ETC5523: Communicating with Data

Assignment 3: Creating a website

Author

Michael Lydeamore

Published

15 September 2026

Objectives

  • Create your own personal website
  • Adapt your Assignment 2 report into a blog post for a clearly defined audience
  • Explain and justify your communication and visual-design decisions
  • Communicate your data story clearly in a short recorded walkthrough
Important

This is an individual assignment.

Output format

  • A published website, using Quarto
  • A recorded screen-and-voice walkthrough of the published website
  • An AI-use declaration in the repository README

Instructions

In this assessment, you will create a personal website, including information about you, and adapt your Assignment 2 report into a blog post for a clearly defined audience.

Important

You must join the Classroom50 Assignment here: https://classroom50.org/ETC5523-2026/etc5523/assignments/assignment-3/accept. If you cannot find your name in the list of students, please contact the lecturer directly before accepting the assignment.

AI-use declaration

Include a short AI-use declaration in your repository README, whether or not you used generative AI while preparing the assignment. The declaration must cover any AI assistance with planning, writing, code, CSS, analysis, figures or tables.

If you did not use generative AI, write:

Generative AI declaration: I did not use generative AI tools in preparing this assignment.

If you did use generative AI, name the tool or tools and describe the specific tasks for which you used them. For example:

Generative AI declaration: I used ChatGPT to suggest CSS alternatives and to help debug a Quarto rendering error. I checked and revised all generated code and text.

You remain responsible for understanding, checking and revising all submitted work. Do not include private, confidential or restricted material in prompts. The declaration is a submission requirement but does not attract separate marks.

Part A: The homepage (3 marks)

The template provided in GitHub classroom will set you up a basic website. Edit the _quarto.yml file to include:

  • A sensible title for your website and a link to your GitHub account (1 mark)
  • Some custom theming (2 marks):
    • Theming is subjective, but make sure to consider readability of your website. As an example, changing the default background colours sensibly could give 1 mark, and changing font colours for headings another mark.
    • You are encouraged to seek feedback on your theming before submission.
Tip

The default theming is deliberately poor!

The listing page will automatically generate, and you do not need to make any changes here.

Part B: The about page (2 marks)

In the about page (about.qmd), make the following changes:

  • Add a photo (or some representation) of you and write a short biography (1 mark)
  • Change the GitHub button to link to your GitHub, and add any other buttons of your choosing (1 mark)

For an example about page, you can see mine here

Part C: Blog post

There is an example blog post included in the template. Replace this post with one about the story that you have written for Assignment 2.

Important

Don’t just copy-paste Assignment 2 into your blog post. Blog posts use different language and features to appeal to a different audience.

Choose a clearly defined intended audience for your blog post. Add a one-sentence audience statement to the repository README so that the audience is clear to the marker. Your choices about language, information order, figures and tables should be appropriate for this audience.

The final blog post must have:

  • A title and publishing date
  • Correct author information (you)
  • The following sections:
    • Problem description
    • Analysis
    • Conclusion
  • At least one figure, with a cross-reference in text
  • At least one table, with a cross-reference in text
  • At least one academic citation

You don’t have to use these headings.

Marking rubric for Part C

Problem description (2 marks):

  • Short summary of the problem or issue, written at an appropriate level for the intended audience (2 marks)

Analysis (10 marks):

  • Source of the evidence or data used in the original article clearly identified (1 mark)
  • Findings reported in the original article clearly described in language appropriate for the intended audience (2 marks)
  • Tables and plots designed so that the intended audience can acquire the desired information efficiently (2 marks for plot, 2 marks for table)
  • Included cross-references (1 mark)
  • Discussion of the evidence links back to the questions in the problem description (2 marks)

Conclusion (5 marks):

  • Links back to the problem description (2 marks)
  • Includes academic citation (here or other section) (1 mark)
  • Summarises the findings (2 marks)

Part D: Recorded website walkthrough (8 marks)

Record an individual 4–6 minute screen-and-voice walkthrough of your published website. The published website must be visible as you navigate it and discuss your work. The recording should be a single continuous take, led by your spoken explanation rather than by text on screen. Do not submit a slide deck or a narrated set of slides in place of the website walkthrough.

Upload this recording as your assignment submission on Moodle as a video file.

Your walkthrough must:

  • identify the intended audience and introduce the problem or question;
  • explain the most important finding(s), referring to visual evidence on the published website;
  • identify and explain two specific changes you made when adapting your Assignment 2 report for the blog’s intended audience;
  • explain one design choice you made for a figure or table;
  • identify one important limitation or qualification that the audience should understand; and
  • end with a clear conclusion or implication for the audience.

Marking rubric for Part D

  • Clear, accurate explanation of the data story and its main finding(s) (2 marks)
  • Explanation of two specific adaptations and why they suit the intended audience (2 marks)
  • Explanation of one figure or table design choice (1 mark)
  • Clear explanation of an important limitation or qualification (1 mark)
  • Logical navigation and clear, concise verbal delivery within the time limit (2 marks)

Part E: Technical work

Publish your website using GitHub pages.

The website must be publicly accessible from a URL - the default URL is perfectly fine.

To do this, you will need to:

  • Set up Pages on your Classroom repository
  • Change the visibility of your repository to Public
  • Publish your website using either quarto publish or by having the site directory as part of your repo

Marking rubric for Part E

  • Working link (1 mark)
  • Pages set up correctly, with the website HTML files correctly under version control (1 mark)

Maximum grade: 3 + 2 + 17 + 8 + 2 = 32 marks