INLS 180: Human Information Interactions

Fall 2003 (Section 001)

Updated 18 Sept 2003: Added discussion guidelines link.
Updated 2 Sept 2003: Changed point values for assignments so they add up correctly. Added links for Team Presentation and Participation.

Your grade will be based on one-minute papers at the end of each class, three individual assignments, team-led discussions (see assignment description and discussion guidelines), a final project, and participation. There is no final exam in this course. Your final project report will be due at final exam time.

Brief descriptions of the two assignments and term project are provided below. More specific requirements and grading guidelines for each assignment will be released on this web page throughout the semester.

Points for each assignment will be added to determine total points for the semester. Final grades will be determined on the following scale:

Assignment 1: Understanding the Needs of Users

(Click here for details, guidelines, and grading)

Select and define a user population with your partner, find out as much as you can about the user group. Individually, write a brief paper summarizing and analyzing the information needs, behaviors, and barriers of your chosen population.

Assignment 2: The Structure of Information

(Click here for details, guidelines, and grading)

Find information resources about the topic you selected in assignment 1. Analyze the structure of these resources with specific attention to whether or not (and how) they meet the needs of the population you're studying.

Term Project: The Information Portal

For this project, you will combine the work performed by yourself and your partner in assignments 1 and 2 to create an information portal. The information portal will be designed specifically for the group of users you identified in assignment 1 and will provide access to the kinds of information you defined in assignment 2. Your final project will be a working portal.

Background

Merriam-Webster's online dictionary defines portal in the following ways:
"1. Door, entrance; especially a grand or imposing one. 2. The whole architectural composition surrounding and including the doorways and porches of a church. 3. The approach or entrance to a bridge or tunnel. 4. A communicating part or area of an organism; specifically, the point at which something (a pathogen) enters the body."

The Webopedia, an online encyclopedia, defines a Web portal as follows:
"commonly referred to as simply a portal, a Web site or service that offers a broad array of resources and services, such as e-mail, forums, search engines, and online shopping malls. The first Web portals were online services, such as AOL, that provided access to the Web, but by now most of the traditional search engines have transferred themselves into Web portals to attract and keep a larger audience."

For our purposes, the information portal will be defined as "an approach or entrance to networked-based resources that will communicate with, attract and keep, a specific audience of users the structure and composition of a field of knowledge or topical area."

How to Create the Portal

Start with the user population you analyzed for assignment 1 and the information structure you created for assignment 2. The portal will be created by designing a Web site that will make it possible for your users to get an overview/understanding of the content area and to be able to explore and find information there that will be of interest to them. You should consider as well the types of services such a portal should have in order to attract user interest, support user needs, and keep users coming back.

You may design the portal using any software environment you wish. If your skills and interests are technical, you may choose to create a working portal. Otherwise, you may create merely an outline and description of the portal and its services in text with sample graphics. You may create the portal using HTML and/or an editor such as Frontpage or Dreamweaver; or you may use other software.

Some examples of information portals:

• http://www.nmss.org is a portal for people who have multiple sclerosis. For an example of a site about MS that is geared to a different population, look at http://medlib.med.utah.edu/kw/ms (designed for medical students)
• http://kids.msfc.nasa.gov is a portal designed for children, to teach them about the space program.
• http://lsatc.freeservers.com is a portal designed for Texas Airedale club members, providing links and information to sources of interest.

How is a portal different from a Web site?
The difference is largely academic. The portal doesn't so much contain the information in the way the medical library site above does as much as it structures the presentation to fit the user's needs or preferences. Your portal will need to contain some information that you generate, but it will be largely to format and structure the links and services that you will provide. It may be beneficial for you to spend time looking at portals to analyze how they differ from other sites.

Your portal should include features and finding aids geared to your specific population.

The Final Products

The URL for the portal along with 3-5 page paper describing the issues you took into consideration for its design and the choices you had to make. Briefly evaluate the portal in terms of what is good about it and what falls short.

You will present your design to the class on Dec 1, 3, or 8.

Evaluation Criteria

This assignment is worth 30 points overall. The criteria for evaluation include:

• Portal: 20 points
• the appropriateness of your design for your users' needs and the content defined in Assignments 1 and 2
• your justification for the design, and your analysis of its benefits and drawbacks
• your use of techniques and theories discussed in class
• Presentation: 10 points
• the professionalism of your presentation
• your ability to explain and justify your design to a manager convincingly

Christy Adessa Wilkens