NOTE: This is an OLD version of the course. Please see the current year's version (Fall, 2010).

1. Why is UI Design Important and Why Is It Difficult?

PowerPoint Slides for Lecture 1 -- updated after lecture; (this links works at CMU; if it asks you for a name and password, then you need to use VPN -- see VPN note above)
Coursecast video of this lecture

Required Readings:

• Brad A. Myers. "Challenges of HCI Design and Implementation," ACM Interactions. vol. 1, no. 1. January, 1994. pp. 73-83. PDF
• CD Text, chapter 1
• Nielsen Text: Chapters 1,  2

2. Discovering what people can't tell you:
Contextual Inquiry and Design Methodology

• Movie for in-class CI demonstration (88.5 mb mpeg file)
• Powerpoint slides of main points in the video

Required Readings:

• CD Text, chapters 5-7

• Karen Cross, Adrienne Warmack, and Brad Myers. "Lessons Learned: Using Contextual Inquiry Analysis to Improve PDA Control of Presentations". Unpublished.. PDF.

Do Homework 0 in class.

Start on Homework 1.

3. Contextual Design Methodology, cont.

Required Readings:

• CD Text, chapters 8-10

4. Sketching and Prototyping

Required Readings:

• Nielsen's text, chapter 4
• Bill Buxton, "What Sketches (and Prototypes) Are and Are Not", in CHI 2006 One-Day Workshop on "Sketching" Nurturing Creativity: Commonalities in Art, Design, Engineering and Research, Sunday, April 23, 2006, Montreal, Canada. 2 pages. local pdf.

Recommended Readings:

• Brad A. Myers. "User Interface Software Tools," ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction. vol. 2, no. 1, March, 1995. pp. 64-103. ACM DL Reference
• Marc Rettig, "Prototyping for tiny fingers", Communications of the ACM, Volume 37 , Issue 4 (April 1994), Pages: 21 - 27. PDF
• Brad Myers, Sun Young Park, Yoko Nakano, Greg Mueller, Andrew Ko, "How Designers Design and Prototype Interactive Behaviors". Submitted for publication. Preprint pdf
• Bill Buxton, Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research, videotape of his talk on "Sketching and Experience Design" at the November 2006 BostonCHI meeting held at Sun Microsystems in Burlington, MA. 1 hr, 26 min. video.
• Also great is Bill Buxton's brand new book: Bill Buxton. Sketching User Experiences: Getting the Design Right and the Right Design. San Francisco, CA, Morgan Kaufmann. 2007. Amazon.com listing

Turn in Homework 1.
Start on Homework 2.

5. How to design a good user study

Required Readings:

• Nielsen's text, chapters 6, 7
• CD Text, chapters 17-20
• James Hom, "The Usability Methods Toolbox". Online in html. In particular, sections: General Concepts of Usability Testing and Thinking Aloud Protocol

• Kathleen Gomoll, "Some Techniques for Observing Users," From The Art of Human-Computer Interface Design, Brenda Laurel, ed. New York: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc., 1992. pp. 85- 90. PDF

6. Usability Engineering Process

PowerPoint Slides for Lecture 6 or
Coursecast video of this lecture

Required Readings:

• CD Text, chapters 2-4

• John D. Gould and Clayton Lewis. "Designing for usability: key principles and what designers think," Communications of the ACM. Volume 28 , Issue 3 (March 1985), pp. 300 - 311. ACM DL PDF

Turn in Homework 2.
Start on Homework 3.

7. Overview of VB. Net

Resources for Visual Basic including PowerPoint Slides for Lecture 7 or
Coursecast video of this lecture

Guest lecture by Andrew Ko

8. Graphic and Interaction Design for User Interfaces

Guest lecture by Prof. Jodi Forlizzi

An interface is the link between a user and a product that communicates how a product will be used and creates an experience for the people who will use it. Interaction design is the process of creating and defining product behavior, encompassing both usability and aesthetic dimensions of an artifact, service, or environment.

In this lecture, we will explore issues that pertain to the design of interfaces. Students will become proficient in interface and interaction design fundamentals as applied to visual interfaces, including use of design systems, typography, color, scale, ordering, hierarchy, and repetition. In understand the design process for creating interface designs.

Turn in Homework 3.
Start on Homework 4.

(No class - University Holiday: Thanksgiving)

9. Evaluation using Heuristic Analysis

PowerPoint Slides for Lecture 9 or
Coursecast video of this lecture

Required Readings:

• Nielsen Text: Chapter 5
• Jakob Nielsen, Heuristic Evaluation. On line in html format. Includes list of 10 heuristics.

Recommended Readings:

• Nielsen Text: Chapter 8
• Jakob Nielsen, "Guerrilla HCI: Using Discount Usability Engineering to Penetrate the Intimidation Barrier", Cost-Justifying Usability, edited by Randolph G. Bias and Deborah J. Mayhew. On line in html format.
• Rolf Molich and Jakob Nielsen. "Improving a human-computer dialogue", Communications of the ACM, March 1990. Volume 33 Issue 3. pp. 338 - 348. ACM DL PDF
• Jakob Nielsen and Rolf Molich. "Heuristic evaluation of user interfaces," Proceedings CHI'90, Human factors in computing systems, 1990. Seattle, Washington ACM DL PDF

10. Designing for the Web

PowerPoint Slides for Lecture 10 or
Coursecast video of this lecture

Recommended Readings:

• Nielsen Text: Chapter 11-16

Turn in Homework 4.
Start on Homework 5.

11. What is Design?

PowerPoint Slides for Lecture 11 or
Coursecast video of this lecture

• Norman book (all chapters)

12. International User Interfaces

Required Readings:

• Nielsen Text: Chapter 9

Course Evaluation day. Fill out the official FCE at http://www.cmu.edu/fce or the Tepper equivalent, and the final questionnaire for this course.

Turn in Homework 5.
Start on Homework 6.

13: Guest lecture: Interaction Design: Perspective from a local professional

Coursecast video of this lecture

• David Bishop: Human Sciences Director/Senior Interaction Designer for Maya Design

14. Class Cancelled (no class)

Turn in Homework 6.

FINAL EXAM

See information about the final

3 hour exam. Three choices of when to take it:

• Wed. December 12, 1:00PM-4:00PM, Room NSH 3002 (alternative time)
• Fri. December 14, 1:00PM-4:00PM, Room NSH 3002 (alternative time)
• Mon. December 17, 1:00PM-4:00PM, Room: MM 103 (official time)