Introduction
Instructor: Shannon R. Tucker
Class Schedule: Monday, 29 January - 14 May 2007
5:30 - 8:30 pm
Location: CR 101
Office Hours: by appointment
410.706.1538
stucker@rx.umaryland.edu
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Course Annoucements
03.12.2007 - Documents for 3/12 Class Posted / Analysis
Assignment 3 / Survey and Stakeholder Questions
I've posted links to the figures Janet sent to the class
and additional details about the final project. Tonight's
class we will focus most of our time on the question of deliverables
as it relates to our final project and upcoming assignments.
Please check the class calendar for 3/12 for changes to Analysis
Assignment 3
The class should be working towards developing/finalizing
survey questions. Please see details for 3/26 for information
on the communication and distribution of survey questions.
Each group should be working on stakeholder questions. The
class brought up interesting points during class today. Given
the discussion and the emphasis our readings place on this
content it is VITAL that groups submit questions to understand
more about this group of individuals. Your strategy analysis
of ACM SIGGRAPH web content may also generate additional questions.
I will be working with ACM SIGGRAPH to provide you with an
organizational chart and details on the different member types
provided in the member totals sent out to the class list.
03.11.2007 - Updated Reading for 3/12
The link for special deliverable #10 was incorrect. I have updated the link for tomorrow's reading.
02.27.2007 - Class E-mail Addresses Posted
E-mail addresses for the class have been posted on our class list page. If your information is incorrect, please let me know as soon as possible.
Also, some food for thought.
Quintura Visual Search Engine Relaunches
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/02/26/quintura-search-engine-relaunches/
»At around 8 AM PST this morning, Moscow-based search engine Quintura will relaunch its visual search engine with a new user interface (if it looks like the screen shot below, it’s launched).
The company, which is backed by Mangrove Capital Partners (Skype, AllPeers, Piczo, Nimbuzz) and OpenView Venture Partners, has developed technology that clusters related search terms to the initial query and presents those terms as a tag cloud. Users can refine their searches by clicking on any word in the cloud - words that are closer and bigger than other words are more correlated to the initial query than other terms. Mousing over any word in the cloud shows related terms to that as well.
The company wisely moved away from a downloadable search application last year to a pure online service. The new interface moves the tag cloud to the left and search results to the right - previously the search results were below the cloud and seemed somewhat crowded.The site also has decent image and video search, and child-safe search.
http://www.quintura.com/
And....
Don't Click It Institute for Interactive Research
http://www.dontclick.it/
No buttons. No clicking. No problem?
02.26.2007 - Teams Posted
Teams have been posted to our class list page. Teams will be asked to identify a team leader next week. Teams were constructed with an attempt to provide each team with a balanced skill set. Each team has at least one team member who has taken or is currently enrolled in research methods to provide greater insight into the user research process. Each team should identify a temporary team leader that will act as the team liason prior to the construction of team project plans, please identify team leaders by the start of class on March 5th.
Note: Teams may propose/negotiate one team member trade with another team and submit this request via e-mail. Proposed trades must be agreed upon by both teams and include explicit reasons for the trade (time constraints or skill set). However, there are a few rules for trades:
- No Student who have previously completed Research Methods may be on a team with another student who has previous completed Research Methods.
- Students who are not currently enrolled in Research Methods must be on a team with a student who has completed research methods.
- Teams must attempt show balanced experience in design and development. Team trades that would concentrate technical or design abilities into one team will not be approved.
02.20.2007 -Thoughts on Web 2.0 care of YouTube / Class calendar update
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE
I've also updated the class calendar. Please read Strategy and Process for next week. User research will be moved to the following week.
/srt
02.19.2007 - Assignment 2 Clarification
Ladies and gents, please use a new site for your assignment 2 analysis. This will provide you with the best opportunity to practice your IA skills on a variety of sites. Also, please feel free to choose EITHER search or controlled vocabulary for assignment 2. This will provide you an opportunity to provide a more in-depth analysis on either topic.
Tips for assignment 2 -
Figures are a large part of your analysis assignments. Everyone is making use of them, which is great! To make your figures more useful, make sure you are referencing them in your text and using figure labels and a figure description. Also, make good decisions about what to show, is it most appropriate to show the whole page design or a specific portion of a page? Would an overlay help? If you would like to point out something in the figures, by all means do so in your figure, but make sure it is clear what is being referenced. Good figure design can help or hinder your arguments.
Another note, I'm reviewing your documents in color, so keep including your color figures!
/srt
02.12.2007 - Class List Updated
The class list has been updated with student web sites. Please be sure to review the assignments of others in the class. Beyond our class discussion it will provide you with an opportunity to review the perspective of others.
02.05.2007 - Powerpoint Posted
The powerpoint from this week's class has been posted.
01.30.2007 - Class list created!
The class listserv has been created. The email addresses you provided in class or sent me in the case of Julia and Janet have been added to the list:
Idia630 at lists.rx.umaryland.edu
01.29.2007 - Course Syllabi Available/ Room Change
The course syllabus has been posted, along with the course schedule. A printed copy of the syllabi will be provided to students at the start of class.
Note: Please be sure to continue to check the Calendar section of the class web site for updates to the course schedule, due dates, and readings. We will now be meeting in Charles Royal Room 101 (conference room on the first floor) Note: we will be meeting in AC219 on March 26th for a Visio Workshop
Please check on the site later this week. I will be posting the class list for the course, information about our class listserv, and a PDF for our readings for next class.
01.09.2007 - Required textbooks for this course include:
Information Architecture for the World Wide Web: Designing Large Scale Web Sites
Peter Morville and Louis Rosenfield, 3rd Edition
O’Reilly
ISBN: 0596527349
Design of Sites: The Patterns for Creating Winning Web Sites, 2nd Edition
Douglas K. van Duyne, James A. Landay, Jason I. Hong
Prentince Hall
ISBN: 0131345559
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Overview
Prerequisites: PBDS 660 or passing score on the Hypermedia Proficiency Exam.
Course Catalog Description: Teaches students to gather requirements data, model information structures, and develop a variety of documents to communicate the information architecture to other participants, including technical experts, usability experts, clients, and users. Students learn to determine a target audience, develop personas or user profiles, refine and validate requirements and create site maps and other “specs and wire frames.
Extended Course Description: This course provides a practical understanding of the fundamental concepts and methods of value to anyone involved in the building and managing large scale web sites. Information architecture includes:
- The combination of organization, labeling and navigation schemes within an information system.
- The structural design of an information space to facilitate task completion and intuitive access to content.
- The art and science of classifying web sites to help people find and manage information.
- A discipline and community of practice focused on bringing principles of design and architecture to the digital landscape.
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