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Intro to Design and Usability
Intro to Design and Usability
After college, where I majored in Graphic Communications and minored in Theatre, I came to web design as a traditional graphic designer with a love for computers. What this means is that all my formal training is in traditional methods, paper and ink, and I am and always have been a voracious learner when it came to computers and ended up teaching myself HTML and several different graphics programs. I worked for several years in Silicon Valley and later Austin, TX, doing web design and graphics work, most recently illustrating technical manuals and making icons in Tivoli's Interface Design group.
An abbreviated list of interim activity:
- General blog: http://bymyownhand.blogspot.com/
- A series of class handouts from historic costume courses available at Scribd: http://www.scribd.com/jauncourt/shelf
- Artwork blog (out of date): http://dailyscratchings.blogspot.com/ and online portfolio: http://3he.daportfolio.com/
- Most recent work, a small promotional site for a book: http://heavenspavement.com/
B. Maura Townsend
Summary
The goal of this course is to get you thinking about design from the point of view of the audience, not the designer, and not the client. The focus of this class will be on understanding design and introductory usability concepts for people who already have some very basic HTML skills. We will look at what constitutes typical user behavior; eye tracking and how designing to typical behavior means certain layouts are more usable; why contrast, text sizes, type styles, choice of graphic elements, and color choice are important; and a basic overview of what user experience is and why it's important for any page. We will also cover what copyright means to you as a designer and where to get images and content legally, as well as looking at freely available online tools.
We will be using the publicly available work of Vincent Flanders and Jakob Neilsen as our main resources.
- Web Pages That Suck Vincent Flanders' rather in-your-face site .
- UseIt.com: Jakob Neilsen's publicly available content
- Wikipedia article on Web Usability
- Usability Body of Knowledge
Copyright vs. creative commons resources:
Learning objectives
- Why design is important on every site
- How web design is different from print design
- The role of graphics, color choices and font styles in user experience
- Eyetracking and user behavior, and what they mean in site design
- Basic information presentation (menus, graphics, main and additional content)
- How to present supplementary content (video, downloadables, interactives, galleries)
- Where to get images legally plus a brief overview of copyright and how it applies to the web
- Tools and resources for the beginner (including online tools like Aviary)
Schedule/Syllabus
Comments
will there be an email or
will there be an email or some sort of reminder of the course? (just to know =) )
I will be sending out a
I will be sending out a broadcast a few days before the course begins.
In the third task to sign up,
In the third task to sign up, we have to provide an example of each mistake that appears on the links? For example: One for "Bad search engines", another one for "PDF Files for Online Reading", etc.
No, you need to select one
No, you need to select one issue, from each linked list, to describe in your own words.
Hi Maura, I put a link to a
Hi Maura,
I put a link to a pdf on my drop for the first task. Is that ok?
-Marcus
Yes, that's fine!
Yes, that's fine!
Hi, Should I send the screen
Hi, Should I send the screen shot of my HTML test score?
The text of it is fine.
The text of it is fine.
Will we be notified if we
Will we be notified if we don't get into the class?
Applications officially
Applications officially opened yesterday, and numerous applications are still coming in. This is not a first come, first serve signup. This class has a limited number of seats, and I will be evaluating applications this weekend.
I will be considering whether to expand the class based on the number of excellent applications at the same time, and sending out a scheduling link, as well.
BMT
Hi Maura, Thank you for what
Hi Maura,
Thank you for what looks like a very exciting course.
I am one of those that 'managed' to subscribe prematurely. Now I cannot unsubscribe myself, which means I cannot resubscribe submitting the sign-up task.
I saw your note that you will unsubscribe us. Please send us a note when you have done so. Then I will submit the sign-up task.
/Thorsten
I have manually removed
I have manually removed everyone, so you should now be able to re-apply, using the "apply" button in the School of Webcraft course list: http://p2pu.org/webcraft
Very excited for this class!
Very excited for this class!
when will be the anouncement
when will be the anouncement of the people who got in?
Applications closed today,
Applications closed today, and we have over 150 of them! I have been evaluating them as they come in, but there are still more to look through. I will be going over my list of potential approvals to narrow those down this evening, and approvals will occur tomorrow.
After that, I'll be doing a broadcast to work out scheduling, so all approved people will get an email from P2PU in their inboxes.
Thanks for your patience!
BMT
ok, thanks | hope to get
ok, thanks | hope to get approved
First off I just want to say
First off I just want to say thanks for running this course. I know you have a lot of applications on your hand but I just want to say that this course really deeply interests me.
After all, aren't design and usability some of the key components to having a great website these days? People can major in architecture, which is basically the study of designing buildings. Aren't websites like electronic buildings? In the future will people study website design in the same way they study architecture now?
I hope to learn a little bit more about design and how I can improve the user experience on my websites in this course. I really hope I will be considered, thanks.
Hi all, I'm happy to be
Hi all,
I'm happy to be admitted to this course ,and eager to learn about design and usability very soon.
Good luck all..
Although I did not get a
Although I did not get a place this time, I wish all the best for those who get into this course :). Have a good time =).
Thanks for accepting me into
Thanks for accepting me into this course Maura! I cant wait to begin learning with everyone!
Thank you for accepting me
Thank you for accepting me into this course. I look forward to learning a whole lot from you. Can't wait to meet everyone else. :)
Look forward to learning!
Look forward to learning!
Thank you for having me in
Thank you for having me in the class. I look forward to learning with you all. I have never taken a course here, so I am curious to see how this all works.
Thanks for accepting me to
Thanks for accepting me to the class! Can't wait to learn a lot and meet everyone :]
Thanks for accepting me, I'm
Thanks for accepting me, I'm looking forward to learning.
Thank you for accepting me to
Thank you for accepting me to the class! I'm super excited to meet everybody and can't wait to learn!
awesome! glad i was able to
awesome! glad i was able to get into the class. looking forward to it. :)
Hi all! Very excited to
Hi all! Very excited to participate. :)
very happy to be part of this
very happy to be part of this course, - exciting! thank you!
Very excited to be part of
Very excited to be part of this course. Thanks to the instructor and co-facilitators for constituting such a needed course. Looking forward to understand and learn more about design.