Tentative Schedule (Fall 2014)

September 9

• Introduction
• Readings:
• Morville & Rosenfeld - Foreword, Preface, and Chapter 1 - RR
• Krug - Introduction, Chapter 1 - RR
• Course syllabus (i.e., Outline and Assignments) - RR
  
• Nielsen, J. Usability 101: Introduction to Usability
• Tutorials and labs: Internet basics - RR
• HTML text editors: Brackets (Mac), Notepad++ (Windows)
  

September 16

• Process of Web development; Information behaviour & the web
• Readings:
• Morville & Rosenfeld - chapters 2, 3, & 10 - RR
• Krug - chapter 2 - RR
• Baehr, Craig M. 2007. Web development: A visual-spatial approach. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. - chapters 1 & 2 - SR
• Lynch & Horton, Web Style Guide - chapter 1: Process - SR
  
• 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 and labs: w3schools HTML tutorial (Introduction - Head) - RR

September 23

• Content design and organization systems; Copyright issues
• Readings:
  • Morville & Rosenfeld - chapters 4 & 5 - RR
  • Krug - chapter 4 - 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 and labs
  • w3schools HTML tutorial (CSS) - RR
  • w3schools CSS tutorial (CSS Basic: Introduction - Links) - RR
• Assignment due: Usability by example 1 - Organization systems

September 30

• 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 and labs
  • w3schools HTML tutorial (Images - Blocks) - RR
  • w3schools CSS tutorial (CSS Basic: Lists - Tables) - RR
• Assignment due: Usability by example 2 - Labeling systems; writing for the Web

October 7

• 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 Ten 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 and labs
  • w3schools HTML tutorial (Layout - Colorvalues, Quick List, Summary) - RR
  • w3schools CSS tutorial (CSS Box Model) - RR
• Assignment due: Usability by example 3 - Navigation systems

October 14

• Page design; Multimedia
• Readings:
• Krug - chapters 3 & 7 - RR
• Nielsen & Loranger - chapters 7, 10, & 11 - RR
• 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. Ten Good Deeds in Web Design - SR
• Nielsen, Jakob. (2011). Top 10 Mistakes in Web Design - SR
  
• Tutorials and labs
• w3schools CSS tutorial (CSS Advanced) - RR
• Zen Garden - The Beauty of CSS Design - SR
• Assignment due: Usability by example 4 - Page design; Homepage design

October 21

• Web usability evaluation & testing
• Readings:
• Krug - chapters 8, 9, & 10 - RR
• Princeton University Library Website redesign project - SR
  
• Nielsen, J. Summary of Usability Inspection Methods - SR
• Nielsen, J. How to Conduct a Heuristic Evaluation - 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 and labs
• w3schools HTML tutorial (HTML5 Intro, Video, Audio, Semantic) - RR
• W3C Markup Validation service - SR
• Assignment Due: Website design and construction Part 1 (by 11pm on Oct. 24)
  

October 28

• Designing websites for mobile devices
  
• Readings:
• The Smashing Editorial. 2012. Guidelines For Mobile Web Development - 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
• Nielsen, J. (2009). Mobile Usability, Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox - SR 
• Tutorials and labs
• w3schools CSS tutorial (CSS3 Introduction, Borders, Multiple columns) - RR
• W3C CSS Validation Service - SR
• Assignment due: Usability by example 5 - Designing websites for mobile devices

November 4 & 11

• No Class – Nov. 4: Instructor attending the ASIS&T conference; Nov. 11: Remembrance Day, University buildings closed.
  

November 18

• Accessibility for users with disabilities; Web standards & policies
• Readings:
• Krug - chapter 11 - RR
• Nielsen - chapter 6 (ebook access through U of A libraries) - RR
• W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (dig through this site) - RR
• Nielsen, J. (2005). Accessibility Is Not Enough , Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox - SR
• Accessibility testing tools (Cynthia Says, Total Validator)
• World Wide Web Consortium. Leading the web to its full potential. (Dig through this site) - SR
• 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
• Help session on the Website design and construction project
• Assignment due: Usability by example 6 - Accessibility for users with disabilities

November 25

• Global audiences; Metadata and Search engines – will they find you?
• 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
• Dillon, Martin. (2001). Metadata for web resources: How metadata works on the Web - RR
• Editor-Converter Dublin Core metadata - RR
• Sullivan, D. (2002). How To Use HTML Meta Tags - SR
• 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
• Tutorials and labs: Metadata - RR
• Assignment due: Usability by example 7 - Global audiences

December 2

• 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
• 14 website Trends for 2014 - RR
• Help session on the Website design and construction project

December 3

• No class - Last day of Fall term classes
• Assignment Due: Website design and construction Part 2