Thursday, February 12, 2009

My Research

In my final project, I am trying to design a website to help Chinese students who have a plan to study abroad deal with a series of troublesome matters by themselves, such as, how to apply for offer and how to get Visa and so on. The aim of my website is supplying plenty of useful and specific information including both life and study to future students. I am looking for some specific data, such as, how many Chinese students study abroad per year, how fast the number of students study abroad grow? I think it can enhance my project's feasibility.

I plan to use the method "UCD"--"user-centred design".

At the beginning, I have interviews with future students who are studying English in English language centre in UL. Because they will enter our university to study and I think it is very difficult to interview students in China. In this process, I think I can get large amount of need of users. I am thinking that whether I contact with the leader of language centre and ask some questions.

After getting this information, I begin to make my website. In this step, I want to use some useful software, for example, Dreamweaver, Flash, Photoshop and 3D Max and so on. Now I am improving these skills.

Next, I invite students who are also in language centre to test my website and tell me the advantages and disadvantages. According to their feedback, I repair my website. And then, I invite them to test it again.

At last, after the circle design, I hope my website is effective and efficient. Users can get information that they want and satisfaction. Actually, I hope that current students in language centre use my website to apply for our university. If this dream comes true, I want to talk with the leaders of International Office and discuss that whether can my website put in our university?