Information architecture

Assignment Two
Please submit this assignment by midnight of the due day as indicated in Table 3 of the course syllabus. 
All students need to work on the following TWOquestions.
Question 1 (55 points):
Suppose that the College of Information at the UNT is in aprocess of redesigning its website. You have been assigned the task of designing the new website and would need to lead the research phase.
1.1 (25 points):
What methods would you use to try to understand users’ needs of the site? Please pick 2 methods that you think are the most appropriate and discuss the following aspects for each method individually:
1.1.1. The reason behind selecting this method1.1.2. The method definition and capabilities1.1.3. The method advantages and disadvantages.1.2 (30 points)  
Conduct a benchmarking exercise (i.e. competitive analysis) by comparing the College of Business website (https://cob.unt.edu/) with:
College of Business at University of Texas-Arlington (https://www.uta.edu/business/)
To conduct the benchmarking analysis:
1. Visit the websites and try to recognize the elements of the information architecture behind each one.2. Use Chapter 10 of Brown’s book and follow a similar approach used in it (i.e. a scanned copy of this chapter is attached in the assignment folder)3. Compare the labeling system, organization system, search system, and navigation system of the selected websites.
Question 2 (45 points):
In this question, you will conduct a card sorting exercise using OptimalSort application and a list of cards that you can find in the attached excel sheet. Please refer to The Manual of Using OptimalSort in this Assignment 2 folder to see the step-by-step guidance. 
1. Register for a free account at OptimalSort website: https://www.optimalworkshop.com/register2. Start a new study and insert your cards. You can enter the cards individually or import the excel sheet. See the screenshot below for more clarifications.

3. After inserting your cards, configure your survey by selecting an open sort type and inserting a welcome message.4. Define your participants. The free version of OptimalSort enables you to select up to 10 participants. In this exercise, select 5.5. Conduct data analysis and provide the following diagrams:a. Number of participantsb. Average groups participants sorted the cards into c. Average time taken for participants to complete the sorting activities d. What is the new site/application structure you would like to propose? Please include the normalized categories and corresponding sub-categories in your proposal. e. Use at least two visualization approaches to verify the new site structure you proposed (e.g., similarity matrix, standardization grid, and dendrograms) 6. Verify your answers with screenshots and annotations to explain the website/application design. 7. Organize your answer by exploring the steps 1-6. You need to provide a screenshot for each expected result. 
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