Assignment Description and General Guidelines
The purpose of the critique is to set a concrete deadline marking the close of the web pase of development (although some continued refinement will likely occur in response to your director projects), and provide you an opportunity to present your design solution to a larger audience and gain valuable feedback. We are very short on time, so there is no space for preventable troubleshooting, downloading delays, etc. Therefore, test your design to be sure it is functioning properly, and equally important, it is absolutely essential that all website designs be online and ready to go for your presentation. Do not come with floppies, zip disks or expect to download your site via ftp. I will make no exceptions in this regard. If it's not online, it doesn't get presented and your grade will suffer. If you come to me well in advance of your presentation, I will be more than happy to assist you in getting your stuff online (e.g. setting up your personal account, explaining how to use an ftp application, etc.). If you foresee any complications in this regard, solve them now; do not wait.
Presentations should be articulate and concise; you have approximately 5 - 10 minutes to present, and 5 - 10 minutes for questions and discussion. Introduce yourself, your project topic, provide a brief but informative tour of the site, and ask for questions or comments. Do not begin with a disclaimer about X, Y and Z not being complete, and do not talk to the screen -- engage your audience. Remember, part of your grade for the critique itself will be based on your preparedness, so be sure your design is ready for presentation and know what you are going to say.
Note: Insurance policy: for the critique sessions my usual attendance policy is withdrawn. Attendance is required and mandatory for each and every critique session. Your presence is required if discussion and critical feedback is to be possible. Participation in the critiques will factor into your grade, and failure to attend will result in deductions from your overall project grade of one point per session missed.
On the day of their presentation, students should submit a revised version of the project definition submitted earlier in the semester. This is your opportunity to address any comments, suggestions or criticisms I noted on your work, and most importantly, any issues that may have arisen during the development process (e.g. change of focus, concept adjustments or other modifications). Your refined project definition will serve as the basis of my evaluation of your website design. In the refined project definition I will look for a clear articulation of: 1) project topic and goals, 2) audience definition and environment of use, 3) content organization, 4) site navigation and flow, and 5) -- a new section -- how and why your design solution satisfies the goals you set out to achieve. Based upon my reading of this document, I will look at and use your site to see if you have met the criteria specified in the written document.
Note: Again, I will be expecting a well-designed document that clearly and efficiently presents the project information. If you want suggestions, come to me well in advance of the due date and I will be glad to assist you.
Students should submit hard-copy versions of their web site designs. I want print versions of every section, sub-section or page of the entire site. Don't bother with the expense and hassle of color prints; b&w/grayscale is fine. These print-outs should then be neatly bundled (just stacked or clipped, not stapled, or bound) in a clear and logical manner (e.g. if necessary, labeled for sequence) and submitted on the day of your presentation. This will afford me an unambiguous and convenient way of noting layout and organizational comments.
Note: If your design involves a frames structure, I want to see printouts of the entire frames structure, not just individual HTML pages. This will likely require a screen capture operation to capture the entire screen as one image, which may be subsequently cropped to the dimensions of the browser window (Mac users: COMMAND-SHIFT-3 creates an image file on the HD; Win users: ALT-PRINTSCREEN and paste into Photoshop. If you need help with this let me know.
Note: If your design does not fit on a standard 8.5" X 11" format you may need to change the page set-up to switch the orientation, scale it down, or print it in pieces (most printer will cut it up by default if it does not fit on the page) and then re-assemble it.
On the day of their presentation, students should submit a functioning, final version of their entire site either via disk (floppy or zip, MAC or PC) or url. Based on this submission I will test the usability (e.g. navigation and wayfinding) and other aspects such as file size efficiency, display quality, etc.