Final site report

The Hobbit: An overview

Purpose This website provides an overview of the book. It is not an archive, but a basic review of important elements. Those who are familiar with the book and want a quick refresher will find this site useful. Design I took the most prominent features of the book and split them into five categories, one category per page. In the left column I described the element, and across from it in the right column I placed examples ­ a drawing and/or a quote from the book. Ideally, the left column works as an explanation, and the right as an illustration. Decisions Mostly I had to decide to cut things from the site. Originally, I had planned to put a Tolkien biography on the homepage. However, I had trouble finding a space for it. When researching Tolkien, I found a web site that said exactly what I wanted to say. I solved the space problem by simply linking to that site. I had also planned on links to booksellers, but after searching for Tolkien information and coming up almost entirely with commercial sites, I decided that potential visitors would have no trouble buying the book (and that barnesandnoble and amazon did not need my help to advertise). While writing the text, I remembered some important creatures I'd left out of the original plan. I added them accordingly. Problems My biggest problem was translating the ideas in my head and on paper to the computer screen. For example, I had a title graphic planned, drawn out, and scanned. However, I could not manipulate the image as I wanted. Seeing it would take hours to be satisfied, I scrapped the graphic altogether and went with plain text. It is functional (although a bit dull). I also had some trouble getting the information in my columns to line up properly in the browser. I did not discover this until late in the project, and I'm still not sure the problem is completely fixed. Usability testing I did one usability test with the following tasks: 1. Find how the dragon is defeated. 2.Find a description of a hobbit. 3. Find a Tolkien biography. 4. Find a picture of Gandalf. All of the tasks were performed readily, except for finding the Tolkien biography. It took the tester two extra clicks to find the biography. He did not start from the home page for that task, however, and once he went to the home page, he found it readily. I made no changes from the usability testing.

Copyright © 2001 Sarah Roley
Questions and comments to sarahroley@hotmail.com
Last modified Friday, March 9, 2001