cs3724: Introduction to HCI

Syllabus, Spring 2004, North and Harrison

Course:

TR 5:00-6:15pm
McBryde 209
CRN: 11499
Final Exam: May 08, 7:00-9:00pm
Prerequisites: cs2604 required
Mandatory first day attendance.

MW 2:30-3:45pm
McBryde 126
CRN: 11500
Final Exam: May 10, 2:05-4:05pm
Prerequisites: cs2604 required
Mandatory first day attendance.

Professor:

Dr. Chris North
634 McBryde Hall
Office Hours: MW 3:00-5:00pm

Steve Harrison
510 McBryde Hall
Office Hours: MW 1:20-2:20pm, 3:50-4:50pm

Teaching Assistant:

Kibum Kim
kikim@vt.edu
Office Hours: T Th 9:30-11:30am, Torgerson 3160A, or by appointment.

Jacob Somervell
jsomerve@cs.vt.edu
Office Hours: MW 9:00-11:00am, McBryde 104, or by appointment.

Text:

Usability Engineering: Scenario-Based Development of Human-Computer Interaction, by Rosson & Carroll, Morgan Kaufmann.
Microsoft Visual C# .NET Step by Step--Version 2003 by Jon Jagger & John Sharp, Microsoft Press. (optional)

Website:

http://courses.cs.vt.edu/~cs3724/spring2004

Grading:

40% Project
30% Homeworks
25% Exams
5% Presentation

Topics:

This course covers the basic elements of design, development, and evaluation of software user interfaces. Approximately 50% of the course is devoted to the scenario-based usability engineering methodology, and 50% to graphical user interface programming concepts. Topics covered include:

Usability engineering:

analyzing requirements

activity design

information design and information visualization

interaction design

usability evaluation

design representations

CSCW and UbiComp

future directions

Programming concepts:

C #

event-based programming

GUI widgets, layout

basic graphics, animation

data-driven user interfaces

problem solving/problem finding

Format:

The course is heavily discussion based and requires self motivation. Students are expected to learn some of the material on their own, since only major conepts are discussed and explored in lectures. Students present short presentations in class. A large portion of the grading is devoted to a sizable design and C# implementation project that students do in small groups. Some assignments are of an open-ended nature, requiring creativity in application of concepts for success.

Honor System:

The Honor System policies of the University and Computer Science Department are to be observed in this course. All assignments (with the exception of the group project) must be completed by students working alone. The group project must be completed by the members of the group only.