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SIMS 213 - User Interface Design and Development

Lectures, Assignments and Tentative Schedule

Readings refer to the course reader and the required books Usability Engineering by Jakob Nielsen and GUI Bloopers by Jeff Johnson

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Week 1:

Jan 16: Introduction and Overview
   Assignment: Think about project and project team
Jan 18: Projects, Interface Metaphors

Week 2:

Jan 23: User Centered Design
   Reading: Cooper (chapters 9-11)
   Assignment: Project Proposal
Jan 25: Personas
   Reading: Bloopers Ch. 1, Gomoll, Ims, Nielsen Ch. 3, 4, & 7

Week 3:

Jan 30: Affordances and Cognitive Considerations
   Reading: Norman, Nielsen Ch. 1 & 2, Raskin (chapter 2 only),
   Assignment: Project Proposal due
   Assignment: Personas, Goals, and Task Analysis
Feb 1: Cognitive Issues, cont
   Reading: Bloopers Ch. 6, Newman & Landay, Cooper (About Face, Ch. 28)

Week 4:

Feb 6: Design: Overview
   Reading: Duyne et al., Spool talk, Nielsen Ch. 5
Recommended: Jesse James' A visual vocabulary for design
Feb 8: Graphical/Layout Design
   Reading: Nielsen & Sano, Bloopers Ch. 3
   Assignment: Project Personas, Goals, Task Analysis due
   Assignment: Project Scenarios, Competive Analysis, and Initial Design

Week 5:

Feb 13: Heuristic Evaluation
   Reading: Nielsen Ch. 5 (again)
Feb 15: Web Design: Navigation and Search
   Reading: Hearst paper

Week 6:

Feb 20: Low-fi Prototyping
   Reading: Rettig, Cooper (perils), UIE, Klee
   Assignment: Project Scenarios, Competive Analysis, and Initial Design due
   Assignment: Individual Heuristic Evaluation (due Feb 27)
   Assignment: Low-fi Prototype and Testing (due March 8)
Feb 22: Wireframing; Modes
   Reading: Raskin Ch. 3, Bloopers Ch. 5, pages 288-304, Nielsen on templates, Fuccella and Pizzolato on Wireframing

Week 7:

Feb 27: Review and Critique
   Reading: Bloopers, Ch. 4 & 2
   Assignment: Individual Heuristic Evaluation due
  Reading: Practice Midterm
Mar 1: In-class work

Week 8:

Mar 6: Midterm
Mar 8: GOMS analysis; automating usability assessment
(guest lecture: Melody Ivory)
   Assignment: Low-fi prototyping and test due
   Assignment: First Interactive Prototype

Week 9:

Mar 13: Formal Usability Testing
   Reading: Jeffries et al., Sullivan, Nielsen Ch. 6
Mar 15: Analyzing Web Logs
(guest lecture: Kevin Fox)
   A tutorial on cold fusion (ppt) by Chris Marin
   Assignment: Project Heuristic Evaluation

Week 10:

Mar 20: Class Presentations

1. Travelite
2. SIMIANs discussion group
3. SFNight
4. Content Management System

   Reading: Bloopers Ch. 7
Mar 22: Class Presentations

1. ReadingTree.org
2. SFMOMA-DAM
3. SIMS Textbook Exchange
4. McInterface

   Reading: Bloopers Ch. 8
   Assignment: First Interactive Prototype due

--Spring Recess--

Week 11:

Apr 3: (CHI conference) UI design in the real world
   Guest lecture: Orr Shakked of CommerceRoute
   Reading: Orr Shakked's SIMS Report
    Assignment: Second Interactive Prototype
Apr 5: (CHI conference) Guest lecture: Robert Reimann, Cooper Interaction Design
   Assignment: Project Heuristic Evaluation due

Week 12:

Apr 10: Information Appliances, CHI 2001 debrief
   Reading: Weiser, Bergman & Haitani
  Optional: An information architect's CHI '01 notes
   A cool system from Saul Greenberg's group for combining history and bookmarks
Apr 12: Personality in Interfaces, CHI debrief
   Reading: Fogg & Nass, Nass et al.
   Assignment: Second Interactive Prototype due
   Assignment: Pilot Usability Study

Week 13:

Apr 17: Interface Agents, Persuasive Interfaces
   Reading: Shneiderman & Maes, Tseng & Fogg, Khaslavsky & Shedroff, Berdichevsky & Neunschwander
Apr 19: Personalization in Interface Design
   Reading: Manber et al., Hirsh et al., Smyth & Cotter

Week 14:

Apr 24: Multi-modal Interfaces
   Reading: Oviatt
Apr 26: Class Presentations
   SIMS Textbook Exchange
   Simians Discussion Forum
   CMS
   Assignment: Pilot Usability Study due
   Assignment: Third Interactive Prototype (Final Writeup)

Week 15:

May 1: Class Presentations
   McInterface
   SFMOMA-DAM
   Reading Tree
May 3: Class Presentations
   SFNight
   Travelite

Finals Week:

May 8: Assignment: Third Interactive Prototype due, Project Writeup due