Course Expectations and Tentative
Syllabus
INL
650 User Interface
Technologies Fall 2006
Bucks Campus - Room 125? Wed
6:15-9:00pm
Professor: Dr.
Michael Redmond
330
Olney Hall (215)
951-1096
redmond@lasalle.edu
http://www.lasalle.edu/~redmond/teach/650
Office
Hours: W 5:00-6:15pm
And at other times by appointment. Also,
by phone and e-mail.
Text:
Shneiderman,
B., Designing the User Interface. 4th Edition, Addison Wesley Longman,
ISBN: 0-321-19786-0
Course
Description:
This
course will examine the issues associated with human-computer interaction
including human-computer task allocation, interface technologies, such as GUIs,
speech, virtual reality. It will address how to design interfaces likely to
enhance performance. Discussion of interface technologies’
support for good interface design, so technology managers can understand
interface issues in technology choice. Evaluation methods will also be
examined, so UI designers can determine if their interfaces are enhancing or
degrading human performance and managers know to support it. WWW and multimedia
interface technologies.
A
foundational assumption of the ITL program is that technical managers should
have an understanding of what their employees are doing, that they can manage
better if they have experience. Therefore, and especially since this class is
in the technical track of the ITL program, this class goes much beyond an
executive summary of interface principles, technologies and techniques to
expect students to develop simple prototype interfaces with more than one
technology. After an introduction to principles and guidelines for interface
design, the next section of the course follows a common methodology of
interface development – understanding user tasks and needs, rapid prototyping
with iterative expert evaluation and usability testing with users. Technologies
are then presented, and then as students follow this process on their projects,
more advanced interface technologies (not used in the project) such as natural
language understanding, speech recognition, and virtual reality are presented.
Lastly important social issues of handicap accessibility and globalization are
discussed.
Middle States: The Department of Mathematics and
Computer Science will be conducting a self-study during the next two
years. A part of this process involves
inviting external experts who will review our course offerings, assessment
measures, and student work. For this
reason, faculty members will keep sample copies of students’ work including
tests, homework assignments, programming assignments, and projects. Every effort will be made to ensure
individual names are eliminated from these “artifacts.” During the early part of the semester,
you will be provided the opportunity to “opt-in” or “opt-out” of this effort.
Grading:
Midterm
Exam 20%
Final
Exam 20%
Project
Initial Report 10%
Initial Design 10%
First Prototype 10%
Final Prototype 20%
Class Presentation 5%
Assessment of Other’s Design 5% (individual assignment)
Final Grades:
A 92-100
A-
90-91
B+ 88-89
B 82-87
B- 80-81
C 60-79
F <60
No
make up exams unless arranged in advance.
Final
exam is not cumulative, due to the intense project emphasis in later parts of
the course
The
project is divided into stages with due dates spread over the course of the
semester. Assignments may not be turned in late
Course Objectives
Concepts
·
The
student will develop an understanding of issues involved in the generality of
interface design: globalization and accommodation of disabilities.
Applications
Tentative Course Plan:
Week |
Date |
Topic |
|
Assignments |
1 |
8/30 |
Human factors of interactive systems and user interfaces |
Shneiderman Chapt 1 |
|
2 |
9/6 |
Theories, Principles, and Guidelines |
Shneiderman Chapt 2 |
|
3 |
9/13 |
Managing Design Processes |
Shneiderman Chapt 3 |
|
4 |
9/20 |
Evaluation of User Interfaces |
Shneiderman Chapt 4 |
|
5 |
9/27 |
User Interface Tools |
Shneiderman Chapt 5 |
|
6 |
10/4 |
Software Development Tools and Interface Design |
VB Intro TBD |
Initial Report Due |
7 |
10/11 |
Midterm Exam |
|
|
8 |
10/18 |
Software Development Tools and Interface Design |
Other UI Intro TBD |
|
9 |
10/25 |
Software Development Tools and Interface Design |
Other UI Intro TBD |
|
10 |
11/1 |
Direct Manipulation and Virtual Reality Environments |
Shneiderman Chapt 6 |
Design Assignment Due |
11 |
11/8 |
Natural Language and Speech Interfaces |
Shneiderman parts of Chapt 8, 9 |
Assess Design Due |
12 |
11/15 |
Natural Language and Speech Interfaces |
Technology Ref TBD |
First Prototype Due |
|
11/22 |
THANKSGIVING – NO CLASS |
|
|
13 |
11/29 |
Accommodation of Disabilities, Globalization |
TBD |
|
14 |
12/6 |
Project Presentations |
|
Final Prototype Due |
15 |
12/13 |
Final Exam |
|
|