FHTW Berlin

FHTW Berlin / Fachbereich 4
Internationale Medieninformatik
MMA: Web Usability
Sommersemester 2005
Prof. Dr. Debora Weber-Wulff



General information

This semester we will be looking at topics in the area of usability questions for web site design.

The course meets Thursdays from 13.45-15.15 in HG 239 for lectures. There are two lecture groups, one is before the lecture from 12.00-13.30 and one is after the lecture from 15.30-17.00, both take place in VG 218.

The instructors are Prof. Dr. Debora Weber-Wulff and Anja C. Wagner. Dr. Weber-Wulff's office is on the top floor of the Verwaltungsgebäude, room 802. However, she tends not to be there when people are looking for her. Ms. Wagner is an adjunct teacher currently working with the eVideo project at the FHTW. Her office is theoretically in HG 110, but she is usually somewhere filming or organizing and not at her desk. But we both read our email religiously. Do not hesitate to contact us by email at weberwu@fhtw-berlin.de or anwa@medeax.de if you have any questions.

There is a long list of literature, we strongly suggest that you obtain at least the first two.

Lecture notes may be taken and published in order to obtain 5 extra exam points. 1-2 scribes can be appointed in each lecture, reservations cannot be made. The lecture notes must be more than just a different rendering of the slides and should include links to outside material. They are to be published no later that the week after the lecture on the net, and the URL must be mailed to Dr. Weber-Wulff. Set up an appropriate directory and use a good name for the page. This link is to information on how to take lecture notes. But don't depend on lecture notes being taken by others if you yourself have not taken any.

In the exercises we will be doing usability tests in teams. During some of the exercises we will be preparing for a test, in others we will be conducting a test. Many exercises are over 2 weeks, your report is due before the beginning of the next exercise. It is to be submitted to the class communication portal (Moodle, there is a help file available). Follow this link, register with the system, and select the course MMA:Usability. The magic key is USEIT. There will be one report submitted per group. You submit a link by uploading a URL to the appropriate forum. Each report will be graded on a scale of 0-3 points:

3: Excellent report
2: Some minor problems with the report
1: Major problems with the report, but passing
0: Not successful

The exam will be on July 7, 2005 in the lecture hall unless otherwise posted. Only those persons who have successfully submitted at least 5 exercise reports will be admitted to the exam. The exam will consist of 85 points. Add to your exam points your points from the exercise reports submitted and 5 points for lecture notes, if you published them. Then look up your number in the grade table to find your grade.

We hope that we will have fun learning how to determine if a web site is useful, and that we will manage to teach you how to see problems and design around them when you are developing web sites.


Debora Weber-Wulff (weberwu@fhtw-berlin.de)