CIS 443/543: User Interfaces

Course Syllabus

January 6, 2004

Winter 2004: TTh 10:00-11:20 am, 127 Chiles

Prerequisites: CIS 313 & 314 for undergraduates; CIS graduate standing for graduates.

Description: This course is intended as an introduction to user interface software engineering. Emphasis will be placed on the theory and methods of Human-Centered Design, understanding the behavior of the user, and implementation of an interactive system.

Week	Date	Topic	Reading
1 Tues	1/6	Motivations and Contexts for HCI	Lecture
1 Thurs	1/8	Psych & Soc Foundations	Lecture
2 Tues	1/13	Human-CenteredSoftware Development	R&C 1 & Reading #1
2 Thurs	1/15	Requirements Analysis	R&C 2
3 Tues	1/20	Exercise #1: Scenario & Requirements Analysis DUE	R&C 1 & 2; Team studio presentation
3 Thurs	1/22	Activity Design	R&C 3
4 Tues	1/27	Design Exercise #2: Activity Design DUE	R&C 3; Team studio presentation
4 Thurs	1/29	Information Design	R&C 4
5 Tues	2/3	Exercise #3: Information Design DUE	R&C 4; Team studio presentation
5 Thurs	2/5	Interaction Design	R&C 5
6 Tues	2/10	Exercise #4: Interaction Design DUE	R&C 5; Team studio presentation
6 Thurs	2/12	Usability Evaluation: Analytic methods	R&C 7.1-7.2, 7.4
7 Tues	2/17	Exercise #5: Usability Evaluation: Analytic Methods DUE	R&C 7.1-7.2, 7.4 & Reading #2; Team studio presentation
7 Thurs	2/19	Prototyping	R&C 6
8 Tues	2/24	Prototyping	R&C 6
8 Thurs	2/26	Usability Evaluation: Empirical methods	R&C 7.3-7.4
9 Tues	3/2	Usability Evaluation: Empirical methods	R&C 7.3-7.4
9 Thurs	3/4	User Documentation	R&C 8
10 Tues	3/9	Exercise #6: Usability Evaluation Videotaping DUE	R&C 7.3-7.4 & Reading #3; Team studio presentation
10 Thurs	3/11	Usability Engineering in Practice	R&C 10
11 Wed	3/17	Final Exam: Project presentations and final projects turn-in DUE	Final team studio presentation

Instructor: Professor Sarah Douglas, 343 Deschutes, phone 346-3974, email douglas AT cs.uoregon.edu. Office hours: 3-5pm MW or by appointment.

Graduate Teaching Fellow: Ishwinder Kaur. 341 Deschutes, phone 346-4425, email ishakaur AT cs.uoregon.edu. Office hours: 10am-12pm MW or by appointment.

Communication: There will be a website at www.cs.uoregon.edu/classes/04W/cis443/ and a mailing alias “cis443”. Please mail to the class alias if you wish to contact all students. Correspondence to the instructor will be shared if necessary while preserving the anonymity of the sender. Lecture slides will be posted on the Web site.

Required Readings: There is one required text available in the UO Bookstore: Usability Engineering by Rosson and Carroll. This book will be called “R&C” in the syllabus with the chapter specified by number, e.g. “R&C 3” is chapter 3. In addition, there are short readings.

Reading #1	“Rapid Scout: Bridging the Gulf Between Physical and Virtual Environments” by David Ranson, Emily Patterson, Daniel Kidwell, Gavin Renner, Mike Matthews, Jim Corban, Emil Seculov, and Constantine Souhleris In Proceedings of CHI 96, pp. 442-449, published by ACM.
Reading #2	“Bridging the Gap between Accessibility and Usability” by Mary Frances Theofanos and Janice Redish. In Interactions magazine November/December 2003, pp.36-51, published by ACM.
Reading #3	How to do usability testing.

Assignments: There will be 6 design exercises that are steps in creating a final project. The assignments are to be done as a team effort. All teams must have from 2-4 people, either all undergrads or all grads. In addition to these design exercises, the final project will be due at the end of the class. This will be the implemented system complete with user documentation.

Programming: Programming can be done in any language or system that is appropriate.

Grading	Attendance & Participation	10% of course grade
	Assignments (6)	60% of course grade, 10% each
	Final Project	30% of course grade

Policy on Attendance and Participation: Student discussion and participation will be an important part of the weekly design exercises and all other classes. The exercises will use a design studio format with team presentations and critique by the other members of the class.

Policy on Graduate Student Grading: Since this is a combined undergraduate/graduate class, I will grade graduate students differently in several ways. Graduate students will often have different problems to do, and, secondly, graduate student answers on problems will be held to higher expectations of quality.

Policy on Team Grading: Each member of the team is expected to contribute equally to the group. You will be graded on participation in the group as well as participation in class. For each assignment, I will ask each member of a group to fill out a form evaluating participation of team members.

Policy on Late Assignments: All assignments are due at 10am at the beginning of class on the date due. Late assignments will be accepted until 5pm of the date due at a loss of 5% credit. Assignments submitted after the date due will receive 0 points. If you think you have a legitimate reason to argue for an exception from this rule, make sure that you communicate it prior to the due date.

Policy on Cheating and Plagiarism: Assignments constitute a large part of evaluation, hence it is crucial that they reflect your individual and group work. Any traces of plagiarism, i.e. copying someone else’s work, will be dealt with according to the University regulations. On the other hand, I encourage you to share ideas and discuss the material in the lectures and textbook with other members of the class.

Policy on Prerequisite: This course has a prerequisite of CIS 313 and CIS 314. These courses must be completed with a grade of C- or better, and are needed for an overall successful experience for the students enrolled in the class. If you have not fulfilled these prerequisites, we ask that you withdraw from the class. If you remain in the class, the instructor may choose not to evaluate your work and you will not receive credit for the course. If you have questions, please see the instructor or a CIS advisor for help in planning your schedule.