CSCI 4260/8266: User Interface Design and Development

Spring 2011

Meeting time: TR 4:00-5:15

Classroom: PKI 335

Instructor: Dr. Harvey Siy

Office: PKI 281B

Phone: (402)554-2834

Office Hours: By appointment (call or email in advance)

Email: hsiy at unomaha dot edu

Textbooks: The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman, Basic Books, 2002

About Face 3.0 by Alan Cooper, Wiley, 2007

(optional) Building Interactive Systems by Dan Olsen, Cengage Learning, 2010

Description

This course focuses on engineering and scientific approaches to user interface design and evaluation.

Supplementary Material

Supplementary material may be drawn from the following and will be provided as handouts:

User Interface Design: A Software Engineering Perspective by Soren Lauesen, Addison Wesley, 2005.
Designing the User Interface: Strategies for Effective Human-Computer Interaction (4th edition) by Ben Shneiderman and Catherine Plaisant, Addison Wesley, 2004.
Designing Interactive Systems: People, Activities, Contexts, Technologies by David Benyon, Phil Turner and Susan Turner, Addison Wesley, 2005.
Paper Prototyping by Carol Snyder, Morgan Kaufmann, 2003.
The Elements of User Interface Design by Theo Mandel, Wiley & Sons, 1997.
Handbook of Usability Testing: How to Plan, Design, and Conduct Effective Tests by Jeffrey Rubin, Wiley, 1994.
Cost-Justifying Usability (2nd edition) by Randolph Bias and Deborah Mayhew, Morgan Kaufmann, 2005.

Learning Objectives

Students who complete this course should have knowledge of process, methods, tools used in user interface development and usability testing.

Topics covered

Introduction to usability concepts
Review of human-computer interaction
User-centered design
UI implementation issues
Usability testing

Prerequisites

Required:
1) Software engineering background
2) Proficiency in web development or Java or C# programming.

Recommended:
1) Human-Computer Interaction (CSCI 4250/8256).
2) Prior experience with GUI programming.

Lectures

(See BlackBoard for current list.)

Evaluation

Students taking the class as CSCI4260 will be evaluated as follows:

Homeworks:	20%
Projects:	40%
Exams (midterm and final):	35%
Class participation:	5%

Students taking the class as CSCI8266 will be evaluated as follows:

Homeworks: 10%

Projects: 35%

Exams (midterm and final): 35%

Class participation: 5%

Research paper: 15%

Homeworks

Most homeworks will revolve around readings of book chapters from The Design of Everyday Things. The book will be used for in class discussions of design principles. A writeup is to be submitted before every discussion.

Project

The semester project is intended to put into practice the interface design principles learned throughout the course. The project can be any application as long as:

it involves significant/nontrivial user interaction or presents a challenging usability problem.
you have access to several types of prospective users to interview and test out the prototype.

Exams

Approximate exam dates:

Midterm - mid-March
Finals - early May

Graduate Student Research Paper

Students taking the class as CSCI8266 will also write a paper on an advanced topic in a user interface research area. Each student must also make a 20-minute presentation on their paper near the end of the semester.

Guidelines for assessing class participation

Grade	Description
5	Regularly makes helpful, relevant contributions to lecture discussions. Offers observations that challenges classmates to think about the material in new ways.
4	Attends regularly and occasionally makes helpful, relevant contributions to lecture discussions.
3	Attends regularly and actively pays attention to discussion.
2	Attends regularly but does not pay attention to discussion.
1	Does not attend regularly.
0	Misses most classes.

(Adapted from http://web.hamline.edu/personal/skellert/cpgrade.htm.)

Policy on late homeworks

For chapter summaries to be used in class discussions: Late submissions will receive a 50% deduction per day if submitted after the class discussions have been conducted.
For other types of homeworks (if any): Late submissions will get a 20% deduction per day, for each day past the due time (as timestamped on Blackboard).
Paper submissions must be handed directly to me on the day it is due.

Academic Integrity

Cheating will not be tolerated for project assignments, exams and other assignments. Consult the UNO Student Policies and Department of Computer Science Policies and Procedures for formal policies about cheating and plagiarism.

Meeting time:	TR 4:00-5:15
Classroom:	PKI 335
Instructor:	Dr. Harvey Siy
Office:	PKI 281B
Phone:	(402)554-2834
Office Hours:	By appointment (call or email in advance)
Email:	hsiy at unomaha dot edu
Textbooks:	The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman, Basic Books, 2002
	About Face 3.0 by Alan Cooper, Wiley, 2007
(optional)	Building Interactive Systems by Dan Olsen, Cengage Learning, 2010