Please Note: This scenario is very general in that the user's goal is simply to browse information on the CS 3604 Home Page. Other, more specific, scenarios are provided for the CS 3604 Internal Pages and On-Line Debate Tool in other sections of the current on-line information resource.The AnalysisSomeone who has never been to, or is unfamiliar with, the CS 3604 web site wants to determine what information is available through the Home Page. This user could be a new student enrolled in the CS 3604 course, someone else affiliated with Virginia Tech, or someone who happens to find this home page during a search of the web.
Looking at the home page, the user sees a brief description of the Professionalism in Computing access page and is provided with an introduction to the purpose of the CS 3604 web site. In the introductory paragraph, the user sees a link entitled "We welcome your comments" which allows the user to send an email message to the primary instructor of the Professionalism in Computing course (i.e., Dr. J. A. N. Lee). Next, the user sees two large links entitled "Professionalism Home Pages" and "Careers Home Page." From reading the introductory paragraph provided above these links, the user realizes that these links lead to information related to the two parts of the CS 3604 course (i.e., professionalism and careers). Before clicking on either of these two links, the user scrolls down the page and sees that it is divided into five sections: 1) the Professionalism in Computing introduction with the "We welcome you comments," "Professionalism Home Pages," and "Careers Home Page" links, 2) an introduction to the On-Line Debate Tool provided to CS 3604 students which has a "click here" link, 3) an acknowledgment section with links entitled "Department of Computer Science at Virginia Tech," "National Science Foundation," and "CDA-9312611," 4) a section entitled "Your Help Is Sought" containing links entitled "directory" and "please drop me a note," and 5) a section providing guidelines to individuals at other institutions that may be interested in utilizing portions of the CS 3604 web pages for their own purposes; this final section of the Home Page includes links entitled "drop us a note" and "janlee@cs.vt.edu" which may be used to submit comments, suggestions, and/or contributions to Dr. Lee. At the very end of the CS 3604 Home Page, the date of the last page update is presented, and another link enabling the user to send email to Dr. J. A. N. Lee is provided.
Scrolling back to the top of the Home Page, the user clicks on the "Professionalism Home Pages" link and is taken to a page entitled "CS 3604 Professionalism in Computing." The user scrolls through this page and sees an introduction to this portion of the CS 3604 course, a link to the careers portion of the course, a table of contents containing various links, a warning to students thinking about taking the course, a list of links to other institutions and organizations having related information, a list of links providing local information, links to Virginia Tech's Home Page and the Department of Computer Science's Home Page, and several links to Dr. Lee's email address. The user wishes to return to the CS 3604 Home Page but notices that there is no link back to the Home Page. Therefore, the user clicks the "Back" button on the web browser to perform this action.
Next, the user clicks on the "Careers Home Page" link and is taken to a page entitled "CS 3604: Professionalism in Computing - Part II Career Seminar Hour, Fall 1997." Scrolling down this page, the user sees general information about the course instructor, teaching assistant, class meeting times, purpose of the course, assignments and grading, a class calendar, and information regarding interviewing, service learning, and career opportunities. Wishing to return to the CS 3604 Home Page, the user clicks on the "Back to 3604 Main Page" link located at the very bottom of the "CS 3604: Professionalism in Computing - Part II Career Seminar Hour, Fall 1997" page.
Next, the user wants to view the results of a sample debate and clicks on the "click here" link located in the On-Line Debates section of the Home Page. This action takes the user to a page entitled "Index of Application." This page presents the user with a series of links to debates from various semesters, which allow both restricted and public access, and a series of links to "other discussion areas." At the very bottom of this page, the user sees four links entitled "Edit this page," "Add new application," "Edit users & groups," and "Edit your account info." Rather than viewing a public access debate, the user wishes to return to the CS 3604 Home Page. Since there is no link back to the Home Page, the user clicks the "Back" button on the web browser to perform this action.
Next, the user clicks on each of the links located in the acknowledgment section of the Home Page returning to the Home Page each time by using the "Back" button provided by the web browser. Wishing to primarily investigate the information available at the CS 3604 web site, the user continues down the CS 3604 Home Page and clicks on the "directory" link located in the "Your Help Is Sought" section. This action takes the user to a page entitled "Index of /~cs3604/lib/Schools/" which contains a series of links to items such as "Parent Directory," "ReadMe.html," and "assignments.html." Since there is no scroll bar located on this page and no visible link back to the CS 3604 Home Page, the user clicks the "Back" button provided by the web browser to return to the CS 3604 Home Page. Since the user does not wish to send an email message to Dr. Lee, he/she concludes that this web site primarily provides information required by students enrolled in the CS 3604 course; however, the user also makes note of the fact that many outside references and related information of interest to other individuals are provided as well.
Introductory Paragraphs
Provide users with relevant information which can help with understanding as well as navigation.
But users may perceive this information as being irrelevant, too time consuming to read, or as taking up too much space on a page being searched for specific information.Sections Delineated with Horizontal Lines
Promote ease of navigation by "breaking-up" large sources of information into more manageable components.
Provides users with an outline of the information covered within a given resource.
But users may not realize the depth of information provided in each of the sections delineated by breaks.Email Capabilities
Enable users to ask and receive answers to specific questions.
Promote the level of interaction that users have with a web site.
But users may get frustrated if a reasonable request made via email is not acknowledged.Separation of Professionalism and Careers Home Pages
Promotes ease of navigation by separating two of the primary sources of information provided by the web site.
Alerts users to the fact that the CS 3604 course is comprised of two components.
But users may not find the information they are looking for if they fail to search through both of these sections."click here" link in On-Line Debates Section
Allows users to access the On-Line Debate Tool from the Home Page.
But this link is not obvious and may be easily overlooked.Outside Links
Provide users with additional sources of information.
But users may be overwhelmed by the amount of information made available to them.
But links to other web sites may be slow to provide the desired information.
But users may not realize that clicking on such links will take them away from the current web site.
Names of links may not be descriptive of the information that they lead to.Table of Contents, Directories, and Indices
Provide users with outlines of information available within certain portions of the web site.
Promotes ease of navigation by providing an overview of available information.
But may overwhelm users with information."Back to 3604 Main Page" link
Allows users to return to the Home Page without having to use a web browser's "Back" button.
Promotes ease of navigation because users know exactly which portion of the web site they are returning "back" to.
But may requires too much space on the page.Restricted vs. Public Access to Debates
Enables users to realize that some sort of user identification is required to access certain information.
Allows users without any CS 3604 affiliation to view sample debate results.
But users without the appropriate user identification information may be frustrated by the fact that they cannot access all of the information available on the
web site.Links with Restricted Access
Enables users to realize that some sort of user identification is required to access certain information.
But users without the appropriate user identification information may be frustrated by the fact that they cannot access all of the information available on the web site.Vertical Lists of Links
Lists of information are familiar and support browsing.
But long lists may require excessive scrolling.
But long lists may overwhelm the user with information.Date of Last Page Update
Allows user to determine how current the information provided by the web site is.
But users may fail to find relevant information if they do not browse the site because the last page update has not occurred within the very recent past.