Website Prototypes|書籍線上App不用買-HotApp4Game

The hardest part of developing a new website is in deciding what to build. This book discusses the website design process of ‘what to make’ rather than into ‘how to improve’. The exploratory process tests possibilities expressed through ideas, with no clear directions of final outcome. It generates new understandings of how people interact with websites.

Many of the issues related to website design intimately concern people. People remember websites that satisfied their needs perfectly, which is why real users need to be studied within their everyday context. The more we know about the circumstances of potential users, the greater the possibility that websites will support users' everyday lives.

However, these new design contexts do not necessarily demand the development of new design methods. Ethnographic research was developed in the nineteenth century to study the colonial encounters between Europeans and the Indigenous peoples. It was also used to study aspects of American urban life, such as issues in locales quite different from those of the enquirer, providing a richer understanding of the 'context of use'. While this method is effective at understanding context, the biggest challenge facing ethnography for website design is the demand to spend time in the field. For this reason, a range of methods have been proposed.

Contextual inquiry was developed for those who do not possess the training or the time to conduct ethnographic work. It involves visiting the end-user in their environment and observing them as they interact with the interface.

Using this method, the user's basic requirements are identified and developed into a working prototype, which can be as simple as a drawing on the back of a dinner napkin or as complete as a high-fidelity software interface. Yet, even the best designers cannot design error-free websites in a single attempt, requiring some form of iteration and prototyping, which involves testing the prototype on end-users, to identify any problems or contextual misfits. Although user involvement in the design process may appear to be complicated and time-consuming, involving users produces many benefits.

Using the example of an Indigenous Australian end-user, the theory shows that designers are faced with complex issues in the deployment of such interfaces because context (or culture) can manifest itself in many ways, including the methods and techniques used, as well as the customs, ideologies and values of the group. Many design issues were identified in relation to Indigenous Australian context. New ways of representing diverse users still need to be explored, not from a Western context but within non-Western paradigms. Not only is there a need to suspend beliefs and learn anew the end-users' knowledge systems but there is also a need for caution, in assuming the requirements gathering process is acceptable to all target audiences. The dominant role of Western thought in computer applications may be why alternative strategies are rarely explored.

Research suggests that website designers are prone to imitating other website designers and clients being so focused on their competitors that they do not consider the end-users (McFarlane 2011; Glasnapp 2010).

So, next time your planning to work on a new website project, take a step back for a moment and ask yourself if you really know the people who are going to be using the website and whether the new website will really fit into the context of their lives?