Easy Enough for Anyone
Presented at edUi 2009
Joel Pattison
Associate Director of Creative Services
College of William & Mary
The internet abounds with free services for creating a blog. But what about tools for building a traditional website? Even with the rise of social networks, the demand for professional/personal faculty websites hasn’t abated.
In 2008 William & Mary launched Tribe Voices, a web-based application to fulfill this need. The goal: ultimate ease of use.
This session explores the Tribe Voices development process, with a particular emphasis on user interface and usability. Topics of discussion include:
- Reasons to design the UI first – before writing code or finalizing the feature set
- Building a working UI prototype with Photoshop and HTML
- Conducting usability testing with an interface prototype and students/faculty/staff
- Creating a “quick start wizard” that eliminates the need for training
- Writing detailed, easy to follow documentation and integrating it into the UI
- Using interface mockups to build momentum on campus for the product’s initial release
Tribe Voices has been a resounding success at William & Mary; consider:
- It has been used to create more than 900 websites since May 2008
- In the last 14 months IT has received only 55 help tickets about Tribe Voices
- Tribe Voices received an “Award of Excellence” from the University and College Design Association
