PROJECT DEFINITION ASSIGNMENT Assignment Description and General Guidelines

General Comments These and all other written assignments are not merely a part of the working process behind solving a design problem, but are also designed products themselves (documents of the very process which will lead to your solution). Therefore, I expect that written / print-based assignments be presented in a manner no less professional than the project website itself. Think about the types of information you are presenting (e.g. text and graphical descriptions) and do your best to craft a clear, unified and coherent presentation of the parts listed below. Written assignments need only be as long as is necessary to express your ideas clearly and completely. Also, please spell- and grammar-check all text.

Specifying your project topic and content Students should provide a clear and concise statement of the project topic to be developed this semester. Be as specific and concrete as possible about the precise content that will be developed, as well as the types of media that will be employed. Note: This statement should represent your best estimation of the project you choose to develop. Although you will be expected to stick with and develop a given project topic, the details presented at this time are not necessarily carved in stone. I expect that as you learn more about your project content and your client's goals, your initial ideas and suggestions may be subject to revision, a natural consequence of an iterative development process.

Composing the Website Problem Definition Assuming you have consulted with your project client (at least once) and discussed the general goals associated with the development of a web-based presentation of your project content, you should prepare a clear and concise statement of the design problem you intend to solve. Again, be as specific and concrete as possible about the specific goals or issues that you intend to address and how you propose to satisfy them through developing web-based materials. Refer to the section, "Determining your site's goal," in Defining the Audience for examples and general guidance. Note: Once again, I will treat this statement as a best estimation. Preliminary concepts or other details presented at this time will likely be revised.

Defining the Audience Students should prepare a clear and concise statement describing the target audience. Try to be as specific as possible, for a specific and carefully considered audience definition will help you to make the difficult qualitative decisions surrounding color scheme and mood. Also, don't forget to include the the "technological" status of your target user (e.g. platform, browser, bandwidth, etc.). Refer to Defining the Audience for examples and general guidance.

Categorized Brainstorm Lists Students should prepare a legible presentation of organized brainstorm content. This may take the form of a collection of lists, or a mind-map type of representation. The purpose of this presentation is to demonstrate that you have brainstormed possible or potential ideas, and having amassed a collection, have begun to organize them into logical categories. Refer to Content Brainstorming for general guidance.

Flow-charting Using the categorized brainstorm lists, students should prepare a legible presentation of the structure and flow of information in the proposed website. Begin from the "top," say an introduction page, and map out a structure or sequence that best relates the categorized lists to each other and the content as a whole. Through specifying topical sections and subsections, this document will serve as a general structural outline for your website. At this point it is not necessary to specify that structure beyond three or four levels. Refer to Flow-charting for general guidance.

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