Requirements Gathering

Refer to and work with Summers and Summers, chap 2.

As with most of the documentation you're doing for this project, you're keeping these notes as a way of communicating with each other as well as me. You can - and should - make notes on who's going to do what, and when, to keep everyone moving forward and in synch.

Part 1: Site Concept and Goals

Go to your group page and start a page titled SiteConceptAndGoals.

Consider what you can do as a group in the time alloted, and with your technical resources.

• Start with your two sentence concept statement. This can be phrased as a problem-solution statement. Here's the problem - Here's our solution.
• Next, define and state the (business) goals you want the site to accomplish. These are your goals for the site, what you intend the site to address or do. They will change and become more refined as you study your users. (work from p 21ff). Good advice is to work backwards from an outcome to specific user behaviors (p. 23).
  • State these goals as a set of bullet points.
• Next, list what you now see as specific user goals for this site. Again, use a set of bullet points. You won't know these goals for certain yet - not until you interview users - but this list gets you started thinking on the user goals.
• Finally, identify what user group(s) will you need to study to determine the user goals.

First purpose statement

Once you have goals identified and user groups specified,

• Refine your two sentence concept into a first pass at a purpose statement: a multi-sentence statement of why you're creating this particular site for these specific users. Include what the site will do, what might differentiate this site frm others like it, and how the content and structure of the site might address the users' purpose.
  • State this in plain, straightforward language. Avoid hype - promises that can't be kept - and marketing terminology that might hang you up. Some purposes, such as "easy to navigate," are givens. Your statement should address particulars for this site rather than universals.

Expect this statement to change as you research other sites and representative users.

Part 2: Research: Site (Brand) Positioning

(pp 23 - 26) Start a page titled SitePositioningResearch.

Find 4 - 5 other sites based on a concept similar to yours. Review each of them in a tight extended paragraph or two. Link to each site in the review. In a separate paragraph or set of bullet points, consider how your site will be distinguished from them in content, tone, and approach - as well as how it might be similar. Each person in your group should review at least one site. Sign your review with your WikiName (which will link to your wiki home page.)

Part 3: Research: Representative Users

(User Goals, pp 26 ff). Observe and interview the representative users you identified above.

• Create a page titled InterviewQuestions. Draw up a list of interview questions (refine those on p 31)
• Draw up plans for who's interviewing whom and when.
• Create pages to keep your interview notes (title them UserInterviewNotesYourLastName)

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Next:

Interview users. Post your notes to the appropriate pages. You can use the list p 33 as a template, but adapt it to suit your work. These notes will become user profiles.

• Deadline for user interviews info: tba
• Deadline for Site Positioning: same as user interviews