CGT 256 Human Computer Interface Theory and Design Course meets: Lecture: MW 4:30-5:20 pm, Knoy B019

Lab 02: Tues. 9:30-11:20 am Knoy 340 Lab 03: Tues. 11:30-1:20 pm Knoy 340 Professor: Dr. Mihaela Vorvoreanu Office: Knoy 317 Email: mihaela@purdue.edu Office hours: MW 2:00-3:00 pm; by appointment Teaching Assistant: Geovon Boisvenue Office: Knoy 374 Email: gboisven@purdue.edu Office hours: MW 2:00-3:00 pm; by appointment



Information about the course will be made available on: y Course blog: http://cgt256.wordpress.com/ y Emails from professor and teaching assistant y Blackboard Please make sure you monitor all three continuously throughout the semester! Course description: Lecture, Lab, Credit 3 hrs. This course is an intermediate exploration of conceptualization and problem solving using the integration of type and image as both visual and verbal communication. Topics such as systems of organization, visual hierarchy, creativity, typography, color, and navigation are introduced and explored in a systematic way. Students will also be introduced to the issues of information and user interface design to create effective and visually stimulating communication devices. Course objectives: Upon completing this course, students will be able to: 1. Apply the design process to create computer interfaces 2. Apply visual principles to interface design 3. Apply usability principles to interface design 4. Conduct usability research Course textbooks: Brinck, T., Gergle, D., & Wood, S. D. (2002). Usability for the Web: Designing Web sites that work (1st ed.). San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers. ISBN-10: 1558606580; ISBN-13: 978-1558606586. Price: $75.44 (BGW in the schedule below). Krug, S. (2005). Don t make me think. (2nd ed.). Berkeley, CA: New Riders Press. ISBN-10: 0321344758; ISBN-13: 978-0321344755. Price: $23.17 (Krug in the schedule below). Other readings posted on Blackboard (Bb).

CGT 256 Human Computer Interface Theory and Design



MAJOR ASSIGNMENTS:
Good/Bad Design Show & Tell Each student will bring to class/lab 3 examples of either good or bad design. A screen shot of the example needs to be emailed to the teaching assistant at least one day before the class when you are planning to show your example, so you can get on the list for that day. You will get no more than 1 minute of class time to show your example and tell us why you think it is good or bad. Point out one specific aspect, or one design/usability principle that is applied well or violated. These minipresentations can be done during either lecture or lab. It is up to you to decide when you want to do your show & tell and to keep track of how many you have done. Please make sure you spread them over the semester. You cannot do more than one presentation during the same week, and there will not be more than 3 presentations during any given lecture session or 5 presentations during any given lab session. 5 points. Design evaluations - There will be 3 small projects requiring you to apply the design and usability principles you have learned to evaluate existing designs. 15 points. Midterm exam Multiple choice. 10 points. Final exam Multiple choice. 10 points. Lab exercises There will be 5 graded lab exercises, italicized in the Course Schedule. The number of points for each exercise is posted by each exercise. All lab exercises are due by the end of lab. 10 points. Small assignments and quizzes Quizzes based on readings, unannounced. 5 points. Assignments related to the final project: Assignment instructions will be posted on Blackboard and the Course Blog. Personas, Use cases & Design requirements 10 points Site map & Information architecture 3 points Page mockups 2 points Page prototypes 5 points Final project: Web site designed following the steps of the design process, with application of design and usability principles. Executed using CSS. 15 points Attendance, participation, professionalism (APP): Every student in the class starts with an automatic maximum of 10 points for APP. Students may lose some or all 10 points if their attendance, participation, and/or professionalism do not meet the professor s and the teaching assistant s expectations.

CGT 256 Human Computer Interface Theory and Design



Attendance You are allowed 2 personal days when you can miss lecture or lab. Any missed lecture or lab sessions beyond those 2 personal days will result in a 3-point deduction. Excuses accepted only for serious emergencies, and only if well documented with written evidence. If you are not present at the beginning of each session when the roster is called, you will be marked absent for that class. If you are marked absent for5 or more lectures or labs (a total of 5 combined, not including the 2 personal days), you will fail the course. Participation You are expected to do the readings before the class for which they are assigned. For example, you should read chapter 1 from BGW before class on January 19. You are expected to make informed, meaningful contributions to both lecture and lab discussions and exercises. Make an effort to speak up. Be engaged. Pay attention. If you occupy yourself with anything not related to class, you will lose all 10 points. Professionalism You are expected to behave and communicate professionally with fellow students, the teaching assistant, and the professor. Be courteous, polite, dependable. When in doubt, ask yourself if the behavior would be tolerated in the workplace. It is always safer to err on the side of being more formal and polite than necessary. Proofread the emails you send that are class related, and address them semiformally. ( Hey or heya are not semi-formal salutations.) Disruptive or unprofessional behavior of any kind, observed by classmates, the teaching assistant, or the professor, will result in loss of 10 points. Extremely unprofessional behavior will be reported to the Dean of Students and may result in failure of the course. Course grades: Total points 95-100 90-94 87-89 84-86 80-83 77-79 74-76 70-73 67-69 64-66 60-63 0-59 Letter Grade A, A+ AB+ B BC+ C CD+ D DF

CGT 256 Human Computer Interface Theory and Design



COURSE POLICIES
Late assignments Late assignments will not be accepted unless prior arrangements have been made with the professor. File management You are responsible for saving and backing up your files. Save and backup often. If you lose work, you will have to redo it before deadline. Missed materials You are responsible for obtaining information, materials, and assignments missed because of an absence. Make-up quizzes, class or lab exercises Small quizzes and class exercises cannot be made up. You can make up lab assignments only if you have made arrangements with the teaching assistant prior to missing a class. Copyright Do not violate copyright for any assignments. If you use materials from the Web, make sure they are available for free, or under the Creative Commons license. Please turn in with your assignments the source URL of any materials you use, and documentation that you have the right to use them. Academic dishonesty - Standards set by Purdue University as outlined in the Student Handbook and the University Regulations will be observed in this course. Any student found participating in cheating plagiarism, copying material from another person, using illegal cribs or other materials during written examination, lying to course instructors and lab assistants about his or her own work, stealing tests, quizzes, or answer keys, and any such activities will be considered in conflict with the printed academic honesty guidelines as set out by Purdue University and the College of Technology. In such cases the matter will be reported to the Office of the Dean and the appropriate Purdue University administration officers for consideration and disciplinary action. Any form of academic dishonesty will result in failure of the course and will be reported to the Dean of Students Changes to course schedule, assignments, grading scheme The professor may change the course schedule, assignments, and/or grading scheme to better serve students learning needs and accommodate any unexpected events. Changes will be announced by email and in the course blog, and an updated syllabus will be posted to Blackboard. Emergency statement: Please take some time to familiarize yourself with campus emergency procedures, available at: http://www.itap.purdue.edu/tlt/faculty/. If you haven t done so already, please consider signing up for the campus text message emergency notification system at: http://www.purdue.edu/securepurdue/.

CGT 256 Human Computer Interface Theory and Design



COURSE SCHEDULE
Date Topic Week 1 Jan 9 Course overview Jan Discussion: Why 10 websites suck Jan Important 11 definitions CGT 256 Spring 2010 Schedule* Readings Assignments

1 2 3

http://arstechnica.com/old/content/2005 /05/gui.ars/ http://cgt256.wordpress.com/2011/01/1 2/interface-history-resouces/ MLK DAY --- NO CLASS

Week 2 Jan 16 4 Jan Exercise: Design 17 process 5 Jan Design process 18 overview Week 3 6 Jan User behavior & 23 cognition: Attention & memory 7 Jan Exercise: 24 Attention & Memory applications 8 Jan Perception 25 Week 4 9 Jan Mental models 30 & Decision making 10 Jan Exercises: 31 Perception, Mental models, IFT applications 11 Feb 1 User research 1: Data collection Week 5 12 Feb 6 User research 2: Data collection

BGW 1

Krug 2

http://uxmag.com/design/elevator-logicapplied-to-web-and-mobile-design

Perception reading on Bb

Mental models & IFT readings on Bb

BGW 3

CGT 256 Human Computer Interface Theory and Design & analysis Exercise: Research plan Personae, Scenarios and use cases



13 Feb 7 14 Feb 8

BGW 2

15

16

17

18

Week 6 Feb Task Analysis & 13 Requirements definition Feb Assignment: 14 Create use cases & requirements Feb Information 15 architecture & URL design Week 7 Feb Design mockup 20 & prototyping

BGW 4

Research plan due

BGW 5

BGW 7

Use cases & requiremen ts due

19 Feb 21

20 Feb 22

Assignment: Create site map & Information architecture Visual design & usability principles

Krug 1, 4, & 3

Week 8 21 Feb Visual design 27 principles 1: Page layout, metaphors 22 Feb 28 Exercise: Grids (2 points)

BGW 6

Site map & info architectur e due, with mockups Grids exercise due by end of lab

23 Feb 29

Visual design principles 2: Color, Typography

BGW 9 (pp. 302-314)

Week 9

CGT 256 Human Computer Interface Theory and Design 24 Mar 5 MIDTERM EXAM 25 Mar 6 Exercise: Design principles 2 (1 point)



Design principles 2 exercise due by end of lab Krug 6 MARCH 12 16 SPRING BREAK

26 Mar 7 Navigation design Week 10 Mar Homepage 19 design Mar Assignment: 20 Critique Homepages & Navigation solutions Exercise: Navigation menus in CSS (3 points) Mar Menus & 21 Commands Week 11 Mar Writing for the 26 Web

27 28

Krug 7 Navigation menus exercise due by end of lab

29

Cooper 21 & 22, on Bb

30

Krug 5, BGW 8

31 Mar 27

Exercise: Writing for the Web (1 point)

Homepage & Navigation critiques due Writing for the Web exercise due by end of lab

32 Mar Eliminating 28 Excise Week 12 33 Apr 2 Usability principles summary 34 Apr 3 Assignment: Heuristic evaluation

Cooper 11, on Bb

Nielsen Heuristic evaluation&10 heuristics

CGT 256 Human Computer Interface Theory and Design 35 Apr 4 Usability testing: Research design Week 13 36 Apr 9 Usability testing: Analyzing and reporting data 37 Apr Exercise: 10 Usability graphs and charts (3 points) 38 Apr 11 Client communication



Krug 9, BGW 12

Heuristic evaluation due Graphs & charts exercise due by end of lab Page prototypes due Krug 11

39 40 41

42

43 44

Week 14 Apr Accessibility 16 Apr Work on final 17 project Apr Designing for 18 mobile interfaces Week 15 Apr Social 23 interaction design Apr Work on final 24 project Apr Course Review 25 Week 16

Final project due FINAL EXAM

*Schedule subject to change. Please monitor your email and the course blog throughout the semester for announcements.