This course, “Creating Digital Humanities Projects for the Mobile Environment,” provides participants with an understanding of the process for creating apps and the resources needed and available to achieve that goal. At the end of the course participants will have produced: 1) a prototype of an app and 2) a plan for continued development of it. The course is, therefore, divided into five major areas of study and involves both theory and practice. Below is the breakdown of the course by day. The course pack can be downloaded here.
Day 1 The Mobile Environment and Its Affordances
Thursday, June 6, 2013 The Mobile Environment and Its Affordances
Lead facilitators: Dene Grigar, John Barber, Nicholas Schiller, Brett Oppegaard, Brenda Grell, And Greg Philbrook
Readings for the day:
“Introduction,” Mobile Interface Theory by Jason Farman, pp. 1-15
“Getting Started,” Building IPhone Apps by Jonathan Stark, pp. 1-3
Outcome: At the end of the day, participants will have identified a project to undertake and/or fine tuned one they have already envisioned for the course.
9:30 a.m.-noon
Welcome to the Course – Dene Grigar (15 mins.)
Overview of course, tools and methods (usability) – John Barber (15 mins.)
Design – Brenda Grell (15 mins.)
Web, Native Apps, iBook Author – Nicholas Schiller (15 mins.)
Mobile Media Affordances – Brett Oppegaard (15 mins.)
Activity: Brainstorming Your Project, part 1 – Nicholas Schiller & Will Luers (30 mins.)
Lunch
1:15- 3:50 p.m.
Mobile Media for the Humanities, Case Study #1 – Fort Vancouver Project – Brett Oppegaard (20 mins.)
Mobile Media for the Humanities, Case Study #2 – Augmented Reality Environments – Dene Grigar (20 mins.)
Mobile Media for the Humanities, Case Study #3 – Database Apps – Greg Philbrook (20 mins.)
Activity: Planning Your First App – John Barber
Today’s slides:
New! Barber’s Overview
New! Oppegaard’s Case Study
New! Grigar’s Case Study
New! Philbrook’s Case Study
New! Brett’s Slides about Mobile Media Affordances
New! Nicholas’ Slides about HTML5
Day 2 Architecture & Usability for Smart Phone and Tablet-Based Projects
Friday, June 7, 2013 Architecture & Usability for Smart Phone and Tablet-Based Projects
Lead facilitors: John Barber & Nicholas Schiller
Readings for the day:
“Ontology is Overrated” by Clay Shirky, http://www.shirky.com/writings/ontology_overrated.html
“Usability 101: Introduction to Usability” by Jakob Nielsen, http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20030825.html
“Misconceptions About Usability” by Jakob Nielsen, http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20030908.html
“Ten Usability Heuristics” by Jakob Nielsen, http://www.useit.com/papers/heuristic/heuristic_list.html
Outcome: At the end of the day, participants will have learned how to build the structure for their app and begun work on its architecture.
9:30 a.m.-noon
Group review and discussion – John Barber (15 mins.)
Information architecture basics – Nicholas Schiller (30 mins.)
Usability Theories and Approaches- John Barber (30 mins.)
Mindmapping – Brett Oppegaard (30 mins.)
Wireframing: Dene Grigar (30 mins.)
Lunch
1:15 – 3:50 p.m.
Activity: Developing Your App’s Architecture: John Barber & Nicholas Schiller
Today’s Slides:
Nick’s slides on Information Architecture
New! John’s Slides About Usability
New! Dene’s Slides about Wireframing
New! Brett’s Slides about Mindmapping
Day 3 Art and Design for Mobile Devices
Saturday, June 8, 2013 Art and Design for Mobile Devices
Lead facilitator: Brenda Grell
Readings for the day:
Tapworthy by Josh Clark, Chs. 2 & 3
Outcome: At the end of the day, participants will have produced the design for their app and begun work on the prototype.
Color Scheme Designer 3: http://colorschemedesigner.com/
9:30 a.m. – noon
Group review and discussion – John Barber (15 mins.)
Design principles for mobile media – Brenda Grell & Dene Grigar
(User-centered design, responsive design, iterative design, and rapid prototyping; coordinating launcher icon, splash page, landing page, and secondary/tertiary pages. (45 mins.)
Activity: Creation of launcher app, splash page and landing page – Brenda Grell & Dene Grigar (1.5 hrs.)
Lunch
1:15 – 3:50 p.m.
Activity: Creation of mock-up interface with Photoshop, or handout sheets and pencils for sketching ideas or use software with the ultimate goal of developing a prototype – Brenda Grell & Dene Grigar
Here is a link to design specs you need to know as you are designing your app: Specs for apps
Slides from Today:
New! Dene and Brenda’s Slides about Design
Day 4 Multimedia Authoring and Content Development
Sunday, June 9, 2013 Multimedia Authoring and Content Development
Lead facilitator: Will Luers
Readings for the day:
“Net Locality: Why Location Matters in a Networked World” by E. Gordon and A. de Souza e Silva, Introduction, pp 1-18, and Ch 1, 19-39.
jQueryMobile: New! Intro, New! Intro video
Apple Developer Guide: New! AppDistributionGuide/Introduction
Android Developer’s Guide: http://developer.android.com/guide/index.html
“Why HTML5 Rocks,” http://www.html5rocks.com/en/why.
Outcome: At the end of the day, participants will have conceptualized the content for their apps and understood the protocols for content development for Apple and Android platforms.
9:30 a.m. – noon
Group review and discussion – Brett Oppegaard (15 mins.)
Why HTML5 ?- audio/video, canvas, local storage, geolocation – Will Luers
HTML/CSS Basics – Will Luers
Javascript/Ajax/jQuery – Will Luers
APIs: Google Maps as examples – Will Luers
Activity: Working with jQuery Mobile Framework – Will Luers
Textwrangler (mac text editor)
Notepad ++ (pc text editor)
Web Developer (add-on for Firefox)
jQueryMobile Template
jQueryMobile Template with Google Maps API
W3 Schools CSS3 Reference
W3 Schools HTML5 Reference
Slides: development-html-css-jquery-luers
Lunch
1:15 – 3:50 p.m.
Activity: Creating your prototype with JQuery Mobile Framework – Will Luers
Day 5 Preparing Your App for Distribution
Monday, June 10, 2013 Preparing Your App for Distribution
Lead facilitators: Dene Grigar, John Barber, Will Luers, Nicholas Schiller, and Greg Philbrook
Readings for the Day:
App Savvy by Ken Yarmosh et al, Ch. 5
Outcome: At the end of the day, participants will have completed their apps prototype and learned how to continue the development of the app for distribution.
9:30 a.m. – noon
Group review and discussion – Nicholas Schiller (15 mins.)
Small group critiques – All facilitators (30 mins.)
Preparing for Show and Tell – All facilitators (45 mins.)
Activity: Create roadmap for completion of app project – Nicholas Schiller (1 hr.)