SE 6343 User Interface Design and Implementation Fall 2003
6:00 PM until 7:15 PM Mondays and Wednesdays Room H121

Rich Halstead-Nussloch
is solely responsible for this page.
Last changed 11/3/03

• Note my office is now in the new Architecture Building (N154)
• Read the whole syllabus--understand the assignments and grading

Text | Class Notices | Description | Objectives | Projects and Assignments | Lecture Notes | Documents/Handouts/Zip Files |
Class Schedule | Journal | Class Attendance | Graded Work | Policies | Hyperlinks
Disabilities (ADA) | Schedule Questions and Registration Problems |

Clayton Lewis and John Rieman, Task-Centered User Interface Design. 1994 Shareware available at http://www.hcibib.org/tcuid/index.html

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Objectives

Upon successful completion of the course, each student will be able to:

• Define and discuss major frameworks, categories, techniques, approaches and methods of designing, engineering, implementing and testing user interfaces all the time keeping users and user tasks at the center of the design.
• Define and discuss major concepts of physical ergonomics, cognition, perception, human memory, and information processing that have a bearing on user interface design.
• Plan, research, and design the use of major software engineering techniques leading to user interfaces that users find effective and pleasing. These techniques include (but are not limited to):
  • User and usability requirements gathering
  • Task analysis
  • User-interface design, prototyping, and coding
  • User-interface evaluation with respect to requirements and users' tasks
• Plan, design, and implement prototypes of multiple user-interface design and development projects utilizing user-centered techniques.
• Evaluate effectively the usability of user interfaces and design alternatives.

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SPSU 2000-2002 Course Catalog Description

SE 6343 User Interface Design and Implementation

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Projects Assignments and Graded Work

• Course, Book, and Research Discussion covers timely questions from the course and its text and your research on user-interface design and implementation. This discussion will be carried out via round-robin, in-class discussion every Wednesday. Each student is expected to keep current in the reading, and participate in the discussion for the week. A one-page "talking paper" along with a one-slide set of "talking points" are required and will be evaluated. Your participation and contribution made during the weekly discussion will also count towards your class contribution grade.
• Three Concept Papers. The concept papers will cover the following main topic areas:
  • Users and their tasks (due 15 September)
  • Designing, Prototyping, and Developing the User Interface (due 20 October)
  • Usability and Human Factors Engineering (due 17 November)
  Each student is expected to read and comment upon three other concept papers for each round of submission, which will be assigned to you. Your commenting will be reflected in your class contribution grade. Remember, be consultative and professional in your comments.
• Three Projects on usability engineering that will be added to an ACM-hosted web site for usability consultants. Each of the projects requires submission of: of
  • a project report from a template
  • a project presentation in terms of a web pages written to a CSS Projects will be done in teams of 3 to 5 students. These projects will be chosen from a list to be distributed on 8/25/03.
  The projects will cover:
  • User Analysis and Task Analysis (due 29 September)
  • Designing, Prototyping, and Developing User Interfaces (due 14 November)
  • Usability Evaluation and Engineering (due on the Final Exam Day)
• Participation in and contribution to class discussion and activity is required. Contribution to in-class discussion is the primary way this will take place. This might also take place in person-to-person meetings that student teams will manage on their own and report.

Weights for graded components

• Weekly Discussions 15% (roughly 1% each)
• Concept Paper with Highest Grade 20%
• Concept Paper with Second Highest Grade 10%
• Concept Paper with the Lowest Grade 5%
• Projects--three reports, with top two at 15% each
• Class Participation and Contribution, 20%, Ongoing

Note: All written work must be submitted electronically preferable using Word, HTML or PDF. Use the spell-checker. Deductions will be taken for persistent misspellings, etc.

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Lecture Notes Available

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Useful Zip Files, Documents, and Handouts

• The Usability Process in Computing
• Task Analysis
• Ethics: Hints and Tips for Research and Testing
• Our modification of Bill Venners' Design Process
• A quick guide to presentations

Topic	Reading	Exercise	Concept Topic	Project
Introduction	Chapter 0	Book 0.1	Users and their tasks	Task & User Analysis
Task-Centered Design	Ch 1	Book 1.1	"	(Book F1)
Users and the User Interface	Ch 2	Book 6.1	"	"
Tasks and Task Analysis		Book 2.1	"	"
Float		Book 6.2	Concept 1 Due	Project 1 Due
UIMS/Prototyping Systems	Ch 6	Book 3.1	UIMS Update	Initial Design & Prototype
Initial Design Creation	Ch 3	Book 3.2	"	with Cognitive 'Walkthru
Float		Book 3.2	"	(Book F2)
Usability Engineering		Book 4.1	Concept 2 Due	"
Usability Evaluation by experts	Ch 4	Book 4.2	Usability/HF Engineering	"
Usability Evaluation with users	Ch 5	Book 4.3	"	Project 2 Due
Usability as Software Engineering		Book 5.1	"	Usability Evaluation
Float		Book 5.2	Concept 3 Due	"
Extended UI	Ch 7	Book 7.1		"
UI Implementation		Book 7.2		"
Next Steps				Project 3 Due

NOTE: The professor reserves the right to adjust the schedule to meet the needs of the class.

Keeping a journal is highly recommended for this course. Include in it descriptions of your readings, your reviews of your readings and activities, tips and techniques for doing software engineering and design on the user interface, usability evaluations, etc. the results of your research, testing, and trials, logs of, e.g., Internet activity, etc.

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Class Attendance

Class participation and contribution will account for a significant portion of your grade. Since one cannot contribute to and participate in the class without attending, attendance is recommended. Regardless of attendance, each student is responsible for keeping up with materials and information from each class period. This means it is up to the student to arrange with another class member, obtaining notes, handouts, etc., from any class meeting, or portion thereof, missed.

NOTE: All students are expected to attend the final presentation session(s) in their entirety. Any un-excused absences during this period will result in the loss of a whole letter grade from your final course grade. If you're going to miss mandatory class(es), let me know ahead of time!!!

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Policies

1. No late submissions for full grade credit except for documented emergencies.
2. All work assigned to be turned in is due at the beginning of the class.
3. Assignments turned in late will be accepted, but at a grade discount. Multiple late assignments will result in additional discount applied to your final course grade.
4. Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated.

Note that you will be leaving the Southern Polytechnic website by taking these links, and neither Southern Polytechnic nor Richard Halstead-Nussloch has control over what you will encounter.

• O'Reilly's VB Page
• Microsoft Visual Basic Page
• Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications Page
• ACM Home Page
• IEEE Home Page
• Galileo Home Page
• The largest freely accessible literature database in computer science
• Bill Vernners' Introduction to "Design Techniques" from 1998 JavaWorld

Disabilities--Americans with Disabilities Act Compliance

Students with disabilities who believe that they may need accommodations in this class are encouraged to contact the counselor working with disabilities at (770) 528-7226 as soon as possible to better ensure that such accommodations are implemented in a timely fashion.

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Schedule and Registration

If you are majoring in Computer Science and have questions about your schedule or you are having registration problems, please contact the CSE Student Services office located at J 393 or call (770)528-7406 and ask for an appointment.

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