Overview & Approach

Olivia Burd

Information Architecture

Dr. Kerr

February 17, 2025

Week 4 Assignment: Approach and Overview

Overview

A website about how investigative journalism has affected the world of true crime is beneficial to a wide variety of users. The information shared within the website could be of interest to true crime finatics, individuals who are looking at a career in investigative journalism, and people who hold positions of power and authority. Taking a deeper look into how cases were solved through investigative journalism will provide true crime finatics with information on well-known cases that they might not have previously known. It will give potential investigative journalists the opportunity to see what the job purpose is and how it impacts criminal cases. Lastly, authoritative figures could discover new ways and strategies to solve crime, and examples of how others have used journalism to their benefit.

A crucial aspect of this website and measuring its success comes down to task completion rates and user feedback. Both of these measurements will be shown through the comment section on the website. When discussing such topics like true crime, great discussions are usually happening simultaneously, but the comments can also be a way to gauge website success. If it seems like the reader has a grasp on the information being shared on the website, then there comments will show the task completion rates. As like most websites, commenters usually share their experiences and opinions on the site and the information that it provides. This gives us, as the creators of the site, a sense of user feedback.

Approach

For this website, the best, seemingly most effective, approaches are the agile approach and the Lean UX approach. The agile approach allows for the website to adjust as we receive feedback and comments from the users themselves. The Lean UX approach also adds to the potential website success because of its focus on refining based on real data.

Both approaches allow users to identify and share where they feel there are gaps in the information provided; being able to quickly adjust and add necessary information is what will make the website beneficial and successful. Much like the collaboration that happens between investigative journalists and individuals who seek justice, the interaction between users and website creators is just as important. Continuous reading of the comments on the website allows collaboration with the users in order to create the best possible website. This collaboration will help to increase the task completion rate, mentioned previously, as well.

A combination of these two approaches are best suited for this website because it allows for the users to get the most out of Justice Unveiled in the easiest, most efficient way possible that will stay up-to-date.