🚀 go-pugleaf

                                     BayCHI

    The San Francisco Bay Area ACM Special Interest Group
                  on Computer-Human Interaction

                                   Presents:


                               "Web Form and Function
                         Visual Design for the Internet"

                                  Kevin Mullet

                                  Icarian Inc.

                            Saturday, April 10, 1999


                                    Overview


Have  you  ever been faced with a web design problem where you didn't know
where
to begin? Ever gone surfing for ideas? For implementations? Are you porting
your
application  to the web and finding that something gets lost in the
translation?
Are  you  wondering  how  to  design  a good banner ad? This course provides
the
intellectual tools you need to tackle problems like these in a systematic way.

The focus of this course is on visual design - the effective visual
presentation
of  the ideas you are trying to communicate. The course is not just about how
to
make  things  "pretty". The central thesis is that effective visual
organization
will  enhance  the functionality of your design as well as the aesthetics.
Basic
principles  of  the  graphic  design  tradition are supplemented and extended
by
insights  drawn  from  experimental psychology, systems engineering,
filmmaking,
and philosophy to give you new ways of thinking about web design problems.

This  is  not a technology course. Based on an earlier, more generic tutorial
on
Designing  Visual  Interfaces, the focus is on fundamental techniques applied
by
communication-oriented  designers  throughout the world?that can help you
create
better  web  pages,  web sites, and Java or web-based applications. You will
see
some  of the best and the worst of current and historical web design and be
able
to explain why each example rates as it does.

The  tutorial  covers the most important design principles (what to do and
why),
common  errors (gotchas!), and practical techniques (how to) in each of four
key
areas:  visual  coding,  visual  structure,  visual  representation,  and
visual
systems.  Each  section  is  accompanied  by  dozens of real-web examples and
is
supplemented  by a short, focused, "hands-on" exercise that gives participants
a
chance  to try out one of the techniques for themselves while receiving
feedback
from the instructor.


                                 Course Program

Visual Coding

All  successful  web  sites  establish a visual language to help users
determine
what  functionality is available, understand its intended usage, and navigate
to
the proper location if they don't see what they're looking for. Visual
languages
are created when information is systematically encoded into the
variables?shape,
size, color, texture, position, orientation, etc.?recognized by the human
visual
system.   This   section   examines   the   strengths,   weaknesses  and
unique
characteristics  of  each  of these variables as they impact the early stages
of
human visual perception and the interpretation of web-based displays.

Visual Structure

Effective  use  of  visual  structure transforms the basic raster display into
a
highly  efficient  tool  for  information retrieval. By establishing the
correct
perceptual  information  hierarchy and carving out visual "pathways" for the
eye
to  follow,  the designer can help the viewer process information in the
optimal
sequence  or  make it easy to selectively extract the desired information from
a
dense  display.  This  section  shows  how to use the visual encodings
described
above  - particularly spatial position - to produce web pages, site layouts,
and
navigation systems that are both pleasing to look at and easy to use.

Visual Representation

A  picture  may  indeed  be  worth  a thousand words, but it may not be the
most
effective visual representation for a particular concept or function. Most of
us
have  experienced  the  hieroglyphic  effect of a tool palette or navigation
bar
filled  with indecipherable "icons". These demonstrate clearly that pictures
are
no  panacea:  to  be  meaningful  to  your  target  user  they  must be
properly
conceived, effectively produced, and appropriately presented. This section
shows
you  how  to  do  just  that,  by helping you choose between graphic and
textual
representations  and  by  identifying  the  syntactic,  semantic,  and
pragmatic
considerations that determine the effectiveness of your design.

Visual Systems

The  challenge  for  any  non-trivial  web  site  or  application is to create
a
coherent  visual  system,  not  just  a  single  isolated  screen  or page.
More
precisely,  the  problem  is  to create a series of interlocking systems
ranging
from  the organization and naming of choices in "menus' and navigation strips
to
the  appearance and arrangement of graphical cues and call-outs to the layout
of
tables  and  framesets.  This  section  shows  how to establish globally
optimal
design  standards  -  grids,  color  schemes, image styles, etc. - that help
you
resolve local design issues in a systematic, straightforward manner.


                                  The Details

Instructor

Kevin  Mullet,  MA,  is  designing a suite of web-based applications at
Icarian,
Inc.  -  a  Silicon  Valley  start-up  providing  advanced  web-based  tools
for
workforce  planning,  management, and utilization in the high tech companies.
He
was  previously  Managing  Principal  in the Information Architecture and
Design
practice  at Netscape, and before that was Product Designer for Director 5 and
6
and  led  a  cross-product  interface  design  initiative  at Macromedia. He
has
designed   user   interfaces   for   Sun   Microsystems,  SunSoft,  and
SunPro,
respectively.  Mr.  Mullet's  ten  years  of experience in the software
industry
include  three  spent  working on web-based applications, sites, and
development
tools.  He  has  written and lectured widely and is a regular contributor to
the
ACM/SIGCHI conference. He is co-author of the book, Designing Visual
Interfaces:
Communication-Oriented  Solutions  (Prentice-Hall)  which forms the core of
this
tutorial.  Earlier  versions  of  the  tutorial  have been presented to
numerous
professional groups and corporate development organizations around the world.


Who Should Attend

The course is appropriate for web designers, for programmers and writers
working
with web designers, or for managers managing programmers, writers, or web
designers.


Location and Time

The BayCHI tutorials will be held at the Santa Clara Marriott Hotel, Mission
College Boulevard, Santa Clara, CA. The tutorial registration desk opens at
8:00
a.m. The tutorial runs from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Buffet breakfast and lunch will be served.

Directions:

>From San Jose Intl. Airport: Go 4 miles north on Hwy. 101 and turn right onto
Great America Parkway Exit. At the first traffic light, turn right on to
Mission
College Boulevard. The hotel is on the right.

>From San Francisco Intl. Airport: Take Hwy. 101 south to Great America Parkway

Exit. Turn left onto the exit. The hotel is on the left.

>From the East Bay: Take Hwy. 880 south and turn right onto 237 West (in
Milpitas). Turn left onto Great America Parkway. Turn left again onto Mission
College Boulevard. The hotel is on the right.


REGISTRATION FORM

"Web Form and Function: Visual Design for the Internet"
April 10, 1999

Name ________________________________________

Institution/Company _________________________

Address _____________________________________

City ______________________________State ____

Zip ___________

email _______________________________

phone _______________________________

BayCHI or ACM member?
__  Yes, BayCHI or ACM member # ____________

Student?
__  Yes, student ID #________________
    school name______________________

PAYMENT
_____  $ 350  BayCHI, ACM, or ACM SIGCHI member
_____  $ 400  Non-member
_____  $ 250  Student member
_____  $ 300  Student non-member

*You may become a BayCHI member at time of
registration.  BayCHI membership is $15 per year.

send registration form and check to:

BayCHI c/o Don Patterson
849 E Stanley Blvd. #204,
Livermore, CA 94550

Registration  must  be  postmarked  by  April 1, 1999. Payment is by personal
or
company  check  only  and must accompany the registration form (sorry, no
credit
cards).  Please  make check payable to BayCHI. Requests for refunds must be
made
by  April 3rd. Late cancellations are subject to a $50.00 fee. No refund will
be
made  for  no-shows. You may transfer your registration to a colleague by
giving
him or her your registration receipt.

For more information see http://www.baychi.org or
contact Clark Streeter, cstreeter@baychi.org, (510) 422-4493