BlueFish Media Design WebQuest

Introduction:

You are a member of a design team at BlueFish Media Design, a premier web design and multimedia design firm in the Chicago area. Recently, several local firms have approached BlueFish with requests for web sites.

The new clients are:

Le Expensziv -- a new gourmet French restaurant offering wonderfully delicious food and extravagant prices
A Dog's Life -- a company that offers dog grooming, training, daycare, and vacation boarding services to the greater Chicago area
Coffee Cafe -- a locally owned coffee bar similar to Starbucks located in the Chicago Bucktown neighborhood
Baby Time -- a small, upscale shop in Deer Park Mall specializing in clothes, toys, and accessories for infants and toddlers
Kirk, Picard, & Janeway -- a new accounting firm just formed by three recent accounting major graduates with CPAs, specializing in small business and tax accounting

The Task:

Since your team has done so well on previous assignments, the Web Design Director, Maria Riaz, has decided to allow your team to choose the client you would like to work with.

Your task is to analyze the competition and propose a page layout design appropriate for your client's business and target audience. There are four deliverables: Analysis Report, Presentation, Sample Page Layout, and the Share Your Design discussion message posting.

Each member of the team plays a different role: FearlessLeader, DesignGuru, TextMaster, and PixelMeister. You will need to discuss these roles with your fellow team members and each choose a role.

	FearlessLeader: The FearlessLeader serves as the team leader. The role of the FearlessLeader includes working with the team to divide up tasks, leading discussions, reminding team members about due dates, communicating with Maria Riaz (via your instructor), posting the “Share Your Design” discussion board message, etc. The FearlessLeader is ultimately responsible for all of the group's deliverables.
	DesignGuru: The DesignGuru verifies that design principles such as alignment, contrast, proximity, and repetition are utilized in the design of a usable and accessible sample page layout (see Chapter 7 Design & Usability resources). The DesignGuru contributes to all the design-related components – especially the page layout format for the Sample Page Layout. The DesignGuru will generate the Presentation (with help from other team members).
	TextMaster: The TextMaster focuses on writing for the Web-- the use of text and the written word on web pages -- including writing compelling headings, brief paragraphs, and brief catching lists (see Chapter 7 Writing for the Web resources). The TextMaster will generate the written Analysis Report (with help from other team members) and provide assistance with the text for the Sample Page Layout.
	PixelMeister: The PixelMeister focuses on the use of color and graphics on a Web site (see Chapter 4 resources). The PixelMeister has responsibility for the selection and justification of the color scheme chosen. The PixelMeister will generate the Sample Page Layout (with help from other team members).

The Process:

All group work and communication must be done within your Group Area on Blackboard. There is a discussion board, chat room, and file upload area for your use. These areas cannot be accessed by students outside of your group but they are visible to me. Your individual contributions will be noted.

Choose Your Client

Your first step is to discuss the clients listed above with your team and choose your client.

Analysis

Your team will need to do some investigation and background analysis. Feel free to contact your instructor (he or she will forward your questions to Maria at BlueFishMediaDesign) with your questions about your client and their business.

Determine the top three expectations your client has for the website.
Determine the target audience.
Locate three potential competitors (or similar websites).
Use the Web Design Best Practices Checklist to analyze the competition. For each competitor, note two strengths and two weaknesses.
The Analysis Report. Submit a two-page written description of your results for the four analysis steps above.

Design

Your team needs to design a sample page layout and create a presentation to propose to the client. Feel free to contact your instructor (he or she will forward your questions to Maria at BlueFishMediaDesign) with your questions about your client and their business.

Choose color scheme. Justify your selection.
Choose page layout type: jello, liquid, or ice. Justify your selection.
Choose font face, weight, and size for headings, subheadings, main content, footer, etc. Justify your selection.
The Sample Page Layout. Use any of the following applications to create a Sample Page Layout: Adobe Macromedia Dreamweaver, Adobe Macromedia Fireworks, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Word, or Adobe Photoshop. Create your own content, including logo banner. Upload your Sample Page Layout to the Web.
The Presentation.
Present your design with flair!
Use either Microsoft Word or Microsoft PowerPoint to enthusiastically share your design ideas with your client (the Presentation). Include information about the target audience and client expectations from your Analysis Report. Include your proposals for color scheme, page format type, and fonts you selected. Include the URL of your sample page layout file.
Share Your Design. Your FearlessLeader will post a message to your class discussion board or instructor with the URL of your Sample Page Layout and a brief message describing the design.

Resources:

The Web Design Best Practices Checklist
Your course textbook
This website: http://webdevfoundations.net
The Web!

Evaluation:

Analysis Report (15 points)

	Outstanding 3 points	Average 1 point	Needs Improvement 0 points
Three Client Expectations	Three client expectations are clearly stated	Three client expectations are provided but they are not clearly stated	Less than three client expectations are present
Target Audience	Clearly described in terms of age, gender, interests, and socio-economic criteria.	Unclear or missing criteria	Missing or does not relate to the website purpose
Competitor websites	Listed three URLs of competitor or similar websites	Listed less than three URL of a competitor or similar website	Missing or the URLs are not competitor or similar websites
Competitor Strengths & Weaknesses	Clearly describes two strengths and weaknesses for each site	Clearly describes less than two strengths and weaknesses for each site	Missing or strengths and weaknesses are not clearly stated
Mechanics	Well organized, complete sentences, correct grammar and spelling.	Complete sentences, but slightly disorganized, or less than three grammar/spelling errors.	Incomplete sentences, three or more grammar/spelling errors.

Sample Page Layout (15 points)

	Outstanding 4 points	Average 1 point	Needs Improvement 0 points
Target Audience	---	Sample page layout is appealing to target audience	Sample page layout does not appeal to target audience
Page Layout	---	Follows all web design best practices	Missing or does not follow most web design best practices
Navigation	Follows all web design best practices	Follows most web design best practices (only three or less instances do not comply)	Missing or does not follow most web design best practices
Color & Graphics	Follows all web design best practices	Follows most web design best practices (only three or less instances do not comply)	Missing or does not follow most web design best practices
Text Content	Follows all web design best practices	Follows most web design best practices (only three or less instances do not comply)	Missing or does not follow most web design best practices
Accessibility	---	Follows all web design best practices	Missing or does not follow most web design best practices

Presentation (15 points)

	Outstanding 3 points	Average 1 point	Needs Improvement 0 points
Client Expectations	It is evident that the proposed web site will meet client expectations.	Proposed web site may not completely meet all of the client expectations	It is not evident how the proposed web site will meet client expectations
Target Audience	Clearly described in terms of age, gender, interests, and socio-economic criteria.	Unclear or missing criteria	Missing or does not relate to the website purpose
Appearance	Content is presented in a visually appealing, interesting manner.	Content presentation could be more visually appealing	Missing or the content appearance detracts from the information presented.
Design Notes	Color scheme, page format type, and fonts selected are clearly described.	Color scheme, page format type, and fonts selected are not clearly described or some items are missing.	Color scheme, page format type, and fonts selected are missing or not described.
Mechanics	Well organized, complete sentences, correct grammar and spelling.	Complete sentences, but slightly disorganized, or less than three grammar/spelling errors.	Incomplete sentences, three or more grammar/spelling errors.

Individual Group Contributions will be rated as follows:

5 points	A real Team Player – communicates and contributes quality work almost daily, cooperates with other group members, fulfills the responsibility of the assigned role in a timely manner
4 points	Communicates and contributes quality work several times a week cooperates with other group members, fulfills the responsibility of the assigned role in a timely manner
3 points	Communicates only when absolutely necessary or only somewhat cooperative with group members or only minimally fulfills the responsibility of the assigned role in a timely manner
2 points	Rarely communicates or is not cooperative or fulfills the responsibility of the assigned role with sub-standard or late work
0-1 point	This team member is most likely to be “voted off the island” and does not contribute to the group in a positive manner

The Conclusion:

As you've been working on this WebQuest you’ve continued to build your knowledge in Web design best practices, identifying target audiences, and meeting client expectations. All these are components of the skill set you’ll need to use when you design and create your own Web sites in the future.

Instructor Notes:

Assign students to teams so that each team has a learner with the various skills needed.
Reply to students questions as if you had contacted "Maria" at BlueFish Media Design. This provides students with practice in asking project-related questions -- guide the students when necessary so their questions (and your answers) will help them produce a design that meets the needs of the client's business and target audience.

Questions or Comments?

The author would like to hear from you!
Send an e-mail to webdevfoundations@hotmail.com
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