Demographic
The demographic for the website is broad, but the site mostly pertains to teaching, so we'll start with the people being taught. A student is typically between 5 and 30, of any gender, from any location in the world, and from any socio-economic background, but tending towards the low-middle class. Students are a very broad demographic, but are mostly accessing the site for a single reason: help with schoolwork. This might involve something simple, like double-checking homework; for this, graphs and alternate forms of equations might be useful. But a student newly learning a particular topic might not be familiar with all of its concepts and would need verbose textual and graphical explanations as well as examples and exercises, and even a place to discuss the subject if they need help. They might also be unfamiliar with some of the symbols, so a list of commonly used symbols and their meaning and use would also aid. Also, older students would tend towards more advanced subjects, so the writing style of explanations should reflect that.Then there are the teachers; they're aged 25+, and are towards the middle of the socio-economic spectrum. Teachers, like their students, would typically access the site for help with schoolwork. They might be checking the forums for whether students are cheating, checking a student's working, or checking the working of their lecture slides. A teacher is typically familiar with their field and wouldn't need much help in that regard, however students may have misplaced or misused some symbol, so as before, some sort of symbol lookup-list would be helpful.
There are also the parents of the students; they're aged 18-60, of either gender, and their socio-economic background is similar to their children's. A parent would also be accessing the site for help with schoolwork; mostly when they're unsure of some homework question and looking at the website with their child. It's likely that the parent will already be familiar with the more simple material, so it's probable that they're only needing information on more advanced material which they've yet to learn, or a reminder of material which they have covered, but have forgotten.
There's also professionals; ex-students who've chosen a career in mathematics. They're 20+, towards the higher end of the socio-economic spectrum, and typically male. They're likely very familiar with their field and are merely double-checking their work, or helping others on the forums. Having said this, it might have been a long time since their education, and they may need to be refreshed on subjects with which they're unfamiliar; as it's only a refresher, it would be preferable for the explanations to be short but informative.
Finally, there's the general public; they don't fit into any particular demographic, and each member of the public has their own skill level and use for the website. One of the most likely reasons for them visiting the site is for help with some every-day task, such as counting interest on their bank loan, in which case there should be simple results, with plenty of graphics. They could also be researching some topic of interest; if they are, they'll likely be in an inquisitive mood, so explanations should be short and simple, with links to other related, or even unrelated subjects.
Blueprint
The 'Search' function will check whether the search terms are in a mathematical format; if they are, the results will be generated from the 'Calculate' section, and the equation (and alternate forms) will be searched for in threads and tutorials. Otherwise, it'll use index terms to find tutorials pertinent to the general subject of the search. The 'Random' link takes the user to a random tutorial. The 'Calculate' area of the site allows for input and returns graphs and alternate forms of equations. It also links to pertinent threads and tutorials by searching for the equation in alternate forms. The 'About Us' and 'Home Page' pages are static and don't necessarily link to the other sections, apart from via the navigation bar.
The 'How-to' area of the site provides tutorials. It's contextual, as it might link to other tutorials within its explanation, and related tutorials and threads will be advertised. Also, some of the explanations will redirect to the 'Calculate' area, for the results of equations and graphs and such. Within the 'Forum' section, users will have discussions on math-based subjects; users may create new threads, or even add new subjects, so the 'Forum' section of the site is bottom-up. Users may link to other sections within a thread, and other threads and tutorials are advertised based on context.
The website is bottom-up, as new content is added by users as required. The global navigation system acts to separate the different sections of the site, and the current section will be highlighted in the nav-bar to provide locational context. It's expected that a user will spend an equal amount of time in each section as pages inter-link between sections; having said this, each page belongs to a single section, so the website is mono-hierarchical.
Wireframes
Now let's look through some of the different sections of the website:Home Page
Calculate
Search
How-to
Once you've found a tutorial, there'll be an article explaining the subject, as well as some graphs generated by the 'Calculate' section and any other links the author might include. Some related tutorials and threads will also be displayed at the bottom of the page to provide further reading on the subject.Controlled Vocabulary
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Accepted Term |
Variant Terms |
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Tutorial |
How-to Lesson Teach Guide Instruction Direction |
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Mathematics |
Math Maths |
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Forum |
Thread Board Discussion Congregation |
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Calculate |
Evaluate Equal Graph Equate Result |
