CS5760 Course Policies

Instructor

Robert Pastel
204 Rekhi
pastel at mtu.edu

Class Schedule

Tuesday and Thursday at 2:05-3:20 in Rekhi G09.

Recommended Texts

  • Interaction Design, Preece, Rogers and Sharp, Wiley, any version, my early version is ISBN 0-471-49278-7
  • Usability Testing and Research, Barnum, Longman Publishers, ISBN 0-205-31519-4

Referenced Texts

I used these text books to prepare the class notes:

  • Human-Computer Interaction, Dix et. al.,  Prentice Hall, ISBN 0-12-239864-8
  • The Humane Interface, Raskin, Addison Wesley,  ISBN 0-201-37937-6
  • Usability Engineering, Rosson and Carrol, Morgan Kaufmann, ISBN 1-55860-712-9
  • Designing the User Interface, Shneiderman, Addison Wesley Longman, ISBN 0-201-69497-2
  • Interaction Design, Preece, Robers, and Sharp, Wiley, ISBN 0-471-49278-7
  • The Psychology of Human-Computer Interaction, Card, Moran and Newell, Lawrence Erlbaum Ass. Publishers, 1983
  • User-Centered Website Development, McCracken and Wolfe, Printice Hall, ISBN 0-13-0411611-2
  • Usability Testing and Research, Barnum, Longman Publishers, ISBN 0-205-31519-4
  • Volume 1: Xlib programming manual by Adrian Nye, 3rd edition, June 1992. O’Reilly & Associates, Inc.
  • Edward R. Tufte, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, Graphics Press, ISBN 0-9613921-0-X
  • Edward R. Tufte, Visual Explanatins, Graphics Press, ISBN 0-9613921-2-6
  • Universal Principles of Design, William Lidwell, Kritina Holden and Jill Bulter, Rockport  Publishers Inc., ISBN 1-59253-007-6
  • The Resonant Interface, Steven Heim, Addison Wesley, ISBN 0-321-37596-3
  • Sketching User Experiences, Bill Buxton, Focal Press, ISBN 0-12-374037-1
  • Software For Use, Larry Constantien and Lucy Lockwood, Addison Wesley, ISBN o-201-92478-1
  • Research Methods in Human-Computer Interaction, Jonathan Lazar, Jinjuan Heidi Feng and Harry Hochheiser, Wiley, ISBN 978-0-470-72337-1

CS5760 Course Goals

The course goals are knowledge of User Experience (UX), proficiency in user interface evaluation, and advance knowledge of a specific topic in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI).

Learning Objectives

  • You will demonstrate the ability to evaluate a system to meet the desired needs within realistic constraints by multiple evaluations of user interfaces with constraints defined by the client sponsoring the app, potential users and the platform (web) for implementation.
  • You will demonstrate the ability to perform analysis by analyzing and documenting your evaluations.
  • You will demonstrate the ability to communicate analytical results to a broad audience by presenting usability test results and suggestions to an audience that includes your client, undergraduate Computer Science students in the HCI Design and Implementation course, and Communication students in the Usability and Instruction Writing course.
  • You will demonstrate the ability to function on a multidisciplinary team by working on a team that includes your client, undergraduate Computer Science students in the HCI Design and Implementation course, and Communication students in the Usability and Instruction Writing course.
  • You will demonstrate the ability to learn advance concepts in HCI by conducting a literature search on a specific topic in HCI and writing a paper on the topic.
  • You will demonstrate the ability to communicate advance concepts to a broad audience by presenting an advance topic in HCI to an audience that includes  undergraduate Computer Science students in the HCI Design and Implementation course, and Communication students in the Usability and Instruction Writing course.

Perquisite

You will not be required to program, but you will need experience working in groups.

Project

The course has two major components: HCI topic study and HCI evaluations.  The HCI study is a semester long project, which consists of a presentation introducing the topic and a paper proposing and justifying your ideas. You may choose your own topic. You also assist the undergraduate projects by making formal evaluations of their design and at the end of the semester you will design, conduct and analyze a usability test on one of the undergraduate projects.

Class Participation

You must be present for the project presentations; absolutely no excuses.  You must also attend class for discussions and collaborating with undergraduate groups.

Late Assignments

All assignments are required. If you cannot complete any assignment you still must submit it, but I will not give you feedback on the assignment. Sometimes I miss an assignment submission, so if have not given you timely feedback on your assignment, please email me a reminder with the subject line “cs5760 – Missing feedback” and the body of the email explain what assignment is missing and when you submitted it.

Course Grade

Your course grade will be determined by your performance on the HCI topic, evaluations of the undergraduate projects and course participation. Participation includes assisting undergraduate groups and discussion during lectures. Because assignments assist the undergraduate projects, Late assignments are not reviewed and do not receive credit. This is a graduate course, so I will not give you percentage breakdown of the grading.

Academic Integrity

Graduate students work with teams and may discuss any aspect of the project with their team and other graduate students, but writing the assignments or reports for the team is to be an individual effort.

Disabilities

Please let me know if you have a disability that requires special arrangements.

References to University Policies

University policies on Academic Integrity, Assessment, Disabilities Services, Institutional Equity and Inclusions, Veteran/Military, and Equal Opportunity, Discrimination, or Harassment Statement can be found at:

http://www.mtu.edu/ctl/instructional-resources/syllabus/policies.html