Tentative Schedule (Fall 2015)
*Class
time: Tuesdays 1:00-3:50 pm
*Class location: Rutherford South 3-01 (and 2-03 for Labs)
*Full citation of books frequently referred to on this page
*Class location: Rutherford South 3-01 (and 2-03 for Labs)
*Full citation of books frequently referred to on this page
- Krug, Steve. 2013. Don't Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability. 3rd edition. New Riders Press. (ebook access through U of A library)
- Morville, Peter and Louis Rosenfeld. 2006. Information architecture for the world wide web. 3rd edition. O'Reilly Media.
- Nielsen, Jakob. 2000. Designing web usability: The practice of simplicity. Indianapolis: New Riders Publishing. (ebook access through U of A libraries)
- Nielsen, Jakob, and Hoa Loranger. 2006. Prioritizing Web usability. Berkeley, CA: New Riders. (ebook access through U of A libraries)
September 1
- Introduction to the course
- Readings:
- Course syllabus (i.e., Outline
and Assignments) - RR
- Tutorials: Internet basics - RR
- HTML text editors: Brackets
(Mac), Notepad++ (Windows)
September 8
- Introduction to information architecture and Web usability; Process of Web development
- Readings:
- Morville & Rosenfeld - Foreword, Preface, and chapters 1 & 2 - RR
- Nielsen, J. Usability 101: Introduction to Usability - RR
- Lynch & Horton, Web Style Guide - chapter 1: Process - RR
- Baehr, Craig M. 2007. Web development: A visual-spatial approach. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. - chapters 1 & 2 - SR
- Tutorials: w3schools HTML tutorial (Introduction - Comments; Color Names, Values and Shades) - RR
September 15
- Information behaviour & the web
- Readings:
- Morville & Rosenfeld - chapters 3 & 10 - RR
- Krug - chapters 1 & 2 - RR
- Nielsen & Loranger - chapter 2 - SR
- Nielsen, J. (2013). Seniors
as Web Users - SR
- Nielsen, J. (2010). Children's Websites: Usability Issues in Designing for Kids. - SR
- Best Practices for Designing Usable Websites for Kids. - SR
- Loranger, H., & Nielsen, J. (2013). Teenage Usability: Designing Teen-Targeted Websites. - SR
- Nielsen, J. (2010). College Students on the Web. - SR
- Hsieh-Yee, I. (2001).
Research on web search behavior. Library & Information Science Research 23: 167-185. - Wilson, T.D. (2000). Human information behavior. Information Science Research 3(2)
- Nielsen, J. (2006). 100 million websites - SR
- Tutorials: w3schools HTML tutorial (Links - Blocks) - RR
September 22
- Content design and organization systems; Copyright issues
- Readings:
- Morville & Rosenfeld - chapters 4 & 5 - RR
- Noel, Wanda. 1999. Copyright on the Internet & FAQ. In Copyright guide for Canadian libraries, 47-64. Ottawa: Canadian Library Association. KF 2995 N66 1999 (Rutherford North -Reserve) - SR
- Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIPP) - SR
- University of Alberta Privacy Policy - SR
- Tutorials
- w3schools HTML tutorial (Styles, CSS, Classes) - RR
- w3schools CSS tutorial (Introduction - Links) - RR
- Assignment due: Usability by example 1 - Organization systems
September 29
- Labeling systems; Writing for the Web
- Readings:
- Morville & Rosenfeld - chapter 6 - RR
- Krug - chapter 5 - RR
- Nielsen & Loranger - chapter 8 - SR
- Nielsen, J. Writing for the Web (Research on how users read on the Web and how authors should write their Web pages). - SR
- Kupersmith, J. (2012). Library terms that users understand. - SR
- Tutorials
- w3schools HTML tutorial (HTML Forms) - RR
- w3schools CSS tutorial (Lists - Tables) - RR
- Assignment due: Usability by example 2 - Labeling systems; writing for the Web
October 6
- Navigation design; Search systems
- Readings
- Morville & Rosenfeld - chapters 7 & 8 - RR
- Krug - chapter 6 - RR
- Nielsen, J. (2007). Breadcrumb Navigation Increasingly Useful. - RR
- 25
Modern Navigation Solutions: Unique Designs & Awesome Effects -
SR
- Nielsen & Loranger - chapter 6 - SR
- Morville & Rosenfeld - chapter 12 - SR
- Nielsen, Jakob. Top 10 Mistakes in Web Design - SR (If you wish, also check out the links under "Other Top-10 Lists" on this page, especially the 2005 one.)
- Tutorials
- w3schools HTML tutorial (Layout, Head) - RR
- w3schools CSS tutorial (Box Model - Dimension) - RR
- Assignment due: Usability by example 3 - Navigation systems
October 13
- Homepage design; Page design; Multimedia
- Readings:
- Krug - chapters 3, 4, & 7 - RR
- Nielsen, Jakob. Top 10 Guidelines for Homepage Usability. - RR
- Nielsen & Loranger - chapters 7, 10, & 11 - SR
- 10 Web Design Rules That You Can Break (for class discussion) - RR
- What
Does Your Website’s Color Scheme Reveal About You? - SR
- Nielsen, J. (2010). Scrolling and Attention
- Nielsen, J. (2007). Fancy Formatting, Fancy Words = Looks Like a Promotion = Ignored. Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox - SR
- Nielsen, Jakob. Let Users Control Font Size - SR
- Nielsen, Jakob. F-Shaped Pattern For Reading Web Content - SR
- Nielsen, Jakob. 10 Good Deeds in Web Design - SR
- Tutorials
- w3schools CSS tutorial (Display - Combinators) - RR
- Assignment due: Usability by example 4 - Page design; Homepage design
October 20
- Web usability evaluation & testing
- Readings:
- Krug - chapters 8 & 9 - RR
- Nielsen, J. How to Conduct a Heuristic Evaluation - RR
- Princeton University Library Website redesign project - SR
- Nielsen, J. Summary of Usability Inspection Methods - SR
- Nielsen, J. (2009). Discount Usability: 20 Years - SR
- Nielsen, J. (2009). Anybody Can Do Usability - SR
- Norlin, Elaina, and CM! Winters. 2002. Usability testing for library web sites. Chicago: American Library Association. Chapters 1, 4 & 5: 1-9; 24-30; 31-48. Z 674.75 W67 2002 (Rutherford N) - SR
- Campbell, Nicole [ed]. 2001. Usability assessment of library-related web sites: Methods and case studies. Chicago: American Library Association. Chapters 1, 2 & 3: 1-29. Z 674.75 W67 U83 2001 (Rutherford N) - SR
- Tutorials
- w3schools CSS tutorial (Navigation Bar; ImageGallery) - RR
- w3schools CSS tutorial (Pseudo-class - Attr Selectors) - SR
- Zen Garden - The Beauty of CSS Design - SR
- Assignment Due: Website design and construction Part 1
October 27
- Designing websites for mobile devices
- Readings:
- Krug - chapter 10 - RR
- The Smashing Editorial. 2012. Guidelines For Mobile Web Development (pick those articles that are not too technical, and focus on mobile websites instead of apps) - RR
- 7 usability guidelines for websites on mobile devices - RR
- 2 Indispensable Elements of Excellent Mobile Responsive Design - RR
- Mobile Responsive Design: The Flexible Grid - SR
- How to Make Your Website Respond to Different Mobile Devices - SR
- Nielsen, J. (2012). Mobile Site vs. Full Site - SR
- Nielsen, J. (2012). Repurposing vs. Optimized Design - SR
- Lawson, Bruce. 2012. Why We Shouldn’t Make Separate Mobile Websites - SR
- W3C Mobile Web Best Practices - SR
- RALUCA BUDIU. (2015). The State of Mobile User Experience - SR
- Tutorials
- w3schools HTML tutorial (HTML5 Intro, Semantics, Video, Audio) - RR
- W3C Markup Validation service - SR
- Assignment due: Usability by example 5 - Designing websites for mobile devices
November 3
- Accessibility for users with disabilities; Web standards & policies
- Readings:
- Krug - chapters 11, 12, & 13 - RR
- W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (dig through this site) - RR
- World Wide Web Consortium. Leading the web to its full potential. (Dig through this site) - RR
- Nielsen - chapter 6 (ebook access through U of A libraries) - SR
- Nielsen, J. (2005). Accessibility Is Not Enough , Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox - SR
- Accessibility testing tools (Cynthia Says, Total Validator)
- Zeldman, Jeffrey. 2007. Designing with Web standards. Berkeley, CA: New Riders. (ebook access through U of A libraries) - SR
- Web Standards Project. 2001. Fighting for standards in our browsers.(Dig through this site) - SR
- Tutorials
- w3schools CSS tutorial (CSS3 Introduction, Rounded Corners, Multiple columns) - RR
- W3C CSS Validation Service - SR
- Assignment due: Usability by example 6 - Accessibility for users with disabilities
November 10
- No Class – Fall Term Reading Week
- Assignment due: Website evaluation assignment
November 17
- Global audiences
- Readings:
- Nielsen - chapter 7 (ebook access through U of A libraries) - RR
- Jennifer Kyrnin. Writing Websites for a Global Audience. - RR
- Marcus, Aaron. (2003). Are You Cultured? - RR
- Nielsen, J. (2005). International Sites: Minimum Requirements. - SR
- Charles Mburugu. Designing a Website for a Global Audience – Factors to Consider. - SR
- Assignment due: Usability by example 7 - Global audiences
November 24
- Metadata and Search engines – will they find you?
- Readings:
- Dillon, Martin. (2001). Metadata for web resources: How metadata works on the Web - RR
- Sullivan, D. (2002). How To Use HTML Meta Tags - RR
- Editor-Converter Dublin Core metadata - RR
- Espadas, J., etc. (2008). Web site visibility evaluation. JASIST, 59(11), 1727-1742. (E-journal access through U of A libraries). - SR
- KYV (Know Your Visibility) - a tool for evaluating the visibility of your websites - SR
- Lab: Metadata - RR
December 1
- Web design software; Web Content Management Systems; Website trends
- Readings:
- Wikipedia article on Web content management systems - RR
- Wikipedia
article on HTML editors - SR
- Drupal - an open source content management system - SR
- Showcase: Funky And Experimental Websites - SR
- 15 website Trends for 2015 - RR
- 14 website Trends for 2014 - SR
- Assignment Due: Website design and construction Part 2
