23 Jan. 2005 - General Announcements Readings are now PASSWORD PROTECTED. The username/password was distributed via the 214 mailing list. If you are not on the list, please subscribe immediately so that you do not miss important messages such as these, and also contact  Vijay for the password. ROOM CHANGE  - Class will be held in South Hall Room 202 as of Tuesday, Jan. 25 Course Description This course addresses concepts and methods of needs and usability assessment. The emphasis will be on understanding users' needs and practices and translating them into design decisions. Topics to be covered include: methods of identifying and describing user needs and requirements; user centered design; and evaluation of information systems. We will practice a number of major usability assessment methods, including heuristic evaluation, surveys and focus groups, and naturalistic/ethnographic methods. Finally, we will discuss methods of bringing needs and usability assessment into the design process. This course is appropriate for both 1st and 2nd-year MIMS students, and for students from other departments with a strong interest in user-based design and assessment, with the instructor's permission. Students will complete at least one major group project related to needs assessment and evaluation. Second-year MIMS students may use this project to meet their capping project requirement. This is a MOT related course. Prerequisites IS 204 , IS 203, or consent of instructor.