Tuesday, 4:30pm-7:10pm, 136 Innovation Hall
Grades: Blackboard| Animesh Jain |
| ajain13@masonlive.gmu.edu |
| Office: 4456 Engineering Building |
| Office hours: Thursdays, 1:30-3:30pm |
This course will provide a comprehensive introduction to human-computer interaction and the design and development of user interfaces, covering basic human cognition, methods for needfinding and prototyping, user-centered design, empirical and analytical methods for conducting usability evaluations, and principles for visual, information, interaction, and community design.
Learning OutcomesIf you have a general question about an assignment or course content, first check piazza to see if someone has already answered your question. If not, post your question in piazza, where your question may be answered by other students or the course staff. For questions about grades, contact one of the TAs by email.
Office hours are times that we commit to being in our office, door open, first come, first served. You do not need an appointment, and no appointments are accepted. If you cannot make the scheduled office hours, then we can try to set up an appointment. Please note that I am seldom available after 5:00 pm. We will inform you in class or on the discussion board if we have to miss office hours.
We will have readings from the textbooks Krug and Norman. Additionally, several readings will be chapters from other books, which will be available electronically through Blackboard. All readings are listed in the course schedule. Material covered in the readings may appear in the midterm and final exams.
This course will use Piazza for posting the schedule and all assignments and announcements. Additionally, we will use Piazza for a discussion board. Information for accessing our class will be provided on the first day of class.
Grades will be available through Blackboard.
There will be a midterm exam and a comprehensive final exam which will be closed-book in-class. Exams will cover material from the lectures and assigned readings.
Unless arrangements are worked out in advance, missed tests cannot be made up. As many of the HW assignments involve peer evaluations where groups give and receive feedback with other groups, late HW submissions impact not only the groups themselves but other students in the course. Thus, 10% will be deducted for late HW assignments and late HW assignments will only be accepted for 24 hours after the due date. HW assignments submitted more than 24 hours late will receive a zero. If you’re worried about being busy around the time of a HW submission, please plan ahead and get started early.
The homeworks in the course will be in the form of a project. You will first design and implement a simple UI in the form of a web app. Throughout the semester, you will perform peer evaluations, identifying usability issues with the UI of apps built by other students in the course. Based on the reported usability issues you receive, you will then iteratively redesign and improve the usability of your web app to address these issues. Full details for each HW can be found in the HW Assignment descriptions; the due dates are summarized in the course schedule.
You are allowed to work on the HWs collaboratively using one of two models:
Note: You are NOT ALLOWED to include “guest names.” Every person listed as a collaborator must contribute. If someone is listed as a collaborator but did not contribute, all will be given a zero on the assignment and reported to the university honor committee.
Each student will be responsible for giving a short group presentation surveying a front-end web technology. Each group will consist of 2 students. See the Tech Talks posting on piazza for more details.
To gain experience in user studies, you will participate in the software engineering subject pool and sign up for at least 6 hours of programming user studies or complete an alternative assignment. See the SWE Subject Pool posting on piazza for more details.
GMU is an Honor Code university; please see the Office for Academic Integrity for a full description of the code and the honor committee process, and the Computer Science Department’s Honor Code Policies regarding programming assignments. The principle of academic integrity is taken very seriously and violations are treated gravely. What does academic integrity mean in this course? Essentially this: when you are responsible for a task, you will perform that task. When you rely on someone else’s work in an aspect of the performance of that task, you will give full credit in the proper, accepted form. Another aspect of academic integrity is the free play of ideas. Vigorous discussion and debate are encouraged in this course, with the firm expectation that all aspects of the class will be conducted with civility and respect for differing ideas, perspectives, and traditions. When in doubt (of any kind) please ask for guidance and clarification.
If you have a documented learning disability or other condition that may affect academic performance you should: 1) make sure this documentation is on file with the Office for Disability Services to determine the accommodations you need; and 2) talk with me to discuss your accommodation needs.
Students must use their MasonLIVE email account to receive important University information, including messages related to this class. See MasonLive for more information.