Prerequisites
None. Assignments will involve user testing, paper prototyping, and implementing a prototype of a working design, using some computational medium. However, you can select how to implement your solutions, and you can choose whether to use HTML with an editor like Adobe Dreamweaver, Flash, Microsoft Expressions Blend/Sketchflow, or even PowerPoint. Thus, everyone from non-programmers to expert programmers are welcome. No background in HCI is expected.
Corequisites
None.
Grading
| Assignment | Percent of Final Grade |
|---|---|
| Homework 0 | -- |
| Homework 1 | 12% |
| Homework 2 | 12% |
| Homework 3 | 12% |
| Homework 4 | 12% |
| Homework 5 | 12% |
| Homework 6 | 10% |
| Final Exam | 30% |
Textbook
Help create a new Textbook this year! My colleagues are writing a major new textbook, and we will be using a draft of the textbook in 2011. This means you will have a chance to influence the contents of this important new book!
We have arranged for each student who stays enrolled in the
course to get a free copy
of the book.
H. Rex Hartson and Pardha S. Pyla, The UX Book: Process and Guidelines for
Ensuring a Quality User Experience, to be published by Morgan Kaufmann / Elsevier in 2011. Book Website 
Other useful resources
Beyer, H. and Holtzblatt, K., Contextual Design: Defining Customer-Centered Systems. 1998, San Francisco, CA: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Inc. ISBN: 1-55860-411-1 (paperback)
Author's site ;
or Amazon
Jakob Nielsen. Usability Engineering. Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco, 1994. ISBN 0-12-518406-9 (paperback) [updated from the the older hardcover: ISBN 0-12-518405-0].
Author's site ;
or Amazon
Donald A. Norman, The Design of Everyday Things. Basic Books; 1st Basic edition (September 2002), ISBN: 0-465-06710-7 (paperback) [updated from the original 1988 hardcover version]. Author's site ;
or Amazon