DENIM: Finding a Tighter Fit Between Tools and Practice for Web Site Design
& The NetRaker Suite of Web Site Usability and Market Research Tools

Prof. James Landay
EECS Dept., CS Division
UC Berkeley

Through a study of web site design practice, we observed that web site designers design sites at different levels of refinement—site map, storyboard, and individual page—and that designers sketch at all levels during the early stages of design. However, existing web design tools do not support these tasks very well. Informed by these observations, we created DENIM, a system that helps web site designers in the early stages of design. DENIM supports sketching input, allows design at different refinement levels, and unifies the levels through zooming. We performed an informal evaluation with seven professional designers and found that they reacted positively to the concept and were interested in using such a system in their work.

We will demonstrate the DENIM system and follow-up this talk with a brief discussion of how to assess web site usability once a prototype or production site has been put into place. We will give an overview of NetRaker. NetRaker offers the first truly integrated suite of web site usability and market research tools. Designed to measure web site impact from the customer's perspective, NetRaker offers easy-to-use intelligence tools to track web site marketing, usability and performance for every company doing business on the Web.