Task

You have been asked to provide an expert review of the Kakadu National Park (Jabiru, Northern Territory, Australia) web site

You are to make specific reference to the use of:

• Navigational features;
• Graphics used;
• Colour schemes used;
• Themes used;
• Hyperlinks supplied.

Your expert review should also examine the usability of the site. You are to make specific reference to:

• The organisation and consistency of information;
• Navigation; and
• Searching the site for specific items;

Your review should consider these specific elements and comment on their use and appropriateness on the news site as part of the overall design of that website.

As part of your review, you must also seek the opinions of three (3) users of that site. These users may be family, friends or colleagues, but MUST NOT include other students enrolled in this subject. You need to prepare a simple questionnaire for these users to complete so that you can determine how effectively they can use the site. The questionnaire is to be based on the following scenario:

You need to be able to:

1. Find out things to do in ‘Kakadu National Park’;
2. How to plan your trip to ‘Kakadu National Park’?

You should ensure that all participants have to check for the same information.

Your questionnaire should be included in your report as an appendix.

You should discuss the findings of your user survey as well as any recommendations for changes to the interface as a result of your review. You should also discuss how any suggested changes will improve the usability of the news site interface.

Rationale

This assignment covers the following learning outcomes of this subject:

• Components of human computer interaction.
• Cognitive framework - perception and representation, attention and memory constraints, knowledge and mental models, metaphors and conceptual models, social and organizational aspects, user level of expertise.
• Human interaction with input and output devices, interactive styles and their relevance to context.
• Principles of Graphic Design.
• Evaluation of User Interfaces.

Marking criteria

You also have to compare the website design with any of the following heuristic rules

You may consider the following existing heuristics:

1. Norman’s Usability guidelines
2. Tognazzini’s Principles of Interaction Design
3. Schneiderman’s golden rules
4. Selway’s Ten Principles of Simplicity