The developing team examined how information has been traditionally disseminated, and this led to the design that is currently in place - a question & answer approach. Historically, when information was required, a lecturer needed to find out who to ask, work out what they wanted to ask and then interpret the answer. With this in mind the web site evolved from its beginnings as an information notice board designed by suppliers of information into one designed by the receivers of this information.
We believe this responsiveness to client needs is the key to effective design.
Constant revision and monitoring of customer needs allow the site to continue its evolution, and hopefully to attain a "never to be considered obsolete" status. With this in mind - we believe that all good quality sites are always "works in progress".
In developing such a site, several questions formed the basis of the analysis, design, management and development of this project.
These included:
"Why develop it?"
"What form should it take?"
"Who should be involved?"
"How should it be made responsive to user needs?"
The answers to these questions provided focus and a strategy for the project ......
Lecturers who aspire to use the internet in their teaching and learning usually require assistance and support with:
Finding information on all of these areas is usually a time-intensive process, with lecturers needing to seek out and navigate through not only the different areas of the internet, but also the different areas within their workplace, to try to establish a complete framework of assistance.
As well as the main teamís input, content information was gathered from lecturers, the Academic Staff Development Unit, and other Divisional staff.
was tested with users when it was barely beyond storyboard stage. This version was well accepted by users, and further development was undertaken.
The importance of ongoing useability testing was highlighted when the more developed version of the first one tested resulted in users reporting confusion and disorientation when navigating the interface.
A complete design revamp was set in place in response to the feedback from lecturers, with the focus moving from a front screen design providing information in a straightforward tabular form, to a question-based front screen, as can be seen at http://www.tals.dis.qut.edu.au/tlow/tlow.htm [HREF2] http://www.tals.dis.qut.edu.au
This version has been well accepted by academic staff.
Kerry Bagdon, Halima Goss © 1997. The authors assign to Southern Cross University and other educational and non-profit institutions a non-exclusive license to use this document for personal use and in courses of instruction provided that the article is used in full and this copyright statement is reproduced. The authors also grant a non-exclusive licence to Southern Cross University to publish this document in full on the World Wide Web and on CD-ROM and in printed form with the conference papers, and for the document to be published on mirrors on the World Wide Web. Any other usage is prohibited without the express permission of the authors.