Teaching > IM 270 at DePaul University > Spring 2011

Welcome to the Spring 2011 incarnation of DePaul's IM 270: User Centered Web Design.

This page is not intended to replace DePaul's system, but it is an easy place for me to share example code and notes for the current class.

See the latest on your assignments, grades and announcements in DePaul's Course On Line system.

Code examples

• Week 1 sample HTML5 document

Syllabus

Overview

This course explores the design process and technology behind delivery of the modern web experience in browsers, mobile phones and other location aware devices.

Each week we will cover:

• Design A systematic examination of the user centered web design process as opined by design leaders.
• Code A lecture on a set of HTML tags, CSS rules and other techniques. We will discuss HTML5 and some CSS3.
• Lab The practical application of our time in producing work. We will discuss commonly available tools and frameworks to help you get work done quickly and well

We will go from the basics to advanced practices throughout the course, and it will get wooly at times. Don't panic! TMTOWTDI.

The point of this course is to give you experience producing accessible, semantic, standards-compliant HTML using an understanding of web design principles, interaction design patterns, coding frameworks and tools. It is a very exciting time in web standards design because of the sea change of HTML5 and CSS3 becoming widely adopted on mobile devices and browsers alike.

Your project will be to create a minisite of User Centered Design (UCD) deliverables and one page of the project site you intend to build.

Textbooks and printed resources

Required texts

• A Practical Guide to Designing for the Web by Mark Boulton ISBN: 978-0-9561740-0-0
• HTML5 For Web Designers by Jeremy Keith
• CSS3 For Web Designers by Dan Cederholm

Recommended texts

Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML

Print ISBN:978-0-596-10197-8 | ISBN 10: 0-596-10197-X Ebook ISBN:978-0-596-55719-5 | ISBN 10: 0-596-55719-1

Prerequisites

Grading

Attendance & Participation is a discretionary part of your grade. Participation for online students includes use of message boards and volunteering for critiques. Doing poorly and making no effort to get help will reflect poorly upon the participation part of your grade.

Class rules

• Work hard: Good design is the result of hard work, mediocre work is the result of being too pleased too early.
• Show your work: Peer review and feedback is the lifeblood of good design.
• Give feedback on others' work: Improving others' designs is the hallmark of a good designer.
• Experiment and push the boundaries: That is what school is for: it's a safe place for experiments, failures and wild successes.
• Momentum and iteration are what it is about: the more you do, the more you re-do, the better your work becomes
• Participate in your education, and that of your classmates. I don't have all the answers, but together we can find them.