CS 5714- Usability Engineering - Dr. Hartson - Fall 2006

Home | Syllabus | Calendar and Class Notes | Projects | Homework | Participation | Grades

 

Course Outline and Assignment Due-Date Calendar

Project assignments, with corresponding deliverables and dates for their completion are given below. These dates are firm, with at least the upfront expectation that there will be no extensions or exceptions. It is nearly impossible to slip dates and still get it all done in the semester.

Class notes: This is a pdf version of the entire set of class notes. It contains handouts for the same PowerPoint presentations I will use in class.  This is the major source of content and discussion for the course.  You can print it all at once, or one unit at a time (by printing the appropriate page range), or you can download the file onto a pen drive and take it to the copy center of your choice for printing.

 
Week #
Day
Date
Topic

Class notes

Text
Chapters
Project Assignment / Due Date
# Weeks
1
Tu
8/22
Introduction, demographic survey, Life Cycle
1: Intro, p. 1,
2: Life cycle, p. 8
1 & 4
-
-
Th
8/24

Life Cycle, Systems Analysis, product concept statement
Form teams

3: Systems analysis,
p. 16
5
-
  -
2
Tu
8/29
Systems Analysis, exercises
-
-
-
-
Th
8/31
Systems Analysis, exercises, show & tell
-
 5

NOTE: Project 1 due date changed. The Project 1 deliverable is now due by midnight this Friday (September 1). Send it to Partha, our GTA, at: ppyla@vt.edu, as a Word document attached to an email message. He will print it out, grade it over the weekend, and return it to you on the following Tuesday, to put in your project binder.

Project 1: Topic, Client, and Product Concept Statement

1.5
3
Tu
9/5

Systems Analysis, exercises, show & tell

4: Design, p. 47
-
-
-
Th
9/7

Design
Scenarios & Screen Design, exercise

5: Usability specs,
p. 71
8
-
 -
4
Tu
9/12
Benchmark Tasks, Usability Specifications
-
-
-
-
Th
9/14

Usability specifications exercise, show & tell (optional)

Rapid Prototyping

6: Rapid prototyping,
p. 93
9
 2.0
5
Tu
9/19
Introduce RP exercise, Rapid Prototyping exercise
-
 -
-
 -
Th
9/21

Usability evaluation (Intro)
Usability evaluation (Before data collection)
Usability evaluation (During data collection)

7: Evaluation intro,
p. 108
8: Evaluation before,
p. 115
9: Evaluation during,
p. 131
 10
-
-
6
Tu
9/26

Usability evaluation (During data collection)

Critical incident training exercise (individual)
(= homework #1)

-
 -
Th
9/28

Camtasia screen recording demo

Introduce team kiosk data collection exercise
Select and record team roles for data collection
Hand in list of team roles for data collection

Introduce NY Ticket Kiosk demo and exercise

-
 2.0
7
Tu
10/3

Data collection team exercise
IMPORTANT: Be there on time!!

-
-
-
 -
Th
10/5

Usability evaluation (After data collection)
Data analysis (after data collection) team exercise

10: Evaluation after,
p. 142
-
-
 -
8
Tu
10/10

Complete data analysis (after data collection) team exercise

In-class exercise Kiosk RP & evaluation show & tell

-
-

Homework #1 due
Critical incident list from the in-class
Critical Incident Training video clips

-
Th
10/12
Concrete motivational examples
User Action Framework, design guidelines (1-23)

11: Guidelines, p. 158

Affordances paper

-

-

 -
9
Tu
10/17
User Action Framework, design guidelines (24-36)

-

2
 2.5
Th
10/19
Open, no class

-

 -

Help SE people with integration

 -
10
Tu
10/24

User Action Framework, design guidelines (37-55)

 

12: Guidelines exercises, p. 186

13: Usability inspection, p. 192

Help SE people with integration

6:30 PM: Deadline for team (outside) project prototype grading (detailed task-driven demos) with GTA

 -
Th
10/26

Usability guidelines exercises

Limitations of design guidelines

Usability Inspection

Web usability

14: Web usability,
p. 198

Homework #2 due
NY Ticket Kiosk Data collection exercise

Help SE people with integration

 -
11
Tu
10/31

Web usability

Usability problem analysis

Introduction to the UAF

-

-  

Help SE people with integration 

-
Th
11/2

UAF walk-through

Usability designs & problem analysis

Project 5: Formative Usability Evaluation 

Help SE people with integration

 2.5
12
Tu
11/7

Usability designs & problem analysis

17: Wrap up, p.225

Help SE people with integration

 -
Th
11/9

Usability designs & problem analysis

-

-

-
13
Tu
11/14

Usability designs & problem analysis

Wrap up

 -
-
-
Th
11/16
Human-to-human communication

16: Human-to-Human Communication, p.223

Project 6: Design Iteration (fully integrated with functionality)

2.0
Thanksgiving Break Week - Enjoy your turkey, cheeseburger, tofu, or wherever!!
14
Tu
11/28

Review and Faculty Evaluation (attendance required)

-

 12
 -
Th
11/30
Joint CS/ISE5714 and CS 5704 Symposium, oral presentations: 2 - 5 PM, KW II, Room 110

-

 -
 -
15
Tu
12/5
No class
-
 -
-
12/11
7:45 AM: Final Exam (14T)