ITEC3230
Designing User Interfaces
Current Offering: Winter 2013
General Information
Page
Prof. Sotirios Liaskos
E-mail: liaskos@yorku.ca
Phone #: 416 736 2100
(x33862)
This page contains
general information about the course; nothing more
will be posted here throughout the term.
Registered students should use for current
information!
Please follow this link to
login to Moolde.
Use your Passport York to Login
Course Information
Overview and Learning
Objectives
ITEC3230 is an introductory course in the analysis and design of human-machine interfaces. It focuses on understanding the basic qualities of a good interface, important design principles for achieving those qualities, as well as approaches for empirically evaluating the result of a design effort. A great emphasis is given to techniques and theories of requirements and information acquisition and analysis. Cost-effective prototyping approaches using scripting languages are also discussed.
Coursework involves a term-long group-based project on designing a new or re-designing an existing user interface and evaluating it with users. Two sessions, an informal evaluation presentation and a more formal usability testing are followed by a comprehensive study presenting the design process and the evaluation results.
This section of the
course is largely practice-oriented and course meetings ("lectures") rely on students engaging in discussion and collaboratively working on given examples.
For current details on
the course scheduling, evaluation etc. registered students please refer to the MOODLE page, otherwise contact the instructor.
Textbook (required)
Interaction Design:
Beyond Human-Computer Interaction – 3rd Edition,
2007, Wiley; Helen Sharp, Yvonne Rogers, and Jenny
Preece; ISBN: 978-0-470-66576-3.
Prerequisites
General
prerequisites for 3000-level courses: Students
must have successfully completed all 1000- and 2000-level required
courses in
information technology and mathematics before taking courses in
information
technology at the 3000 level, including earning a minimum grade of C in
either
AK/AP/ITEC 1630/2610 3.00 or AK/AP/ITEC 2010 3.00. Course credit
exclusions: SC/CSE 3461 3.00. Prior TO FALL 2009: Prerequisites:
General prerequisites.
Course credit exclusions: AK/ITEC 3230 3.00, AK/AS/ITEC
3461
3.00, AK/AS/SC/COSC 3461 3.00, AK/AS/SC/CSE 3461 3.00.
Evaluation
A typical evaluation
scheme is as follows:
- Project (30% -
teams of four)
- Presentation
(10%): Background, Requirements, Models, Low-fi Prototype
- Evaluation Session
(10%): Hi-fi Prototype, Evaluation, Testing.
- Final Deliverable
(10%): Complete Study.
- Exams (70%):
- Midterm (30%)
- Final (40%)
Individual components however change from year
to year - consult the instructor for current information about the course.
Course Outline
A typical term includes the following topics:
Week 1. What is Interaction Design?
Week 2. Understanding Users
Week 3. Data Gathering
Week 4. The Process of Interaction Design - Understanding and
Conceptualizing Interaction
Week 5. Identifying Needs and Requirements
Week 6. Interfaces and Interactions
Week 7. Design, Prototyping and Construction
Week 8. Evaluation
Week 9. Usability Testing and Field Studies
Week 10. Analytical Evaluation and Data Analysis
Week 11. Design for Collaboration and Communication
Week 12. Recap.
Course Policies
Students are referred to
the departmental course
pages with official
policies and directions regarding exam deferrals, special accomodations
etc.
Communicating with the Instructor
(Registered Students PLEASE ATTEND):
- Student questions about lectures, material,
assignments,
additional information etc. should be posted publicly on Moolde so that
other students benefit from the answers. Students who want to
answer to their colleagues' posts on Moodle are encouraged to do
so!
- Use private e-mail for administrative issues or
when your message
contains information your colleagues should not see (e.g. implies bits
of your
solution). All correspondence MUST be named and the instructor must
be able to
confirm you are in the course list; anonymous messages will of course
be ignored, unless good reason provided..
- Make sure you use office hours and
opportunities to talk to me
directly, for quick responses.
- Also, please use phone only in cases of
emergency and DON'T use voicemail
if you can send
e-mail (I will check the latter sooner). Use both to be on the safe
side; all this in case of emergency.
Please show professionalism
in all your correspondence.
See
you in class!! (and Moodle)