Information Architecture and Web Usability

(706.041 Information Architecture and Web Usability 3VU WS 2008/2009)

Lecturer:	Ao.Univ.-Prof. Dr. Keith Andrews
Course Home Page:	`http://courses.iicm.tugraz.at/iaweb/`
My Home Page:	`http://www.iicm.tugraz.at/keith`
Email:	`kandrews@iicm.edu`
Office Hour:	Mon. 11:00-12:00 Room D.2.16, IICM, Inffeldg. 16c, 1st floor.
Lectures:	Tues. 14:15-16:45, starting Tue 07 Oct 2008 Seminar Room IICM, D.1.10, Inffeldg. 16c, ground floor.
Schedule:	The course schedule
Lecture Notes:	`http://courses.iicm.tugraz.at/iaweb/iaweb.pdf` [122 pages PDF] [Note: The lecture notes are never in their final form, but will be updated as the course progresses.] If you teach and would like a zip file of the corresponding lecture slides (the same material but in HTML, PNG, and JPEG), please contact me by email.
Course Books:	If you are thinking of buying some books, I highly recommend these: [Note: Amazon credit me a small referal amount, should you purchase the books after following these links.]
Course Newsgroup:	`tu-graz.lv.iaweb` This is where I will post news and announcements and where you should ask any questions you might have.
Course Materials:	materials
Aims and Objectives of Course:	First we will look at current work and results in the areas of information architecture and web usability. Students will form groups of 4 and research and present one particular factor of web usability. During the course, students will run a usability study (either a thinking aloud test or a formal experiment) of a web site.
Teaching Method:	A mixture of lecture, practical, and seminar with lots of group discussion.
Prerequisites:	This course is an advanced course and assumes knowledge of the methods of usability engineering. You must have completed the course on Human-Computer Interaction and be a grad (Masters) or postgrad (PhD) student. Experience in experimental design and statistics (psychology) would be a bonus, but is not necessary.
Registration:	This is an advanced course. The number of students is limited to 20 to encourage participation and discussion.
Examination Method:	The grade will be determined by your presentation of a research topic, the running of a web usability study, and a short oral exam.