CS 325 Interaction Design                Fall 2005

Dr. Jill Zimmerman                           
office: Hoffberger 120
phone: 410 337-6227
email: jzimmerm@goucher.edu
http://phoenix.goucher.edu/~jillz

Office Hours: 
MWF 10:30-11:30
Tu 10:30-11:30

Dr. Chadia Abras
office:  Van Meter 122
phone: 410 337-6223
email: cabras@goucher.edu


Office Hours: 
MWF 10:30-11:30
Tu 9:00-10:00

Text: Shneiderman & Plaisant, Designing the User Interface, 4th Edition.

Class web page: http://phoenix.goucher.edu/~jillz/cs325

Course Description:
Interaction design is: “designing interactive products to support people in their everyday and working lives.” (Preece et al., 2002).  In order to enhance users’ experiences, one must extend the way people work, communicate, and interact.  In this course you will learn how cognitive, social and affective issues apply to interaction design.  How design and evaluation are connected and dependent on highly iterative processes.  You will also be introduced to the theories and how to apply them to good practice in order to create useable products.  You will implement these practices by designing an interactive piece of software.

Course Objectives:

  • Extrapolate and apply knowledge to new situations by learning a topic in computer science at the advanced level
  • Formulate, implement and analyze computing solutions to problems through a programming project of substantial complexity
  • Write clear well documented code and work in teams

We shall attempt to cover the following chapters:

Chapters

Topics

 Graded Work

1

Usability of Interactive Systems

Activity 1

2

Guidelines, Principles, and Theories

Activity 2

3

Managing Design Processes

Activity 3
Project Part 1

4

Evaluating Interface Designs

Activity 4
Project Part 2

5

Software Tools

Visual Editor lab1

Visual Editor lab2
Project Part 3

11

Quality of Service

Project Part 4

12

Balancing Function and Fashion

Activity 12

13

User Manuals, Online Help, Tutorials

Activity 13
Project Part 5

14

Information Search and Visualization

Activity 14

Course Mechanics:
Readings and online quizzes must be done before class and quizzes will not be accepted late.
The majority of class time will be used for in class discussions, activities and labs. 
Much of the class work and project will be done in small groups since the design team is an integral part of interaction design.

Late homework and lab work will be penalized 10% per week day.
Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated.  See honor code for definition of cheating and disposition.

Course Project:
In small groups you will design, implement, and evaluate an alternative communications device that will allow someone with limited mobility and speech capabilities the ability to communicate.


Grading:
Your course grade will be based on the following:
        Online quizzes 10%
        Activities/Labs 25%
        2 Exams (15% each) 30%
        Project 35%