Developing usable software requires that human factors to be considered throughout the design and development process. The process, principles, and guidelines are universal and applicable to any kind of design that involves interaction between humans and non-human systems in the broadest sense. The material of this course applies not just to GUIs and the Web but to all kinds of interaction styles and devices, including ATMs, refrigerators, elevator buttons, road signs, ubiquitous computing, embedded computing, and everyday things.
This course introduces students to issues in the design, implementation, and evaluation of human-computer interfaces. Students will examine the physical, psychological, and behavioral characteristics of the user, as well as their impact on system performance. The course also presents a formal design process that places the user's needs at the forefront. The students will study an iterative evaluation-centered UX lifecycle as a lifecycle template intended to be instantiated in many different ways to match the constraints of a particular development project. The UX lifecycle activities we will cover include contextual inquiry and analysis, requirements extraction, design-informing models, design thinking, ideation, sketching, conceptual design, and formative UX evaluation.
Students will be expected to present the latest research in HCI and to participate in projects in which they practice design and evaluation of user interfaces.
Louis Yu will be the classroom instructor. For information regarding his availability, please see his contact info.
All course materials will be available through the course webpage. The URL is http://homepages.gac.edu/~lyu/teaching/mcs394-s18/.
The textbook for this course is The UX Book: Process and Guidelines for Ensuring a Quality User Experience by Hartson and Pyla, Morgan Kauffman, 2012. I recommend for you to order a copy in advance, either through the Book Mark or through another seller of your choice. the Book Mark cannot be counted on to have a copy on the shelf if you don't pre-order.
We may also use Human-Computer Interaction (3rd Edition) by Russell Beale, Janet Finlay, Gregory D. Abowd and Alan Dix later in the semester. If we do so, the corresponding reading assignments and the presentation schedule will be updated accordingly.
You are required to read the relevant Chapters specified in the schedule before each lecture, as the lectures are meant to supplement your reading (note that lectures are NOT substitutes for reading). In fact, that is manditory as there will be surprise quizzes at the end of some lectures to test your understanding of the material.
If you are too sick to present a Chapter during your assigned slot, you need to talk to me or email me as soon as possible (preferably at least 2 days prior), and provide the necessary doctor's note. Other circumstances will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. In general, you should talk to me or email me (asap) around the time of the incident.
If you miss a Chaper presentation without talking to me first (and getting a verbal or email approval from me), you will reiceve zero for that particular Chapter presentation. There is no make up.
If you miss a quiz without talking to me first (and getting a verbal or email approval from me), you will reiceve a zero for that particular quiz. There is no make up.
There will be at least 5 homework given at random times and they will be collected for grading. At the end of the semester, 5 homework scores will be chosen at random. Each homework is worth 2 points, for a total of 10 points.
At the end of this course, each student is responsible to produce a conference ready short paper (in the IEEE format).
Each student will also give a standard conference presentation (30 - 40 minutes). I will grade the quality of
the final papers and presentations using standards adapted by conference and journal reviewers.
To get students ready for the final product, this work is divided into three parts, each consists of a report and a presentation.
If you are too sick to present during your team's assigned slot, you need to talk to me or email me as soon as possible (preferably at least 2 days prior), and provide the necessary doctor's note. Other circumstances will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. In general, you should talk to me or email me (asap) around the time of the incident.
If you miss a research project presentation without talking to me first (and getting a verbal or email approval from me), you will reiceve a zero for that particular presentation.
If your team submit the project report late, your grade will drop by 10% points per day late.
It seems like an obvious concept, but I am constantly surprised by how some students do not seem to connect efforts with results, and that some still insist on taking short cuts.
For this reason, I am introducing the attendance and participation grade sheet. It is available on Moodle. On the gradesheet, I have listed all the attributes I expect a student should have in order to do well in this course. During the semester, if I observe that you are lacking in a particular attribute, I will make a note of it. At the end of the semester, I will have a one-on-one meeting with each student and discuss if he/she had met the requirements. For each attribute missing, I will take off 3 points. In total this is worth 10 points of the final grade. More importantly, I hope that the discussion I have with you will help you with work and study in the future.
For this course, I encourage questions and discussions. So, I am bringing back the bonus point system. During other teams' presentations, you are strongly encouraged to ask questions and to take part in discussions. If I feel that you had made a good contribution, you will recieve one bonus point.
Finally, you will earn bonus points if you have ideas about extra work (such as open questions) you can do and have done them outside of class. You can talk to me about what you had done and show me your work. I will give you bonus points accordingly.
The maximum amount of bonus points per student is 12. They are worth 3 percent of your final grade. That is, if by the end of the semester you had received 12 bonus points from me, you can raise your final percentage by 3%.
The grade breakdown for the course is as follows:
| A: 94-100 | B+: 87-89 | C+: 77-79 | D+: 67-69 | F: < 62 |
| A-: 90-93 | B: 83-86 | C: 73-76 | D: 63-66 | |
| B-: 80-82 | C-: 70-72 |
Please point out any arithmetic or clerical error I have made in grading, and I will gladly fix it. You may also request reconsideration if you feel I have been especially unjust.
This semester we are using Moodle to keep track of your scores. The pro of doing so is that you know your score for each component as soon as it is graded.
Any substantive contribution to your projects by another person or taken from a web site or publication should be
properly acknowledged in writing (by citing the source). Failure to do so is plagiarism and will necessitate disciplinary action.
The same standards regarding plagiarism apply to team projects as to the work of individuals, except that the author
is now the entire team rather than an individual. Anything taken from a source outside the team should be be properly
cited.
One additional issue that arises from the team authorship of projects and assignments is that all team members must stand behind
all reports bearing their names. All team members have quality assurance responsibility for the entire project. If
there is irreconcilable disagreement within the team it is necessary to indicate as such in the report (and talk to me about it).
As a student at Gustavus you are expected to uphold the Honor Code and abide by the Academic Honesty Policy. A copy of the
honor code can be found in the Academic
Bulletin and a copy of the academic honesty policy can be found in the Academic Polices section of
the
Gustavus Guide.
Gustavus Adolphus College is committed to ensuring the full participation of all students in its programs. If you have a documented disability (or you think you may have a disability of any nature) and, as a result, need reasonable academic accommodation to participate in class, take tests or benefit from the College's services, then you should speak with the Disability Services staff, for a confidential discussion of your needs and appropriate plans. Course requirements cannot be waived, but reasonable accommodations may be provided based on disability documentation and course outcomes. Accommodations cannot be made retroactively; therefore, to maximize your academic success at Gustavus, please contact Disability Services as early as possible. Disability Services (www.gustavus.edu/advising/disability/) is located in the Academic Support Center. Disability Services Coordinator, Kelly Karstad, (kkarstad@gustavus.edu or x7138), can provide further information.
Support for English learners and multilingual students is available through the Academic Support Center's Multilingual Learner Academic Specialist, Sarah Santos (ssantos@gustavus.edu or x7197). The MLAS can meet individually with students for tutoring in writing, consulting about academic tasks, and helping students connect with the College's support systems. When requested, the MLAS can consult with faculty regarding effective classroom strategies for English learners and multilingual students. The MLAS can provide students with a letter to a professor that explains and supports appropriate academic arrangements (e.g., additional time on tests, additional revisions for papers). Professors make decisions based on those recommendations at their own discretion. In addition, English learners and multilingual students can seek help from peer tutors in the Writing Center ( www.gustavus.edu/writingcenter/).