?Frequently Asked Questions?

Here are some questions that are asked:

1.  Who are your expected users and what are the demographics for them (age, number, gender, income, career, geographic region,…especially the ones that are important to your expected users)?

Demographics

 ·        Male/Female

·        Ranging in age 16-50 years old

·        Earning approximately $30,000 and up

·        No cultural or ethnic preference

·        Computer access

Our expected viewer is either male or female.  They range in age from 16-50.   Our visitor is someone that is in the workforce or who can afford to travel and vacation. This site is intended to give information to visitors about popular beach locations on the islands, specifically the island of Oahu.  There are a number of beach activities one can engage in while visiting the islands.  Our website was concerned specifically with surfing.  Our visitor can be either from the mainland or from another country.  The intent of the website is to gain viewers whom are interested in visiting the islands, visiting our beaches, and/or doing some surfing.  We assume for the sake of safety that our visitor is a beginner.  Most beginners start off surfing easy waves that may be found at Waikiki Beach.  Because our visitor is a beginner, we thought it would be ideal for them to be able to receive surf lessons.  Our site has an active link to another website that offers information on obtaining surf lessons.  We believe that in all activities safety is of utmost importance so we have included a page with important safety precautions.  It is recommended that visitors be in average or better health condition and understand basic water safety rules.

2.  Define the benefits you expect for your users.

Intended benefits for user

 ·        Gain knowledge of Hawaii’s beaches

·        Surfing information and lessons

·        Specific focus on Waikiki Beach  -- safest environment for beginning surfer

·        Ocean safety information (water warning signs, do’s and don’ts, local surf spots)

·        Daily surf/water condition (link to site)

·        Surf report (link to site)

·        Beach amenities

Upon visiting our site our user will benefit in a number of ways.  Our visitor will gain knowledge of some popular beach locations in the Hawaiian Islands, specifically Oahu.  They will be able to choose from a number of popular beaches on the island of Oahu in which they can receive information on surfing.  We chose to focus our viewer’s attention towards Waikiki Beach.  It offered the safest environment for the beginner surfer.  Our visitor will benefit from a wealth of information about Waikiki Beach and safety precautions about the ocean.  The daily surf/water conditions are listed for our viewer to access.  A link to the surf report is given to obtain the latest surf conditions on the island.  Some important warning signs are given to inform our visitor of possible hazards that could be present when visiting Waikiki beach.  We dedicated a page from our site to inform our visitor of safety precautions about the ocean.  Our user will benefit from a list of amenities that are available at the various different beaches.

3.  Develop a user scenario and storyboard (defined below).

Our original user scenario:

When you get to our website you will see a picture of all the islands.  Each of the islands will have flags on them to symbolize locations where beaches exist.  You click on one of the flags and you go to our next page, which is the actual beach.  When you click on a beach a bunch of information will be available.

It goes like this:

I click on a flag

I go to the next page and the flag that I clicked on tells me which beach it is.

While on this page I am open to browse.

I find that there is a lot of information:

1. A map to the beach.
2. Conditions at the beach (jelly fish warnings, high surf, high tide times, etc.)
3. Times of operation for the beach
4. If there is guided tours to the beach
5. What beach activities are available (surfing, snorkeling, scuba, etc.)?
6. Restrooms located at beach

Modified Version of user Scenario:

We have a picture of the Islands but there are no flags on them.  We couldn’t fit that big an image to fulfill the requirement of this project.  When you click on an Island the map of the island appears which contains the names of popular beaches located on that island.  In our case the island we chose was Oahu.  There is a listing of beaches on Oahu along with a brief description of the beaches.  On this page there is a chart of amenities that are at the beaches (amenities: restrooms, lifeguard, phones, food etc.).  When you click on a beach it takes you to the next page.  It is a page about the beach you chose.  In this case it is Waikiki beach.  On this page is information about ocean conditions at that beach on that specific day, a link for the surf report, and a link for surf lessons available.  Our final page is dedicated to safety precautions that should be practiced at every beach on the islands.  On this page are precautionary signs that a visitor might see at the beach.  The signs offer precautionary warnings of conditions that may be present at the beach of choice.  There is an important list of do’s and don’ts that should be followed when engaging in ocean sports and activities. 

4.  What IT features/systems do you need to support your Information System?

The IT features we would need would be an Internet service provider and a URL for our website.  We need an ISP so we can view our own site as well as other sites so we can update our information.  The ISP will host our website.  We need a URL because we need an address for our website.  Because our website is only informative we do not need any additional web hosting for selling products.