Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-1-2018

Abstract

The purpose of this project was to produce new content for the English Program webpages for Dr. Patterson’s course, ENGL 875 Seminar: Writing for the Web. Throughout all stages of this project, we consulted Janice Redish’s book Letting Go of the Words. The first stage of the project was to identify the webpages’ target audiences; this was achieved through the creation of personas that reflected the demographics of users. Through these personas, we developed a series of tasks for a preliminary usability test. Subsequently, we conducted the preliminary test on the existing English Program webpages using test subjects that reflected these audiences. The failing test results revealed issues with accessibility, consistency, and optimization. In response, we audited the existing content, which involved cataloging the information on each page. Next, we created new content that fit the parameters we developed. Finally, we assessed the effectiveness of this content through extended workshops. After finalizing the content, we created mock-up webpages to simulate the user experience. The final stage of our project was implementing the content into the program webpage. With this new webpage, we hope to improve the user experience and attract more students to not only the English Program but to the university at large.

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