CS 552. User Interface Design
Course Objectives and Policies
Spring 1998

Textbook:

Class maillist:

Web pages:

Class Hours and Office Hours:

Five hours per week have been allocated for class periods, but we only meet for the equivalent of 3 hours per week, or a total of 27 hours during the term. (This unusual arrangement is necessary to accommodate my travel schedule and my 50% appointment at NACSE.) All class periods are scheduled well in advance, and are clearly indicated in the course syllabus.

I will be available in my office from 8:00-8:50 A.M. on T/H and from 2:00-2:50 P.M. on F (just before class) on all days when class is scheduled to be held. If you wish to communicate with me at other times, we can set up an appointment if you catch me at class or send email. If you have a specific question, you might want to send email (please note that my response time may be as long as 48 hours, since access is sometimes difficult when I am on the road) to pancake@cs.orst.edu.

• Learn to find primary sources from the cognitive and behavioral sciences and interpret their results in the form of guidelines.

• Explore a representative range of design guidelines and gain experience applying them to user interface design tasks.

• Become familiar with the primary techniques for identifying and acquiring information on target user audiences.

• Gain an understanding of how to apply usability engineering methods to any user interface design project in practical - and affordable - ways.

Grading Policy:

Three types of grades will be used to evaluate your performance in this course:

Assignments	60%	300 pts.
Exams (2)	25%	125 pts.
Presentation and participation in discussions	15%	75 pts.
Totals	100%	500 pts.

Attendance:

Most of the material covered in this course is available only through classroom lecture and discussion, so you are expected to attend each class and take thorough notes. You will also be held responsible for all deadlines and assignment constraints discussed in class.

Presentation and Participation in Discussions:

User interface design is a communication-intensive specialty, and every UI designer must learn to be a good communicator and discussion leader. Therefore, each student - regardless of nationality or course background - is expected to participate actively in the classroom discussions. Your grade will reflect this participation, so you should come to class prepared to discuss what you have read or implemented. Note that the content of lecture and discussion periods rely on each student's having completed the previous day's reading assignment before coming to class; failure to do so will adversely affect your grade in this area.

In addition, each student will be responsible for presenting a brief summary of one assigned research paper, and for leading the class in discussing the implications of the paper for UI design. You may choose what to present and how to present it, with the goal of arriving at a mutual set of design guidelines. After the session, you will be expected to write up the guidelines that everyone agreed on and turning them in as an HTML document for mounting on the course Web pages. The other students will participate in critiquing your work.

Academic Integrity:

The penalty for plagiarism is an F for the course. Students are expected to be familiar with the CS Department's Policy on Academic Dishonesty. As a general rule of thumb, you are encouraged to discuss the intent of an assignment with your classmates, but should only use a "visual aid" (i.e., one or more students referring to or creating a textual, typed, electronic, or drawn representation other than the course text or assignment description) in discussing assignments with your teammates.