Advice About Progress Reports

Between the end of October and the beginning of December, every group will do an in-class progress report. While these sessions are not critiques in the traditional, studio-art sense, they do offer an opportunity to gain candid feedback and present design problems to the class.

For a couple of important reasons, it makes little sense to spell out requirements for this task. For one thing, your performance is not part of your grade; for another, groups who present later have more time to work. All that said, though, here are some guidelines.

• You should be able to explain the information architecture of your project, meaning at minimum the nature of component pages and the general outline of your navigation system.



• You should be able to discuss the intended reader (or user) experience in your project: what will people get out of it; what will be their first impressions; in what ways will they circulate through your pages?



• You should be prepared to talk about your editorial approach to your content: what you consider important, what positions you take on key issues, and how these positions might differ from reasonably opposing positions.



• You may discuss graphic design issues such as colors, fonts, and layout, but content should come first.



• Every group should have some body of writing to show, and you may ask class members to review this writing in advance of your presentation. Groups who go later in the term should aim to have more writing ready than those who go first. Groups 4-6 should have multiple pieces ready.



• You may present specific questions to the class for discussion.