CS 4750 - User Interface Design

Professor:
Albert Badre
E-mail: badre@cc.gatech.edu
Office hours:Tuesdays & Thursdays, 11:00-12:00, CCB 203, 404-894-2598

TA:
Caroline Gattein
E-mail: cgattein@cc.gatech.edu
Office hours: Fridays, 11am-1pm, CRB 2d floor 245B

Slides:
http://www.cc.gatech.edu/classes/cs6751_98_summer/badre-slides/sld001.htm

Texts:
The Inmates are Running the Asylum: A. Cooper
Shaping Web Usability: Interaction Design in context: A. Badre

Course Objective:

This course covers the human factors of software and interface design. Emphasis is placed on techniques and guidelines to design and critique different types of screens, transaction codes, types and styles of interaction, and user information packaging and referencing. Concepts in interface design and testing are considered in relation to human information processing capabilities and limitations.

Teaching philosophy:

The primary purpose of this course is to help you understand principles and develop skills in the design of computer user interfaces. To help you acquire the needed skills, the course will focus on learning by doing. Accordingly, there will be two foci:

1) An interface design project, where the emphasis is on a user-centered approach to designing and implementing the user interface to a web or software application;

2) Participation in in-class project and discussion activities.

The textbook and the handout material should be considered resources to help you carry out both the term project and the in-class activity. Use the book and the lectures notes as reference material. The underlying philosophy of the approach in this course is that concepts are learned and remembered better when they are learnt in a real work environment as in the course of project development.

Topics:

Overview of human-computer interaction
User requirements, user characteristics, and task analysis
Human information processing in human-computer interaction
Interactive information transfer
Visual processing factors
Information processing factors
Human factors of displaying information
Response time
User interface design principles and guidelines
Direct manipulation
Graphic user interface design
Menus
Fill-in forms
Other dialogue styles
Interactive transaction factors
Learning component
Information packaging
Usability testing and evaluation
Computer-supported cooperative work and multimedia interfaces

Evaluation:

Quizzes & Midterm	35%
Project	40% with 25% for team portion and 15% for individual portion (Must show evidence of substantive participation in the team in order to qualify for a project passing grade)
Class activity / participation	15%
Final	10%

Class assignment schedule:

Week

Date

Class Topic

Reading assignment (all readings

should be completed by Tuesday)

Aug 20

Aug 22

Introduction

Class discussion

C-Chap 1

B-Chap 1

Aug 27

Aug 29

HCI Overview

C-Chap 1

B-Chap 1

Sep 3

Sep 5

Audience analysis & user requirements

C-Chap 5 & 6

B-Chap 4

Sep 10

Sep 12

Mental models, metaphors, memory

C-Chap 3

B-Chap 2

Sep 17

Sep 19

Modes and genre

C-Chap 4

B-Chap 6

Sep 24

Sep 26

Interaction design

B- Chap 7

C-Chap 2

Oct 1

Oct 3

Interaction design

Midterm (Oct 3)

C-Chap 9

Oct 8

Oct 10

New media

B-Chap 8

C-Chap 9

Oct 17

New media & unconventional interfaces

C-Chap 7

Oct 22

Oct 24

Unconventional interfaces

B-Chap 10

C-Chap 10

Oct 29

Oct 31

Cultural usability

B-Chap 11

Readings on the web

C-Chap 12

Nov 5

Nov 7

Evaluation & quantification

B-Chap 12

C-Chap 13

Nov 12

Nov 14

Evaluation

Handouts

Nov 19

Nov 21

Nov 26

Project presentations

Dec 3

Dec 5

Project presentations

Group Project

Select design team.
Each design team will identify a web product idea to specify, design and prototype a web application, site, or tool. The Web product should be useful to users that range from novices to experts. The interface to your selected system must incorporate three or more media.
Define an audience for the system. Describe any clusters within the audience. What are the responsibilities of each cluster? What are the characteristics of each cluster that are relevant to the design of the interface? What is the range for each characteristic? (e.g. Age-between 18 and 35). What is the frequency of its occurrence in the audience ( e.g. 70% 18-25 & 30 % 25-35). How do the selected characteristics relate to design decisions or what is the impact of design? Make sure to develop well-founded explanations for your choice of audience clusters, characteristics, and ranges, e.g., use existing research data and survey data, develop rational arguments, etc.
Perform task analysis. Select two tasks to be performed on the system. The tasks should be of sufficient complexity to require several navigational steps.
Develop a usability specification table.
Create a series of storyboards which describe the dialogue/behavior of the system and user during the performance of the selected task. The initial screen (home page - functionality) is required, with other screens as necessary for the performance of sophisticated (multi-step) tasks.
Implement a prototype to present in class and a report describing the system, your audience analysis, task analysis, usability specifications, and a detailed description of the interface delineating the usability and human factors basis for your design.