In this assignment, you will design and initiate implementation of your team website.
Reading List
Each team member should read the lecture below before beginning this assignment.
Assignment Description
Website
Design and implement a website for your project. Recall that a website is a HCI domain and your site will be evaluated accordingly. The website does not need to be elaborate, but it should serve the purpose of the users of your website. Users of your website are your development team (CS & HU students), me (the instructor), graduate students, and your client (the scientist). We use your website to track your progress and evaluate your design and documents. Graduate students will provide additional documents for projects. When your client and I review your project, we will want to refer to the graduate student document, so your website must have links to their documents on a per document basis. Graduate students are also users of your web site. They will refer to your website to find your design documents for the project, which they need to write their documents. Consequently your design documents must be posted timely and kept current. Other users might discover you website and want to know more about your project. In the era of modern web search engines more people may view your web pages than you suspect. In fact, I have received email from some companies interested in a course project.
All design documents should be linked in your website in a format readable by all web browsers. Initially, the website will include a home page with application name, and team membership. The initial website will also contain the interaction design documents (described below). The documents are to be posted online by the due date. The documents do not have to be a single file, but they should be recognized as a group and easily navigated in the website.
You may use most any tool or templates that you’d like to make your team website. It should be a static website, meaning made up of html, jpg and pdf documents. There should not be a database back end. Consequently, something like WordPress would NOT be appropriate. The website should not redirect, meaning in a .htaccess file. I have two goals for the website:
- A central location to store your design documents that I can zip and save for posterity.
- A media for sharing your documents with your client, team and grad student.
I do not expect anything elaborate in these websites in terms of styling or design. Your design for the website should pay attention to ease of access and finding documents.
You will probably need to use Linux commands to make your website. A good review of Linux commands are at:
http://linuxcommand.org/lc3_lts0020.php
Team Directory and Google Shared Drive
I will create both a Team Directory and a Google Shared Drive for your team. The directory and the shared drive have different function.
Team/Group Directory
The Team Directory is a private directory in the csl.mtu.edu domain which is shared with your team by linux group permissions. For example, if your team number was 1 in the Spring 2020, you would access your group/team directory by ssh to
wopr.csl.mtu.edu
And navigating to
/group_projects/cs4760/s20/group1/
And the group name would be
cs4760.1
This drive houses your team website. In your team/group directory there is a www/ sub-directory containing an index.html file. The www/ directory for each team is linked to the CS4760 course website and has public read permission. The index.html should be root (main page) of your team website. All documents that are linked to your team website should be in the www/ directory or sub-directories that you create to organize your documents. Note that all your project assignments are linked to your team drive.
You may create sub-directory in your team/group directory adjacent to the www/ sub-directory. You may be these directories private to your team/group. In other without public access.
Be respectful to your teammates and assure that after you have uploaded a document to the your team/group directory that document have read and write permission for your group. Also when uploading a document into the www/ directory intended to be linked to your team website, you should assure that the file has public read permission besides group read/write permission.
Note that all major project documents should be in your team/group directory. It is my intent that the directory encapsulate your total project. For example if your scientist has given you resources/documents they should be uploaded to your team/group drive even though they are not intended to be linked to your team website. Another example that a document that should be upload but NOT be linked to your team website is your team charter. I should be able to zip your team/group directory and archive your project.
Google Shared Drive
The Google Shared Drive, I give you for your convenience. You can use it to house drafts of documents that you will upload to your team/group directory. Do NOT link the document directly to your team website. Instead download the document into a suitable format such as html or pdf, upload the file to the team/group directory and link to your team website if appropriate.
Initial Linked Documents
You already have documents that link to your website. So you can use these documents to prime your website.
Team Charter
Your team charter is NOT to be posted on your website but should be uploaded to your team directory, so that I can view it.
Scientist Pre-Interview Notes
Both Scientist Pre-interview Notes should be uploaded and linked to your website.
Scientist Interview and Meeting Notes
All scientist interview and meeting notes should be uploaded to your team/group directory and linked your team website.
App Design Summaries
Both App Design Summaries should be upload should be uploaded to your team/group directory and linked your team website.
Meeting Minutes
Your team is to keep meeting meeting notes and post them on the team website. This a lecture about teams for a detail description of meeting notes. Karla and I plan to study your team process and plan to use your meeting minutes to learn the details of your team process. So, Karla and I request that your minutes contain:
- Team Name
- Date, time and duration of the meeting
- Location or Media of the meeting, for example “in-person at Reki 101” or by “Google Hangouts”
- Attendance – list of team members present at the meeting.
- Action Items – list of tasks and team member assigned to do the work
- Discussions, Decisions and Rationale – list of topics and decisions made with rational for the decision.
- Next Steps – list of topics for the next meeting
Post your meeting minutes on the website immediately after the meeting.
Scientist Meeting Notes
Your team should make notes during your meeting with scientists and post them on your team websites. These notes are different from team minutes. These meeting notes are for recording all that you learn from your meeting with the scientists. So you will try to record as much as you can during the scientists meeting. See my lectures on interviewing for more details. I plan to study the interaction between your team and scientist. I plan to use your scientists meeting minutes to learn the details of your interaction with your scientists. So, your notes should contain:
- Team and Scientists Names
- Date, time and duration of the meeting
- Location or Media of the meeting, for example “by Zoom” or “by Phone”
- Attendance – list of team members and scientists present at the meeting.
- Discussion items – list of items discussed with specifics about the topics.
Scientist meeting notes should be posted on the your team website immediately after the meeting.
Burndown Chart
Update your burn down table and post the burn down graph in a prominent place in your team website, such as on the home page. See Project Assignment 4 – App Summary and Burn Down Chart for the description and use of a burn down chart.
Submit on Canvas and Due Date
Submit a link to your team website before the class hour of the due date in canvas.
Grading Rubric
The team website will be evaluate for timeliness, usability and completeness. Specifically:
- Does the website main page and linked documents load into my browser
- Is it easy for me to find the content (for example assignments) and navigate to the document?
- Is the website visually appealing?
- Does the design of the website represent the team and its character?
- Does the website have any unique design?
As I said before, I do not expect a lot of a design effort from your team on the website, but it should work, have clean design and easily navigated.
Prepare for Next Assignment
In your next assignment you will write your Interaction Design Documents. To prepare for the assignment read: