Catalog description:

Principles of user interfaces (UI) and user experiences (UX) for software engineering. Psychological principles; Design methods such as task analysis and user-centered design. Projects demonstrating window, menu, and command design; voice and natural language I/O; response time and feedback; color, icons, sound.

Prerequisite:

CSE 271

Required topics (approximate weeks allocated):

• Background on HCI including its underpinnings from psychology and cognitive psychology (2 weeks)
• User interface evaluation techniques: heuristic evaluation, cognitive walk throughs (videotaped user testing) (1 week)
• Task analysis and user-centered design (2 weeks)
• Usability engineering processes; conducting experiments (1.5 weeks)
• Conceptual models and metaphors (1 week)
• Designing interfaces: using color, fonts, sound, animation (1 week)
• Designing interfaces: screen layout, response time, feedback, error messages (1 week)
• Designing interfaces for special devices. Use of voice I/O. (1 week)
• Designing interfaces: internationalization, help systems, etc. User interface software architectures (2 weeks)
• Expressing design rationale for user interface design (.5 week)
• Collaborative and virtual environments (1 week)
• Examinations, including review sessions (1 week)

Learning Outcomes

1. Describe the core concepts of User Interfaces (UI) and User Experiences (UX) for software engineering
   • Define Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and explain its importance
   • List and explain the key user interface design principles
     • Psychological principles for user interface design
     • Design principles from experience: visibility, affordance, and feedback
     • Other design principles: simplicity, structure, consistency, and tolerance
     • Design for disabilities, e.g., accessibility
   • Describe how a user interface could succeed or fail from a human diversity perspective
   • Understand the importance of a good user interface design
     • What is a good user interface design?
     • Problems of poor or bad user interfaces
   • Explain the different user interface interaction designs and styles and the tradeoffs involved in selecting one for a given software system
2. Evaluate a user interface for usability and utility
   • Discuss evaluation criteria for a user interface
     • Why evaluate the usability of user interface designs?
     • Deciding on what you need to evaluate: the strategy
     • Planning who, what, when, and where
   • Evaluate a user interface based on the user interface design principles using heuristic evaluation, user observation, cognitive walkthroughs, and thinking aloud techniques
   • Design and conduct a usability test and analyze the results
3. Apply the core concepts of HCI to building a User Interface
   • Define user-centered design and explain how it applies to user interface development
   • Perform a task analysis to develop requirements for a user interface prototype
   • Build a user interface prototype that is in accordance with HCI interface design principles
     • Design a UI prototype so that it supports internationalization
     • Demonstrate the consideration of the importance of response time and feedback in the prototype design and implementation user interface design principles
   • Explain and justify the design decisions made in the user interface prototype
     • Explain and justify the choice of design modalities implemented in the prototype
     • Describe which quality attributes were involved in decision-making and how they were implemented in the resulting system
     • Explain how visual design elements were chosen (color, icons, fonts, etc.)
   • Use Scenario-Claims- Analysis to capture task analysis results and the rationale for the designed system
4. Describe the key HCI aspects of multi-media systems
   • Identify the key HCI issues involved in multi-media
   • Explain the advantages and disadvantages of using sound in a user interface
   • Identify areas where speech recognition would enhance the user experience
   • Compare different website implementations and describe how a website should be evaluated for usability
5. Describe the HCI issues involved in collaboration and communication using a variety of collaborative tools and environments
   • Describe the advantages and disadvantages of synchronous and asynchronous group communication
   • Participate in a team project where some interaction occurs using a collaborative software environment
   • Participate in a class activity where the interaction occurs in a virtual environment