Introduction

One stunning autumn day a number of years ago, I was chatting with my boss, Rod Angotti, Chair of the Department of Computer Science at Northern Illinois University. I complained that some faculty member in our department, any faculty member, needed to create a web design course, because I really wanted to take it. I said, in a fit of pique, “Well, if someone doesn’t develop a web design course soon, I’m going to be forced to do it myself!” Of course, I wasn’t at all serious. I didn’t know anything about web design. I had been teaching computer science for almost two decades, yes. I had been an artist in other media all my life, yes. But web design? I was clueless.

Two weeks later, the spring teaching schedule came out, with me listed ...

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