Usability and Accessibility Standards
Code
7220111091
Academic unit
Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas
Department
Ciências da Comunicação
Credits
10
Teacher in charge
Graça Rocha Simões
Weekly hours
3 letivas + 1 tutorial
Teaching language
Portuguese
Objectives
The main objective is knowledge acquisition for the awareness of the importance of designing for usability and accessibility. Students must realize that the adoption of standards is a must on our/their design practices. At the same time, students must be able to critically evaluate the major trends of standards developments.
At the end of classes, students are expected to: 1 Understand human-computer interfaces and their evolution 2. Identify the most common models and features of human-computer interfaces 3. identify the most common needs of end-users on the web and the limitations of web interfaces 4. Understand the growing need for standards in web interaction 5. To be able to apply some basic evaluation tests on web accessibility and usability.
Prerequisites
Subject matter
Three mais theoretical blocks: 1) Fundamentals of usablity - concepts and models from HCI - Human-Computer Interaction and actual standards 2) The issue of accessibility and W3C guidelines 3) Basic tools for evaluation of accessibility and usability.
Specific content: 1 - Human-computer interfaces: from primitive interfaces to GUIs. 2 - Paradigms and metaphors of GUIs. Specific features of browsers and WWW. Other paradigms. 3 - Interfaces and usability: ergonomy, usability (principles, rules, guidelines, ICCCN recommendations) 4 - Accessibility and design for all. 5 - Towards standards: global, regional and local dimensions. from open-source to open standards.
Bibliography
Carroll, ed. (2002). Human-Computer Interaction in the New Millenium. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley.
Horton, Sarah (2007). Access by Design. Open access.
Krug, Steve (2010). Rocket surgery made easy: the do-it-yourself-guide to finding and fixing usability problems. Berkeley, Ca: New Riders Press.
Lynch, P. & Horton, S. (2009). Web Style Guide. 3rd ed. For review of 7530 concepts. Open access.
Mooggridge, Bill. (2006). Designing Interactions. Cambridge(MA): The MIT Press 2006
Morville, P. & Rosenfeld L. (2006). Information architecture for the World Wide Web (3rd ed. ). O´Reilly. First edition available as open access PDF.
Nielsen, Jakob and Loranger, Hoa Loranger (2006). Prioritizing Web Usability. Berkley: New Riders Publishing.
Rubin, Jeffrey & Chisnell, Dana (2008). Handbook of usability testing: How to plan, design and conducteffective test (2nd ed.). New York: Wiley.
Recursos Web
http://www.nngroup.com/
http://www.interaction-design.org/
www.w3.org
http://www.acessibilidade.g
Teaching method
Presentation of contents that allow a critical understanding of the main concepts; critical reading and group discussion; brainstorming moments in class. The focus is to provide the ability to apply an articulated approach of the models and concepts involved. The teaching method is: 1) expository with the mandatory participation of students (60%), 2) practical work and team work, and group discussion with specific students contributions (40%).
Evaluation method
Evaluation method
1) Active participion and contribution on class and three small works (one of them team work) with oral presentation (40%), 2) A final paper (3000-4000 words), oral presentation and discussion (60%).