course description

This course builds on the basic aspects of HTML and multimedia programming that are presented in ICSA 741. It provides an overview of web design concepts, including usability, accessibility, information design, and graphic design in the context of the web. It also provides an introduction to important and emerging web site technologies.

Important note regarding prerequisite knowledge: As of fall 1999, the curriculum for 741 was changed to include significant basic HTML coding and use of UNIX in a command-line environment. If you took 741 prior to 991, or had 741 waived, I will expect you to bring yourself up to speed on those topics. You should be familiar with basic HTML coding (using text editors!), web graphics creation (including optimization and animation), and basic design principles for the web, as well as UNIX commands for creating, deleting, renaming, and changing permissions for files and directories. I recommend the Visual Quickstart books on HTML and UNIX as a good reference for these topics, along with the Non-Designer’s Web Book (an optional text for this course). All of those books are required texts in the 741 course. If you don’t feel comfortable teaching yourself this material quickly, I strongly suggest that you defer taking this course until such time as you have acquired the prerequisite knowledge, either by retaking 741 in its current form, or working on your own to master the material. In addition, in this course I assume that you have basic programming skills—the language is not important, but the understanding of programming concepts is. No programming class is listed in the prerequisites because a programming course is part of the bridge/prerequisites for the MSIT program—we expect you to have this knowledge for all of our courses, but it’s particularly important in this one, since it’s almost impossible to create high-quality web sites without a good understanding of programming.

textbooks

The two required texts for the class are:

• Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web, by Christina Wodtke. New Riders, 2002 (ISBN: 0735712506)
• Webmaster in a Nutshell (3rd Edition), by Stephen Spainhour & Robert Eckstein. O’Reilly & Associates, 2002 (ISBN: 0596003579)

In addition to the text(s), online readings will be assigned in class, and linked from the relevant items in the course outline.

grading

Your grade will be based on your individual assignments (40%), your group project (40%), and your attendance, participation, and attitude in class (20%).

Assignments submitted after the due date/time will lose one full letter grade for each day that they are late. If you know that a situation will prevent you from turning something in, contact me in advance of the deadline to make alternate arrangements.

If you wish to dispute your final course grade, you must do so before the end of the quarter following this one; otherwise documentation of your work may be discarded.

Book Changes

I made a mistake in the book order sent to the bookstore, and forgot to remove Steve Krug Don’t Make Me Think! and replace it with Christina Wodtke’s Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web.

I’ve notified the bookstore, and while they may not get the new book right away, you won’t need it until the third week of class.

Readings Posted for Weeks One and Two

The readings for the first two weeks of class are now available. Click on a class meeting date in the calendar on the left, or select the class topic from the class outline to see the list of readings—all of which are online. You won’t need your books until after the third week of class.

I’ve also put an “Introductions” item up in the Discussions section of the site. Feel free to post your introduction there before class starts.