Intro to Design and Usability

Sign-Up

Anyone can follow a study group on P2PU. Participating is the next level of engagement. The sign-up is a space where interested individuals can express their interest and background in the topic and commit to working with the rest of the participants. Please answer the following set(s) of questions if you want to become a participant or organizer.

Standard Set

This set of signup questions is common to all study groups, courses, ... in P2PU. The answers to these questions will be public once you get accepted.

  • What made you interested in this topic?
  • What do you hope to achieve by participating?
  • Are you interested in helping with the study group organization?

Between Participants Custom Set

This set of signup questions is particular to this study group. The answers to these questions will be visible to all participants once you get accepted.

NOTE: Please apply using the "sign up" buttin at the top of the course page or the "apply" button in the course list

The goal of this course is to get you thinking about design from the point of view of the audience, not the designer, and not the client. 

  1. A score of 10 or better on the w3schools HTML Quiz: http://www.w3schools.com/quiztest/quiztest.asp?qtest=HTML to demonstrate beginning familiarity with basic HTML. 
  2. Identify one web site you find easy to use and one you don't like using.  Think about why and how that affects your usage, and by extension on commercial sites, whether you choose their products. We'll be doing a longer version of this exercise in the course. Try to compare websites with a similar purpose. Examples are: commerce sites (ebay, amazon, overstock); news websites (cnn, bbc, newspapers, reuters); government informational sites (cdc.gov, un.org, any government's web site), corporate sites (hp.com, apple.com, honda.com). In your answer, provide links to the two sites, and describe why you do or do not like using each site in 3-5 sentences.
  3. Read http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9605.html and http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/biggest-mistakes-in-web-design-1995-2015.html and give one example from each, in your own words, of a design method to avoid.
  4. What are your goals in designing a site for others to use? Please answer in 2-5 sentences, without marketing jargon.