Wireframe+Prototyping2

= = = = =**Phase 5: Wireframe Prototype (2nd Iteration)** =

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The results gathered from the first wireframe prototyping session, made it clear that the design was still not complete. The users had suggested possible improvements to the design, and their behaviour while performing the scenarios indicated that there were aspects of the functionality that was poorly designed. This phase of the design process attempted to utilize this feedback and incorporate it into a second iteration of wireframe designs for the CCIT website.

Objectives
With each of the prototyping sessions conducted in phase four different results and feedback about the design were generated. It was important to prioritise the information collected and try to utilize that which was most representative of the website's target users. We attempted to improve the design by incorporating suggestions and rethinking previous design decisions based on the participant's interactions with the prototype. Our overall goal was to improve upon the previous iteration of prototypes so that there would be less criticism and confusions while performing scenarios in future prototyping sessions.

The objective of this design phase was to present the users with the second iteration of wireframe prototypes. However, to due to the time constraints of this project we were unable to hold another usability session to evaluate the changes to the prototypes. In light of this, our secondary objective for this phase of the design process was to create an almost finalized design with the information we had previously collected. This "final" prototype could then be presented to the ICCIT users along with a final report outlining our results and recommendations upon the completion with our involvement of this project.

Design Session An official design session with the ICCIT users was not held with the second iteration of wireframe prototypes. Instead, the design session in this phase consisted of the completion of a final prototype design to present to the users as a recommendation. This session involved the members of the design team (Afsoun and Sarah) to review all the information that had been collected and complete the prototypes to represent the users needs as best as possible.

Results
The results of this phase of the design process included a "final" version of wireframe prototypes representing a new design for the homepage and virtual portfolios sections of the CCIT website. These prototypes can be found within Appendix F of this document. These prototypes have incorporated many of the improvement suggestions that were presented in the previous phase.

The homepage of the website has been changed in terms of layout and content. Since many participants missed to identify the virtual portfolios section on the homepage it has been enlarged and moved to the left side of the screen to fall better within a user’s likely scan patterns. An announcements section has also been added to the homepage in place of some of the less useful pieces of content as per a suggestion in the results of phase four. The removed information can now be found in other locations, such as the calendar which is now displayed on the right hand panel instead of in the “News & Events” block as in the first iteration's design.

On the "Search for Virtual Portfolio Page" the Discover search box has been moved closer to the virtual portfolio listings and the name was changed to “Search” to avoid confusion. The commenting functionality was made more flexible, giving users the option to "Like" a specific piece of work instead of just a Virtual Portfolio. This can be seen on the "View Other Virtual Portfolio Page". Other updates and changes were mostly aesthetic or minimal in comparison to the main changes that are described above.

Assessment
The assessment of this phase cannot be fully discussed since its performance was not conducted. However, the process of performing a single iteration of a prototype design from one set of feedback was still enlightening. While creating the new wireframe designs there were many uncertainties present. Many design decisions were made without fully being able to predict the user's reactions to them. It was quite apparent that the designs that we presented to our users will still have to be revised through further iterations of this design. It was difficult to know when and where the design phase should conclude, and it would very likely be easy to continue with much iteration of prototypes that eventually could become counterproductive.