Executive+Summary

This Participatory Design (PD) project focused on the re-design of the current website for a program within the University of Toronto. The Institute of Culture Communication Information and Technology (ICCIT) is a faculty within the University of Toronto at Mississauga Campus (UTM). The current website provides information to students, faculty and future applicants regarding courses and the program. However, there are major shortcomings existent within this current website. Overall, it does not fulfill the needs of its users. This project will to develop an alternative design for the program’s website which aims to better satisfy these needs.

In order to understand the needs of the users for this website a Participatory Design (PD) approach was taken. This would aid in the identification and satisfaction of the many diverse opinions present in the wide array of users the website serves. Following this approach, five design phases were conducted with the website users to develop new design. Each phase incorporated and built upon the results of the previous phase to develop a new website design that users could directly contribute to.

The first phase involved interviewing key members of the ICCIT department and inquiring about the current website and their vision for a new design. We then analysed the current website and comparable websites to identify preliminary design inspirations. In the second phase we conducted a future workshop as a brainstorming tool to understand the users’ visions for a new website. Phase three focused on the design of the homepage for the website through the performance of both a low-fidelity prototyping session and a card sorting activity. These results served as a basis for the original prototypes, presented as wireframes in phase 3 of this design process. The feedback and suggestions voiced within phase four were integrated into the revision of the initial prototypes in phase five where we presented final wireframe prototypes to the users.

The final wireframes presented to the users in phase five represent our suggested design for a new ICCIT website. However, these designs are the result of a limited number of prototype revisions. Going forward with this design project, the ICCIT team could further expand and revise these prototypes through further design sessions to develop a more concrete and comprehensive website design. Once the design has been completed, it can be used as a communication tool to developers who will ultimately create and implement a functioning new website.