SE 6783 User Interaction Engineering Spring 2003
9:00 until 10:15 PM Tuesday and Thursday Room J202 and by WebCT

Rich Halstead-Nussloch
is solely responsible for this page.
Last changed 2/25/03

• Have a great term!
• Transcript of the 20 February Chat Session
• Read the draft se6343 report
• 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 |

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

Please the shareware fee either directly to Clayton and John, or to Rich for forwarding to them by Labor Day.

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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 and engineering user interactions with software systems.
• Define and discuss major concepts of ethnography, usability, and cognitive ergonomics, that have a bearing on user interactions with software.
• Research and plan the use of major software engineering techniques leading to software objects (classes and/or components) implementing user interactions that users find efficient, effective and pleasing.
• Plan, design, test, and implement prototypes of software object(s) for user interaction.

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SPSU 2002-2003 Course Catalog Description

SWE 6783 User Interaction Engineering

This course follows a complete software-engineering cycle to produce software objects (classes and/or components) that support users in effective, efficient, and enjoyable interactions with computers. Class exercises and a project incorporate concepts and methods including ethnographic and user analysis; cognitive ergonomics; usability metrics and criteria; software-engineering practices, conventions, standards, and documentation; device-user action mapping; person-system function allocation; quality management systems; conceptual prototyping; embedded systems in support of ubiquitous computing; and function-behavior analysis.

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Projects Assignments and Graded Work

• Weekly Exercises and Discussion Covering the Course, Book, and Research We will cover timely questions from the course and its text and your research on user-interaction design and engineering in a short (one page or less) exercise-discussion format. The discussion will be carried out via round-robin, in-class every Thursday. Each student is expected to keep current in the reading, write a short (one-page or less) exercise solution, and participate in the discussion for the week. The weekly discussion will count towards your class contribution grade.
• Three Concept Papers. The concept papers will cover the following main topic areas:
  • Users and User-System Interaction (due 2/13)
  • Software and Usability Engineering and Quality (due 3/13)
  • User Interaction Design Engineering (due 4/10)
  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.
• A User-Interaction Engineering Project requiring submission of
  • a proposal from a template
  • a project report from a template
  • a project presentation with slides.
  • a prototype user-interface software object (class and/or component) Projects will be done in teams of 3 to 5 students. These projects will be chosen from a list to be distributed in the first two weeks of class.
• 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 Exercises 10% (roughly 1% each)
• Concept Paper with Highest Grade 15%
• Concept Paper with Second Highest Grade 10%
• Concept Paper with the Lowest Grade 5%
• Project 40% (5% Proposal, 5% Report and Presentation, 30% Software Object)
• 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

• Our modification of Bill Venners' Design Process
• A quick guide to presentations
• Ethics: Hints and Tips for Research and Testing

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.

• 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

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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