Web Design Competitive Analysis

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Content

English Department
Web Design
Competitive Analysis

Elizabeth Finley
Natasha Saidikowski
Noah Adler

2 | Web Design Competitive Analysis

Table of Contents
3

Executive Summary

4

Methods

8

Results & Discussion

12

Conclusion

13

Appendix A

16

Appendix B

17

Appendix C

Carnegie Mellon University | 3

Executive Summary

Employers of professional and technical writers are increasingly
looking for the “unicorn” candidate: one that can write, design, and
code information online. At Carnegie Mellon, students learn about
online information design in the 76-787 Web Design course that
has both lecture and laboratory components. In order to assess how
Carnegie Mellon University’s MAPW program compares to sister
institutions, we conducted a competitive analysis of our Web Design
course against corresponding programs’ courses. Through this
competitive benchmarking, we were able to assess the relevance and
necessity of fostering a “unicorn” environment for our students. Is it
the goal of the MAPW to create said “unicorns?” As it turns out, many
other programs are pushing their students to achieve this “writer,
designer, coder” trifecta.
As is, Carnegie Mellon’s Web Design course focuses on the
methodology of developing effective information architecture
(including organizational schemes, navigational design, labeling,
form design, and visual design). Students work in groups to develop a
website prototype that is user-tested at the end of the semester. Because
our Web Design course focuses so heavily on the foundations and
theory of website design, students are not trained to build websites
through coding languages or software such as HTML, XML, CSS,
JavaScript, and Dreamweaver. As you will see in our spectrum on page
7, many other institutions teach at least some basic coding in their
website design courses.
In our assessment, we categorized sister schools’ programs under
three categories: Theory, Application, or Hybrid. Courses in the
Theory category are structured like our Web Design – they offer more
foundational theory and little to no coding or software knowledge.
Courses in the Application category teach students one or more coding
languages or softwares. Courses categorized as Hybrid seemed to teach
students both foundations and coding.
The goal of a professional Master’s program like the MAPW is to
prepare students to competently and confidently enter the workforce.
By performing this competitive analysis, we assessed what other
schools are doing to either ignore or enforce the “unicorn” student.

4 | Web Design Competitive Analysis

In order to determine whether Carnegie Mellon’s Web Design (76-787)
course provides students with a strong enough foundation in “hard
skills” such as coding and using web design platforms, we utilized a
three-part system of inquiry:

Methods

1. Competitive benchmarking with sister schools and analyzing
their online information design and web design courses;
2. Categorizing the courses from our sister schools in order to
determine what trends, if any, were apparent; and
3. Creating a spectrum on which to plot our sister schools and to
determine where Carnegie Mellon falls amongst them.
Our Web Design course currently underscores principles of research
methods and usability research testing. As you can see on page 7,
more of the schools we researched emphasize “hard skills” in their
web design course or sequence of courses. Throughout our analysis,
we acknowledged that while our Web Design course focuses mainly
on research methods, it is taught in tandem with a Web Design lab, in
which students develop more of the “hard skills” that foster the growth
of a “unicorn” student and are of more interest to potential employers
in the web design industry.
We determined a total of 16 sister universities that had Masters
programs comparable to the MAPW at Carnegie Mellon. From these
16 universities and programs, we found 32 courses that corresponded
to web and information design based on course descriptions. We
utilized a specific search pattern with terms including and limited to:
“web design,” “information design,” and “information architecture.”
We used these terms in order to narrow down our results and weed out
irrelevant courses related to social media. Because we wanted to look
at and analyze courses most similar to our own Web Design course,
we also disregarded undergraduate- and Ph.D.-level courses. Figure A
(page 5) shows a word cloud displaying the most prevalent terminology
used in the 32 course descriptions we analyzed.
Our entire list of universities, their courses or sequence of courses, and
the course descriptions can be found in Appendix A.

Carnegie Mellon University | 5

Categorizing Courses
After determining which courses to include in
our analysis, we divided the courses into three
categories that would help us identify any trends.
To do this, we read course descriptions, contacted
the respective program directors and professors
for more information, and used the materials they
provided. The three categories we created are: Theory,
Application, and Hybrid.
Theory
We found that these courses focus more on the
guiding theories and fundamentals of web design,
research methods for user experience, and user
testing. Coding or hands-on projects are either
peripheral or nonexistent. Many of these courses
focus on the students’ understanding of principles
behind research methods and what elements of
design increase usability.

Application
These classes focus more on developing “hard skills”
by incorporating lessons in coding, specifically
HTML, CSS, and XHTML. Students in some
courses are also expected to learn how to use web
design platforms such as Dreamweaver, although
instances of these courses are few. Note that some of
the Application courses have either a Theory pre- or
co-requisite course or require the student to have
previous knowledge of website design software.
Hybrid
We also found courses that incorporate both
Theory and Application elements. For example,
students study research methods for usability while
also developing and enhancing their coding skills
through hands-on projects. Some of these courses
lean towards more Application or Theory and we
will discuss how many and which courses do so.

Figure A: Word cloud displaying the most prevalent terminology from our 32 course descriptions.

6 | Web Design Competitive Analysis

Creating A Spectrum

Unexpected Trend: Class Sequences

After categorizing all of the 32 relevant courses into
either Theory, Application, or Hybrid, we spread
them out into a spectrum that flows top-to-bottom
from most theory-based schools and courses to most
application-based schools and courses. The list of
sister institutions and their web design courses is
found in Figure B on page 7.

We also found that two of our sister institutions
incorporate a sequence of classes. In stringing
together courses that cover both Theory and
Application, universities are having students learn
both research methods and programming in an
uncompressed environment. Students have the time
to hone their research skills in one semester, and then
delve further into Application in the next semester by
working with HTML and other web design softwares.
Upon completing the sequence of classes, students
will be able to use research and communication
methods to build websites that are user-centered.

As we conducted our analysis of other schools’
courses, we found that there was not always a 1:1
ratio. That is, not every school has one catch-all web
design course like we do at Carnegie Mellon. Several
of the schools offer a string of courses pertaining to
website design and online information design that
are pre- or co-requisites. For the universities that
have a string of multiple website design courses, we
listed the classes in the same fashion as we listed
the universities – with the most theoretical classes
towards the top, and the most Application-based
classes towards the bottom.
Presumably, a prospective graduate student will be
looking at programs that are the most relevant to their
chosen career path. Students who are not sure of their
specific career path or students who know they do
not want to do much website design work will opt for
a program that is more focused on research methods
and information architecture rather than developing
hard skills, such as coding with HTML or JavaScript.
Contrariwise, students who are specifically interested
in website design or online information design work
will want to choose a school with one or more courses
devoted to website design application, a school
where they can gain valuable writing skills while also
becoming competent with coding languages and
software.
We constructed our spectrum with career-oriented
students in mind. In the end, a student can only
choose one school, and Carnegie Mellon is competing
with other schools that might be more focused in
website design application. As you will see in Figure
B on page 7, Carnegie Mellon University falls towards
the top within the more Theory-based portion of
the spectrum. As the spectrum grows closer to
Application, schools begin to have strings of courses.
This suggests that both Theory and Application
cannot be taught in one class alone.

The courses create a balanced and versatile education
that students can use as a competitive edge for
themselves in the web design industry. Recent
graduates from these programs who take these class
sequences may be more marketable because they
complete the trifecta and become the “unicorns” of
online information design: they are efficient writers,
designers, and coders.
Chatham University has a chain of web design
courses in their program that students can take for a
concentration in Web Content Development. The full
sequence of courses from Chatham University can be
found in Appendix B.
The University of Washington also incorporates
a sequence of classes focused on web design and
information architecture. After an introduction to
research methods in the earlier classes, students
take courses that develop their skills in prototyping,
wireframing, site mockups, and hands-on production.
It is in these Application courses that students
learn how to utilize the theoretical concepts of
user-centered design in conjunction with hands-on
coding. The sequence of courses at the University of
Washington can be seen in Appendix B.

Carnegie Mellon University | 7

* denotes classes that do not teach coding.
This table is ordered from most Theory-based
schools to most Application-based schools,
and from the most Theory-based to the most
Application-based classes.

Theory

Utah State University
North Carolina State University
Carnegie Mellon University
University of Minnesota
Auburn University
University of Chicago
Texas Tech
Clemson University

University of Massachusets - Dartmouth
University of Memphis
George Mason University
Emerson University

Southern Polytechnic State University
Chatham University

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

New Jersey Institute of Technology
University of Washington

Studies in Writing for Digital Media Production *
Online Information Design and Evaluation *
Web Design *
Writing with Digital Technologies *
Web Development *
Information Structure and Retrieval *
Online Publishing
The Rhetoric of Web Publishing *
Digital Rhetorics Across Media & Information Technologies
Digital Publishing Technologies, Theories in Practice
Web Authoring *
Web Design / Online Writing
Web Authoring and Design
Electronic Publishing Overview *
Web Development for Electronic Publishing
Creating Electronic Publications for the Web & E-Readers
Information Design *
Website Design
Writing for Digital Media *
Principles of Information Architecture
Visual Interface Design
Web Design I
Web Design and Development II
Communication Design for the WWW
Research Design and Analysis for New Media
Communication Design for the World Wide Web
Web and Database Programming
Research Methods for Information Design
Advanced Information Design
Information Design *
User-Centered Web Design
Computational Concepts and Human-Centered Design
Engineering
Web Design Studio

Application

Figure B: Spectrum listing schools and their respective courses from most theoretical to most application-based.

8 | Web Design Competitive Analysis

Results &
Discussion

Within the 16 sister universities and colleges we surveyed, we found
32 courses that were either based on building “hard skills” through
Application or based on building a foundation of the Theory and
methodology of website design. We then categorized those 32 courses
by the emphasis the course placed on Theory versus Application using
the selected terminology discussed in our Methods section (see Figure
A). Through lumping similar courses into three respective categories
(Theory, Application, and Hybrid), we can determine which courses at
other universities are most similar to our Web Design course.
As our course currently stands, students receive a stronger foundation
in the guiding principles of research methodology and theory, even
though it is taught in tandem with a lab that incorporates more of
the “hard skills” such as working and designing with coding. Figure
C shows the percentage of courses out of all 32 classes that fall under
Theory, Application, and Hybrid. Not including Carnegie Mellon’s Web
Design course, 28% of all comparable courses focus on Theory. Of the
remaining courses from other schools, 41% focus on Application while
31% incorporate both Theory and Application in a Hybrid course.
The selection of Hybrid courses offered by other schools is especially
interesting. These Hybrid courses merge research methods of usercentered design with designing and producing websites through
coding software. We found that Hybrid courses provide students with
a foundation in both Theory and Application, which combines the best
of both worlds to make students who complete these courses more
marketable for employers in web design industry, effectively producing
the “unicorn” candidate.

Figure C: Pie chart displaying the percentage of courses that fall
under each of our three categories.

Carnegie Mellon University | 9

Theory
The overall objective for Theory courses is to develop
students’ skills in research methods for user-centered
web design. With a strong understanding of the
fundamentals of information architecture, students
who complete courses within the Theory category
build a solid foundation of research methods and
design testing. In addition, students in Theory courses
examine patterns of user experience interaction
design and can later implement their foundational
experience towards Application courses either within
or outside of the English department if they so wish.
Nine of the 32 courses we located fall into the Theory
category. These courses tend to emphasize research
methods, the abstract theories that support the
concepts of web design, and the fundamentals of
designing a user-centered website rather than the
hands-on process of designing and creating websites.

The seven other courses we found followed much the
same pattern, with a few that break the Theory trend
by including a nominal amount of programming and
design instruction, such as Utah State University’s
“Studies in Writing for Digital Media Production.”
Students examine the process of publishing online
documents for a user-centered environment and
study digital media and genres. Other topics for the
class vary and range from examining the research
methods for help files to websites and interactive
animations. Students also develop, create, and run a
collective website for the duration of the course.

Application

Two examples of the overall Theory pattern we
want to highlight are the “Principles of Information
Architecture” course at Chatham University and
“Research Methods for Information Design” at the
New Jersey Institute of Technology, both of which
appear in the Theory table in Appendix A. Both of
these courses focus heavily on underlying principles
of design and research methods.

The overall objective for Application courses is
to teach students to design and produce websites
through varying software platforms and coding
languages with user-centered theory as a guiding
principle. Most of these courses either devote a small
percentage of coursework to understanding the
concepts of usability before moving on to hands-on
application, or require that students already know
about user-centered design and go straight into
projects that include working on various platforms
and developing prototypes or mockups.

The students in Chatham University’s “Principles
of Information Architecture” course learn about
the evolution of the theoretical basis behind usercentered design and the fundamentals of task analysis
and scenario development. While this course is
primarily rooted in studying the principles of web
design more than the hands-on application of coding
and working with clients, students do engage in a few
practical exercises in which they apply the concepts
they study in the class.

Students who take these courses may desire a
more hands-on approach to their education, and
want to hone their programming skills to make
themselves more marketable to employers in web
design industry. While a foundation in web design
theories and principles can help students better
understand concepts, many students may want to
take Application courses to produce work for their
portfolios and sell themselves as “unicorns” to
prospective employers.

The “Research Methods for Information Design”
course at the New Jersey Institute of Technology
introduces students to user research methods such
as contextual inquiry. The course acts as a survey for
numerous research methods, rather than providing
students with a focus on just one or two techniques.

Of the 32 courses we found, we placed 13 in the
Application category. Based on available course
descriptions and materials provided by professors,
we saw a trend in these courses that leans more
towards emphasizing the tools used to build a website.
Rather than having content that solely relates to
the principles of research methods and the theories
of user-centered design, these courses incorporate
more hands-on projects in which students utilize the
mechanics of programming, coding, and software
platforms to develop websites.

10 | Web Design Competitive Analysis

Two of the 13 Application courses we wanted
to highlight include: “Web Authoring” from the
University of Massachusetts – Dartmouth and
“Computational Concepts in Human-centered Design
Engineering” at the University of Washington. Both of
these courses are included in the Table of Application
Courses in Appendix A.
The primary aim of University of Massachusetts –
Dartmouth’s “Web Authoring” course is to author
hypertext and hypermedia documents for the web;
in doing so, students learn how to produce effective
non-linear writing as well as effective design to
create efficient, user-centered interfaces. The course
provides students with a foundation in authoring and
design across a range of software platforms, including
Dreamweaver, which the University of Massachusetts
– Dartmouth specifically uses for many of their
website design courses.
“Computational Concepts in Human-centered Design
Engineering,” which is offered by the University of
Washington, goes a step further by teaching students
to analyze data for user research. It introduces
students to basic programming skills in order to
produce interactive, user-centered information
systems. The course draws on a range of topics,
including log analysis, visualization, prototyping (e.g.
wireframing), and data mining. Rather than study
the underlying concepts and principles of research
methods and the theories of user-centered design,
students focus on, develop, and enhance their “hard
skills” in programming and coding.
Many of the Application courses we found could
be taken by students at any time in their graduate
career. However, we did find some courses that
broke this pattern by requiring prior coursework or
equivalent experience in the fundamentals of web
design. For example, Southern Polytechnic State
University has an Application course titled “Website
Design,” which requires students to have taken their
“Information Design” course before registering for
the class. “Information Design” (see Appendix A)
is a course in design theory that is not exclusive
to web design; rather, it focuses on the underlying
principles of usability and the design of documents
as a whole, including (but not limited to) webpages.
In “Information Design,” Southern Polytechnic State
students examine the foundations of design theory

whereas the Southern Polytechnic State “Website
Design” students focus on using coding languages and
site-building software platforms.

Hybrid
Hybrid courses provide students with a balanced
skillset that has roots in both Theory and Application.
For the most part, these courses teach students
how to apply the core concepts they learn so that
they can easily transition from school to working
in the web design field. The courses also provide
students with a basic understanding of how the tools
of web design work in conjunction with principles
of human-computer interaction, which may make
them a valuable asset to future employers. Students
who take these courses want a more comprehensive
understanding of both the “why” and the “how” of
web design, rather than a specific focus on Theory or
Application. Hybrid classes give students an edge in
the competition of the job market.
In our research, we found that 10 of the 32 courses
employ a mixture of Theory and Application (see
Appendix A). In these courses, students are taught
both the fundamental principles of user-centered
design and research methods along with the tools
used to build webpage content, such as coding in
HTML and CSS.
Two examples of Hybrid courses we’d like to
highlight are the University of Chicago’s “Information
Structure and Retrieval” course and North Carolina
State University’s “Online Information Design and
Evaluation” course. Students in these classes learn
both the underlying principles of user needs analysis
and information architecture as well as the raw
coding that goes into multimedia information design
and prototyping for human-computer interaction.
The University of Chicago provides its students with
a strong Theory background and teaches them how
to apply those theories through hands-on application
in the “Information Structure and Retrieval” course.
“Information Structure and Retrieval” focuses on
theories that support user-centered approaches to
designing and accessing information. Students then
demonstrate their understanding of these theories by
utilizing “hard skills,” including coding through XML

Carnegie Mellon University | 11

and JSON platforming. Students draw on rhetorical
theories by designing and producing interactive
designs across multiple electronic platforms (e.g.
laptop computers, mobile phones, e-readers) in
order to make websites and visual information more
effective and efficient for users.
North Carolina State University’s “Online Information
Design and Evaluation” course introduces students
to concepts and hands-on practices for multimedia
information architecture and design. The course
gives students a background in research methods,
web design principles, and usability strategies that
they then apply to their projects. By the end of the
course, students can expect to know how to test site
usability, conduct audience research, and plan and
construct websites through the use of platforms such
as Dreamweaver.
Many Hybrid courses teach students the principles
of web design while having the students apply those
principles through class projects. As with many of the
Theory and Application courses, the Hybrid courses
focus mainly on the design and architecture of
online spaces, although there are a few Hybrids that
break this pattern. One such class is the “Electronic
Publishing Overview” course taught at Emerson
College. Primarily, the class provides students with an
understanding of how to plan, develop, and manage
digital content online. While the course aims to
teach students how to lay out documents, it does not
expressly work with raw coding to build websites with
the use of a software platform. Rather, it incorporates
principles of usability theory with the underlying
goal and practice of digital publishing. However,
Emerson does offer another course that focuses
more on working with tools such as HTML and CSS,
incorporating information architecture principles (see
Appendix A).

Comparison of Tools in Application and Hybrid Courses
Among the courses that taught programming, it is
interesting to note which tools were emphasized.
We performed a comparison of the 23 Hybrid and
Application classes to determine the most common
software programs and platforms (see Appendix C).
Among those courses that specified which tools were
taught, we found that:
7 courses teach HTML,
6 teach CSS,
3 teach Dreamweaver,
3 teach JavaScript,
2 teach XHTML, and
2 teach XML.
Additionally, we found that some courses taught
students how to use DHTML, Git/GitHub, and SQL.
“The Web and Database Programming” course at
RPI uses Microsoft Visual Studio and teaches .NET
development. North Carolina State University’s
“Online Information and Evaluation” class is the only
class that made special mention of teaching students
both SEO and Wireframes.
Based on the results of our comparison, we found that
the course that teaches the most software according
to its description is Southern Polytechnic State
University. Its graduates may be among the more
versatile, marketable, and competitive web developers
because they are taught how to use multiple platforms
through hands-on application.
To see a table of the programming and software that
each course teaches, see Appendix C.

12 | Web Design Competitive Analysis

Overall, we found a slight trend towards emphasizing application and
“hard skills” in web design. Seventy-two percent of the courses we
surveyed included programming instruction, and even a few of the
theoretical classes gave a basic introduction.

Conclusion

Additionally, we found that several of the web design courses that
emphasize application do have co- or pre-requisites in classes that
teach information architecture fundamentals. These findings suggest
that while many classes at our sister institutions are either focusing on
or incorporating aspects of application, they still retain a basis in the
theories of research methods.
While many classes have some aspect of hands-on application, few of
them incorporate a client project. Chatham University includes a client
project course in its concentration in Web Content Development, but
that is an individual course with the sole purpose of having students
complete a project for a client.
Alternatively, the Web Design course at Carnegie Mellon enables
students to apply the principles they learn about in a hands-on
environment that few other universities include in their curricula.
Because it introduces students to building a webpage in a classroom
environment, Carnegie Mellon’s Web Design course actually has a
competitive advantage over some of its sister schools, and may be more
appealing to prospective students.
An interesting trend that we found is the sequence of classes offered
by Chatham University and the University of Washington. Students
who go through these sequences obtain a multi-faceted understanding
of web design that may make them highly sought after in industry.
Recommending whether Carnegie Mellon should employ such a class
structure is not the objective of this report; however, analyzing the
linked nature of these classes at our sister universities may help shape
the future of our Web Design course.

Carnegie Mellon University | 13

Appendix A
Theory Schools
School
University of Washington

Course
Information Design

Description keywords
Design principles and procedures
Print versus electronic media
Designing for page and screen
Information topologies
Hypermedia

Utah State University

Studies in Writing for Digital
Media Production

Process of publishing online
Studying digital media and genres

New Jersey Institute of
Technology

Research Methods for
Information Design

User research methods
Usability testing
Foundation for user-centered interaction design

Clemson University

The Rhetoric of Web
Publishing

Seminar
Theory and practice
Designing on WWW
Focus on content strategies
Examines taxonomies of webpage types
Patterns of user experience interactions

Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute

Communication Design for
the WWW

Design and use of websites
Initial gathering of user requirements
Design
Development
Evaluation
Assessment of customer satisfaction

Research Design and
Analysis for New Media

Practicum in research
Methodology for web usage
Computer-mediated behavior
Data-gathering

Writing for Digital Media

Strategies and skills
Compelling interactive experiences
Effective user-interface design
Conceptualization of multimedia applications

Principles of Information
Architecture

Underlying principles
Fundamentals
Information architecture

Information Design

Main design elements
Information products
Rhetorical
Theoretical
Underpinnings for design decisions
Document design theory

Chatham University

Southern Polytechnic State
University

14 | Web Design Competitive Analysis

Application Schools
School
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

Course
Web Authoring

Description keywords
Hypertext, hypermedia
User-friendly
Interface design

University of Memphis

Web Design / Online
Writing

Technology tools
Usability testing
Single-source content management
Information architecture

University of Washington

Web Design Studio

Hands-on

Computational Concepts
and Human-centered
Design Engineering

Basic programming skills
Analyze data
User research and design

Southern Polytechnic State
University

Website Design

Best practices
Design and delivery of information
HTML, XHTML coding
Dreamweaver
Theory and research component

New Jersey Institute of Technology

Advanced Information
Design

Media-rich, multidimensional online projects
Navigation theory
Contemporary design practices
Online community building

Clemson University

Digital Publishing
Technologies, Theories in
Practice

User-centered
Applied
Multimedia online documents

Digital Rhetorics Across
Media and Information
Technologies

Application of theories
Professional Communication technologies
Hands-on experience
Information technologies

Emerson University

Creating Electronic
Publications for the Web
and E-Readers

Creation and design
Variety of e-formats
XML and .epub
Electronic publications

George Mason University

Web Authoring and Design

Basic principles of coding
Usability and accessibility
Competence with coding and software tools
Production oriented
Web and graphic editing software tools

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Web and Database
Programming

Creating dynamic web-page content
Relational databases
Variety of web-services

Chatham University

Web Design and
Development II

Multimedia authoring tools

Web Design I

Raw HTML and CSS coding

Carnegie Mellon University | 15

Hybrid Schools
School
University of Minnesota

Course
Writing with Digital
Technologies

Description keywords
Digital writing technologies
Assess writing
Basic building blocks
Writing in internet environments
Functionalities of web environments
How to produce environments

University of Washington

User-centered Web
Design

Theory and practice
User-centered web development process
User-needs analysis
Prototyping
Mock-ups
Production
Information architecture

North Carolina State University

Online Information Design
and Evaluation

Concepts and practices
Multimedia information design
Information architectures
Human-computer interaction
Genre for complex websites

Auburn University

Web Development

Current research
Practice of web development and design
HTML and other development programs
Conduct lab research
Usability research
Secondary library based research

University of Chicago

Information Structure and
Retrieval

Humanized visual and structural approaches
Designing and accessing information
Information architecture
XML and JSON platforming
Interactive design
Information projects
Rhetoric theories
Applied and theoretical foundation
Visual
Structural
Interactive
Representations of information
Retrieval across electronic devices

Emerson University

Electronic Publishing
Overview

Various methods
Digital publishing
Website publication
Basic understanding of planning
Development and management

Web Development for
Electronic Publishing

Design and format
Images and text
HTML, CSS
Content evaluation
User experience
Usability practices
Design aesthetics

Texas Tech University

Online Publishing

Process and planning
Site construction
Development
HTML, DHTML, JavaScript, CSS
Hypertext theory
Technology theory

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Communication Design
for the World Wide Web

Hypermedia interface design
Communication issues
Design and develop a website
Exploring rhetorical, cultural, legal issues

Chatham University

Visual and Interface
Design

Audience analysis
Full interface design
Focus on interactions
Behavior of users
Prerequisite: Basic web design skills

16 | Web Design Competitive Analysis

Appendix B
Course Sequence offered by Chatham University
Theory

Theory

Application

Writing for
Digital Media

Principles of
Information
Architecture

Web Design and
Development II

Theory and concepts
of interactive usercentered design

Underlying basics
of information
architecture

Advances student
coding skills

Hybrid
Visual and
Interface Design

Hybrid

Uses audience
analysis to progress to
full interface design

Client Project

Course Sequence offered by the University of Washington
Theory

Theory

Application

Hybrid

Application

User-Centered
Design

Information
Design

Computational
Concepts in
HCDE

User-Centered
Web Design

Web Design
Studio

Introduces students
to theories of usercentered design

Underlying basics
of information
architecture in online
and print format

Introduces basic programming skills and
research methods

User-needs analysis,
prototyping, and web
site production

Designing and
producing successful
websites

Carnegie Mellon University | 17

Appendix C
Application Course Tools

Application Course Tools

School Name and Course
Chatham University
Web Design and Development 2
Chatham University
Web Design 1
Clemson University
Digital Publishing Technologies, theories in
Practice
Clemson University
Digital Rhetorics Across Media and
Information Technologies
Emerson College
Creating Electronic Publications for the Web
and E-Readers
George Mason University
Web Authoring and Design
New Jersey Institute of Technology
Advanced Information Design
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Web and Database Programming
Southern Polytechnic State University
Website Design
University of Massachusetts—Dartmouth
Web Authoring
University of Memphis
Web Design/Online Writing
University of Washington
Web Design Studio
University of Washington
Computational Concepts and Humancentered Design Engineering

HTML

CSS

Dreamweaver

JavaScript

XHTML

XML


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 

 

 


 


 


 

 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 

 


 

 


 

 


 

 


 


 


 


 


 


 

 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 

 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 

 

 


 


 


 


 

 

 

 

18 | Web Design Competitive Analysis

Hybrid Course Tools

Hybrid Course Tools
School Name and Course
Auburn University
Web Development
Chatham University
Visual and Interface Design

Emerson College
Electronic Publishing Overview

HTML

CSS

Dreamweaver

JavaScript

XHTML

XML


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 

 


 


 


 


 


 

Emerson College
Web Development for Electronic
Publishing


 


 


 

North Carolina State University
Online Information Design and
Evaluation


 


 


 


 


 


 

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Communication Design for the
World Wide Web


 


 


 


 


 


 

Texas Tech
Online Publishing


 


 


 

University of Chicago
Information Structure and Retrieval


 


 


 


 

University of Minnesota
Writing with Digital Technologies


 

University of Washington
User-centered Web Design


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 

 


 


 


 


 


 


 

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