A full day seminar presented by Jeff Johnson, Ph.D., UI Wizards, Inc. This workshop is being hosted by Dr. Mark Srite, Assistant Professor of Management Information Systems at the School of Business Administration, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee.

Overview

Web design and evaluation has become an important business function as more and more businesses and organizations recognize a need to move operations onto the Web. Many people who find themselves in the position of designing websites and web-applications lack experience in interaction design, user-interface design, and information design. Developing easy-to-use websites and web-applications requires understanding issues and principles to go deeper than graphic design; it requires focusing more on how the site or app works than on how it looks. Assuring that web-ware is useful and usable requires more than good programming skills; it requires matching the site or application to the goals and tasks of the intended users. This tutorial presents common Web design mistakes that negatively impact site usability. The instructor refers to common Web-design mistakes as "bloopers." In addition to presenting bloopers, the tutorial explains how to avoid each one. It includes class exercises in which participants: a) spot bloopers on pages shown by instructor, b) correct bloopers in some of those pages, and c) review live websites for bloopers and discuss how to avoid them. Objectives After completing this tutorial, participants will: Have seen the most common Web design errors and ways to avoid them. Be able to recognize errors in websites and Web applications. Have a Web Blooper checklist to use in evaluating their own Web development projects. Be better designers and customers of websites and online services.

Topics

Topics Introduction: Why study Bloopers? Important Bloopers and How to Avoid Them: This section is the main content of the class, covering common bloopers in Content, Task-Support, Navigation, Data-Entry Forms, Search functions, Text & Writing, Link Presentation, and Graphic & Layout. Website Review: In the afternoon, the class will divide into small groups and in a hands-on environment review one or more websites looking for bloopers. After this period, the class will reunite to discuss what bloopers were found and how they could be avoided. Spotting bloopers of all types. A longer quiz in which the instructor presents web pages and asks the class to identify the bloopers in them.

About the speaker

Jeff Johnson is President and Principal Consultant at UI Wizards, Inc., a product usability consulting firm that offers UI design, usability reviews, usability testing, and training. He has worked in the field of Human-Computer Interaction since 1978. After earning B.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Yale and Stanford Universities, he worked as a user-interface designer and implementer, engineer manager, usability tester, and researcher at Cromemco, Xerox, US West, Hewlett-Packard Labs, and Sun Microsystems. He has published numerous articles, book chapters, and books on a variety of topics in Usability and User Interface Design. He frequently gives talks and tutorials at conferences and companies.

Who should Attend?

The tutorial is intended for Web designers and developers, primarily those who lack experience in interaction design, UI design, and information design. More experienced Web designers may also find value in learning what some of the more common mistakes are. Others who might benefit from this tutorial are web Q/A engineers, usability testers, technical writers, and web development managers.

Coordinator

This technology event is being coordinated by Dr. Mark Srite, Assistant Professor of Management Information Systems at the School of Business Administration, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.