Web Designer / Client Communication: An in-situ development and evaluation of tools and methods to support the collaborative design of interactive technologies

Abstract

The web design industry is a modern and emerging service-oriented field that focuses on the design, development and marketing of web sites, applications and media. These services are most commonly used by small to medium enterprises A multi-staged approach is taken to address this question: understanding current practices through contextual interviews and participant observational studies and the incremental design and development of a middleware platform to facilitate the creation of new communication tools. The platform enables communication tools to build on the knowledge and processes contained within existing channels of communication, rather than attempting to replace them. The findings from these studies are synthesised to yield a set of design challenges that have been identified, and embodied within a visual representation known as the Designer-Client Communication Tool Canvas. The canvas serves two purposes: it is an encapsulation of the problems that tool designers face in creating tools for this context, and it is a guide for these tools designers to assist them in understanding the context for which they are designing.There are a number of contributions that this research makes to the fields of CSCW and HCI. This research provides an insight into the ways in which designers and clients interact within the web design industry. Additionally, it analyses the scope of tools that are available which are either aimed at supporting this work, or tools which are already in use within the web design context. This research highlights a number Colthorpe, K., Zimbardi, K., Dekker, A., Hay, P., Engstrom, C., Bugarcic, A., ... & Worthy, P. (2013). Enhancing feedback provision and use to promote learning through assessment. In 36th HERDSA Annual Conference.Dekker, A., Zimbardi, K., Long, P., Hay, P., Engstrom, C., Bugarcic, A., ... & Worthy, P. (2012, November). Examining the use of in-situ audio annotations to provide feedback to students. In SoLAR Southern Flare Conference.Colthorpe, K., Dekker, A., Zimbardi, K., Long, P., Lluka, L. J., Chuduri, P., ... & Marrington, J. (2012). UQMarkUP: effective feedback and consistent assessment for large cohorts with e-learning enabled 'in situ'commenting. In 2nd Annual CUBEnet Forum.Bodén, M., Dekker, A., & Viller, S. (2011, November). Discovery table exploring Conducted data gathering (100%)Wrote and edited paper (100%) viii Contributions by others to the thesisThe thesis was composed entirely of writing conducted by myself, and any contributions by others form quotes that are referenced. The work documented in Chapter 3.5 and 3.6 were a collaborative effort between myself, Peter Worthy (Chapter 3.5) and Skye Doherty (Chapter 3.6), and contributions are highlighted specifically in these sections. Statement of parts of the thesis submitted to qualify for the award of another degree None ix AcknowledgementsOver the many years of conducting this research, I have gathered a large number of people who I wish to say thanks to. Stephen, without your help, this research would...