Web Manager University – Spring 2009
Class Title: Making Your Website More Effective: Intro to Proven Usability Techniques
| Class Format: | Two–Day Course | |
| Instructor: | Hal Miller–Jacobs, Human Factors International | |
| Date | Wednesday – Thursday, May 20-21, 2008 | |
| Time: | 9:00 am – 4:00 pm | |
| Place: | Department of Labor (DOL) |
Directions to DOL |
| Fee: | $400 federal, state, or local U.S. government; $600 for non-government |
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Register for this course (registration form hosted by a third–party vendor)
Course Description
Producing a website or web application is commonplace; making it effective is the challenge. This introductory course will provide you with usability tools you need to ensure that your website is indeed effective and meets your goals and your visitors' goals. Through lectures, discussions and lively group exercises, you'll learn proven techniques that you can apply to your website or web application.
Why You Should Attend
Learn why usability is a critical factor in making sites and applications effective, especially for governmental sites.
Understand the critical factors within the usability process, in particular:
Developing a meaningful strategy for your site/application
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Identifying your users and their needs
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Creating a prototype that meets their needs
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Evaluating the design iteratively to ensure that it's on target
Learn how to efficiently incorporate these proven usability techniques in your projects with minimal cost and schedule implications.
Who Should Attend
This course is applicable to all web managers and anyone responsible for providing content to a site or application, as well as anyone aspiring to be part of this new face of government. It's primarily aimed at the beginner level, but current web managers can learn new skills as well as refine their repertoire of techniques
Level of Course
Beginner (though it could be a good refresher for seasoned web managers as well)
About the Instructor
Hal Miller–Jacobs, a Project Director at Human Factors International Inc., has been designing and evaluating user interfaces for over 30 years. Starting back in the 'stone age' when 8K was considered a generous size for memory, and before the term Usability Engineering or User Experience were coined, he was designing and evaluating hardware, software, and more recently web–based user interfaces.
Hal consults and teaches all of the Human Factors International's courses leading to certification (Certified Usability Analyst). When Fidelity, NASDAQ, Citi, and Deloitte & Touche need to train graphical interface and web designers; or when an NIH Institute, Dell Computers, Gillette, Fleet Bank, Staples, Smith Barney, Levi Strauss, and Prudential need an innovative approach to update their internet or intranet web sites, Hal can get a call. He is also on the faculty of Tufts University.
Hal has a B.S. in Physics and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology and his life work is making technology accessible and usable by people. He designed the award-winning site CancerNet, the official cancer information web site of the National Cancer Institute.
Return to the Spring 2009 Schedule of Classes
Page Updated or Reviewed: January 12, 2009
