FHTW Berlin

FHTW Berlin
Fachbereich 4
Internationale Medieninformatik
MMA I: Aktuelle Themen multimedialer Anwendungen
Sommersemester 2001


Current topics in Multimedia Applications

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 205 for lectures and every other week 9.45-13.30 in VG 218 for exercise sections. We will not have an exercise section until April 19, 2001 because of the Easter holidays. We will have the lecture, however, on April 5, 2001 and divide the class into exercise groups.

The instructor is Prof. Dr. Debora Weber-Wulff. My office is on the top floor of the Verwaltungsgebäude, room 802. However, I tend not to be there when people are looking for me, but I read my email religiously. Do not hesitate to contact me by email at weberwu@fhtw-berlin.de if you have any questions.

There are two required texts for the course, please check the link list for the titles and obtain them as soon as possible. We will be using the Nielsen book first, then the Johnson.

Lecture notes may be taken and published in order to obtain 3 extra exam points. I will appoint 1-2 scribes in each lecture, I do not take reservations. The lecture notes must be more than just a different rendering of my 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 me. Set up an appropriate directory and use a good name for the page. This link is to information on how to take lecture notes.

In the exercises we will be doing usability tests in teams. A report on the results of each session is due by the next session at the latest. It is to be submitted as an URL (so that we can collect them on a web page) and as a paper copy. I do not accept torn pages, loose pages, or pages without pagination and author information on every page. Please learn how to use headers and footers in a report, and at the least staple your pages before you hand them in. One exam point will be given to each team member for each report.

The exam will be on July 19, 2001 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 100 points. Add to your exam points one point for every exercise report submitted and 3 points for lecture notes, if you published them. Then look up your number in the grade table to find your grade.

I hope that we will have fun learning how to determine if a web site is useful, and that I 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)