Module Information
Course Delivery
| Delivery Type | Delivery length / details |
|---|---|
| Lecture | 30 x 1 Hour Lectures |
| Practical | 5 x 2 Hour Practicals |
Assessment
| Assessment Type | Assessment length / details | Proportion |
|---|---|---|
| Semester Exam | 1.5 Hours Written Exam: | 60% |
| Semester Assessment | Design, prototype and evaluate a web site for good user experience. | 40% |
| Supplementary Exam | 1.5 Hours Written Exam | 60% |
| Supplementary Assessment | Design, prototype and evaluate a web site for good user experience. | 40% |
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this module students should be able to:
Describe the ways that web sites are evaluated for ease of use and accessibility.
Describe responsive design, design for accessibility and design for internationalization.
Demonstrate skills in using the basics of rich content preparation.
Demonstrate skills in producing attractive, accessible web sites.
Evaluate the features of a web site that should provide a good user experience.
Aims
Many of our students go into employment as web developers and need a good feel for web design, and almost all software requires an interface. This module covers some of the basic theory and tools that are likely to be important in creating a good user interface. The module should enable a student to work in a development team to produce and evaluate a fully responsive and accessible interface providing good user experience.
Brief description
The course considers the big picture of user experience development, from strategy and requirements to information architecture and visual design, and also considers methods and tools for achieving good computer interface design.
Content
Fundamental principles of the user experience. An overview of the user experience as it fits into the objectives of an organization or business.
2.What is a user? – 3 Lectures
Human cognitive abilities, attention, short-term memory, accessibility issues.
3.What is design? – 4 lectures
Principles of design, Standards. Checklists. Is your system usable and your content findable, desirable and accessible? Wireframe designs, paper prototyping.
4.How to deal with rich content for the web – 4 lectures
Your design will inevitably involve multimedia. How do you create attractive and appropriate material? Preparing graphics and video for use on the web.
5.Web site aesthetics - 2 lectures
Planning appropriate use of colour, typography. The Golden ratio, using proportions.
6.Beyond design: web analytics and your users – 2 lectures
How can you keep track of what your users are doing?
7.Responsive design and advanced CSS: the present and the future – 5 lectures.
Creating dynamic changes to the appearance of a website - an approach to the problem of designing for the multitude of available devices. Designing for touch interfaces
8.Accessibility - 2 lectures
Discussion of the web initiatives to make web content accessible. This will look at international guides on producing accessible sites. Of particular focus for anyone working on projects funded by the public sector.
9.Internationalisation - 2 lectures
How do you make your site available outside the UK and to non-English speakers?
10.User evaluation of site design - 3 lectures
Making prototypes and getting feedback. How to perform an evaluation of a web site and improve it.
These topics will be addressed in parallel with weekly practicals with appropriate tools for the different topics, such as:
a. A web design and prototyping tool.
b. Video editing software such as OpenShot.
c. Layered bitmap graphics editor such as GIMP.
d. Vector graphic software such as Inkscape.
Module Skills
| Skills Type | Skills details |
|---|---|
| Application of Number | |
| Communication | In the assignment associated with the module |
| Improving own Learning and Performance | |
| Information Technology | In the assignment associated with the module |
| Personal Development and Career planning | |
| Problem solving | |
| Research skills | |
| Subject Specific Skills | Web site design and evaluation. |
| Team work |
Notes
This module is at CQFW Level 5