Teaching

I'm an adjunct lecturer at the University of Michigan School of Information where I teach user interface design and have taught short summer courses in topics like web usability, information architecture, and web accessibility. I've also taught courses through my former company Diamond Bullet Design for corporate training in usability and web design.

Teaching Experience
I've been teaching in a wide variety of venues since my graduate school days in computer science when I taught introduction to programming, programming paradigms, and software engineering, then later teaching research methods when I returned to graduate school in psychology. I've taught several tutorials in groupware and web design at the CHI (computer-human interaction), CSCW (computer-supported cooperative work), and User Interface conferences.

User Interface Design
At the University of Michigan, my course in user interface design is an introduction for graduate students at the School of Information. The course surveys the field of user interface design from a design principles perspective, emphasizing the pragmatic application of user interface research and methodology in real-world design settings. With numerous design exercises, we explore topics such as visual design, interaction principles, psychological principles, standards and style guides, task analysis, audience analysis, paper prototyping, information visualization, and user interface software engineering.

Web Usability
I've taught a course on web usability in a variety of venues and formats. The essence of the course is to demonstrate the integration of usability in a professional design process throughout the development lifecycle. This course was originally developed with Darren Gergle and Scott Wood, and the themes of this course formed the foundation of our book, Usability for the Web.

Web Accessibility
Based on our experience in designing accessible websites through Diamond Bullet Design, Seunghee Ha and I developed our course on web accessibility. This course covers types of disabilities, how they impact design, and what the industry standards are, as well as how to go beyond those minimal standards. Following my commitment to making design goals achievable, the course establishes a framework for successful design processes oriented around accessibility: defining accessibility goals, working out what you can accomplish within your resource constraints, systematically designing for accessibility, and evaluating your level of accessibility.