Scenarios assignment which is due on Oct 9.  Some of the key points we also discussed was brainstorming ideas and the idea of how the assignment should be done.  Class was shortened to allow us time to ask questions and work on completing the Client and Audience Analysis.

Based on the team work this week, I learned a variety of useful techniques in gathering information and conducting necessary research about the client and audience of the intended website for Apalachee Ridge Technology Learning Center. 

Posted: October 2nd, 2008 under Apalachee Ridge, Information Architecture.
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