Lisa Gualtieri, PhD, ScM, Course Director
Tufts University School of Medicine
July 18, 2012
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Existing digital strategy
Goals
SWOT
Personas
Competitive analysis
Design
Content
Technology
Evaluation
New digital strategy
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• A site map depicts the layout and flow of a site
• A wireframe is a representation of a webpage or its components and is usually low-fidelity
• Wireframes provide the general page structure and content requirements: the general layout of controls, text, and graphics
• Typically visual design and precise layout are not addressed
• A site map and wireframe provide the information
architecture of a site and can be reviewed and evaluated
3

• Website of New England
Foundation for the Arts (NEFA) had grown organically, users were unable to locate crucial information. Content was focused on grant recipients over potential grant sponsors, but site needed to serve both audiences
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• Why evaluate?
• When to evaluate?
– What do you do after launch?
• How to evaluate?
– Expert reviews, heuristic and formative evaluation
• What to evaluate?
– Does the site meet the needs of first time visitors?
– Does the site meet the needs of repeat visitors?
– Does the site encourage/support active use?
– Is the site appealing, usable, and effective?

• Expert reviews are conducted by “experts” from multiple perspectives and focus on the site using the knowledge of the expert in a domain
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• Heuristic evaluations use a set of heuristics or a checklist
– Does the site meet certain usability criteria
– Does the site meet the stated purpose
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• Formative evaluation is a type of usability evaluation that helps to "form" the design for a product or service
• Purpose of formative evaluation is to obtain user feedback during the design and development stages of a project
• Feedback is generally in three areas: appeal, usability, and effectiveness at accomplishing a task
• Formative evaluation can be conducted on concepts, paper prototypes, screen mock-ups, a working prototype, or an alpha release, with the goal of using the feedback to improve the design at the earliest possible stages when the cost of making changes is lower
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• Formative evaluation has 4 steps:
– planning the sessions
– conducting the sessions
– compiling the results
– prioritizing the results from the sessions
Formative evaluation process start plan sessions review and prioritize conduct sessions issues detected compile results redesign