Schedule for 05-863/08-763/46-863: Introduction to Human Computer Interaction for Technology Executives (Fall, 2008)

NOTE: This is an OLD version of the course. Please see the current year's version (Fall, 2010).

Time: Tuesday+Thursdays, 3:30pm to 4:50pm
Room: NSH-1305
Dates: Mini-2, Fall, 2008 (Oct 22, 2008 - Dec 9, 2008)

Schedule and Readings

1 Thurs,
Oct 23, 2008

1. Why is UI Design Important and Why Is It Difficult?

PowerPoint Slides for Lecture 1 -- updated after lecture; (this links works at CMU; if it asks you for a name and password, then you need to use VPN -- see VPN note above)
Coursecast video of the lecture

Required Readings:

  • Brad A. Myers. "Challenges of HCI Design and Implementation," ACM Interactions. vol. 1, no. 1. January, 1994. pp. 73-83. PDF
  • CD Text, chapter 1
  • Nielsen Text: Chapters 1,  2
Fill out initial questionnaire in class
2 Tues,
Oct 28, 2008

2. Discovering what people can't tell you:
Contextual Inquiry and Design Methodology

PowerPoint Slides for Lecture 2, or
Coursecast video of the lecture

Required Readings:

  • CD Text, chapters 5-7
Recommended Readings:
  • Karen Cross, Adrienne Warmack, and Brad Myers. "Lessons Learned: Using Contextual Inquiry Analysis to Improve PDA Control of Presentations". Unpublished.. PDF.

Do Homework 0 in class.

Start on Homework 1.

3 Thurs,
Oct 30, 2008

3. Contextual Design Methodology, cont.

PowerPoint Slides for Lecture 3 or
Coursecast video of the lecture

Required Readings:

  • CD Text, chapters 8-10
4 Tues,
Nov 4, 2008

4. Sketching and Prototyping

PowerPoint Slides for Lecture 4 or
Coursecast video of the lecture

Required Readings:

  • Nielsen's text, chapter 4
  • Bill Buxton, "What Sketches (and Prototypes) Are and Are Not", in CHI 2006 One-Day Workshop on "Sketching" Nurturing Creativity: Commonalities in Art, Design, Engineering and Research, Sunday, April 23, 2006, Montreal, Canada. 2 pages. local pdf.

Recommended Readings:

  • Brad A. Myers. "User Interface Software Tools," ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction. vol. 2, no. 1, March, 1995. pp. 64-103. ACM DL Reference
  • Marc Rettig, "Prototyping for tiny fingers", Communications of the ACM, Volume 37 , Issue 4 (April 1994), Pages: 21 - 27. PDF
  • Brad Myers, Sun Young Park, Yoko Nakano, Greg Mueller, Andrew Ko, "How Designers Design and Prototype Interactive Behaviors". 2008 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing, VL/HCC'08. Sept 15-18, 2008, Herrsching am Ammersee, Germany. pp. 177-184. local pdf. See also the original survey.
  • Bill Buxton, Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research, videotape of his talk on "Sketching and Experience Design" at the November 2006 BostonCHI meeting held at Sun Microsystems in Burlington, MA. 1 hr, 26 min. video.
  • Also great is Bill Buxton's new book: Bill Buxton. Sketching User Experiences: Getting the Design Right and the Right Design. San Francisco, CA, Morgan Kaufmann. 2007. Amazon.com listing

Turn in Homework 1.
Start on Homework 2.

5 Thurs,
Nov 6, 2008

5. How to design a good user study

PowerPoint Slides for Lecture 5 or
Coursecast video of the lecture

Required Readings:

Recommended Readings:
  • Kathleen Gomoll, "Some Techniques for Observing Users," From The Art of Human-Computer Interface Design, Brenda Laurel, ed. New York: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc., 1992. pp. 85- 90. PDF
6 Tues,
Nov 11, 2008

6. Graphic and Interaction Design for User Interfaces

Guest lecture: Prof. John Zimmerman

PDF of Slides for Lecture 6 or
Coursecast video of the lecture

An interface is the link between a user and a product that communicates how a product will be used and creates an experience for the people who will use it. Interaction design is the process of creating and defining product behavior, encompassing both usability and aesthetic dimensions of an artifact, service, or environment.

In this lecture, we will explore issues that pertain to the design of interfaces. Students will become proficient in interface and interaction design fundamentals as applied to visual interfaces, including use of design systems, typography, color, scale, ordering, hierarchy, and repetition. In understand the design process for creating interface designs.

Turn in Homework 2.
Start on Homework 3.

7 Thurs,
Nov 13, 2008

7. Usability Engineering Process

PowerPoint Slides for Lecture 7 or
Coursecast video of the lecture

Required Readings:

  • CD Text, chapters 2-4
Recommended Readings:
  • John D. Gould and Clayton Lewis. "Designing for usability: key principles and what designers think," Communications of the ACM. Volume 28 , Issue 3 (March 1985), pp. 300 - 311. ACM DL PDF
8 Tues,
Nov 18, 2008

8. Overview of VB. Net

Resources for Visual Basic
PowerPoint Slides for Lecture 8 or
Coursecast video of the lecture

Guest lecture by Devin Blais
(Brad Myers out of town)

Turn in Homework 3.
Start on Homework 4.

9 Thurs,
Nov 20, 2008

9. Evaluation using Heuristic Analysis

PowerPoint Slides for Lecture 9 or
Coursecast video of the lecture

Required Readings:

Recommended Readings:

  • Nielsen Text: Chapter 8
  • Jakob Nielsen, "Guerrilla HCI: Using Discount Usability Engineering to Penetrate the Intimidation Barrier", Cost-Justifying Usability, edited by Randolph G. Bias and Deborah J. Mayhew. On line in html format.
  • Rolf Molich and Jakob Nielsen. "Improving a human-computer dialogue", Communications of the ACM, March 1990. Volume 33 Issue 3. pp. 338 - 348. ACM DL PDF
  • Jakob Nielsen and Rolf Molich. "Heuristic evaluation of user interfaces," Proceedings CHI'90, Human factors in computing systems, 1990. Seattle, Washington ACM DL PDF
10 Tues,
Nov 25, 2008

10. Designing for the Web

PowerPoint Slides for Lecture 10 or
Coursecast video of the lecture

Recommended Readings:

  • Nielsen Text: Chapter 11-16

Turn in Homework 4.
Start on Homework 5.

  Thurs,
Nov 27, 2008

(No class - University Holiday: Thanksgiving)

11 Tues,
Dec 2, 2008

11. What is Design?

PowerPoint Slides for Lecture 11 or
Coursecast video of the lecture

Recommended Readings:

  • Norman book (all chapters)

Turn in Homework 5.
Start on Homework 6.

12 Thurs,
Dec 4, 2008

12. International User Interfaces

PowerPoint Slides for Lecture 12 or
Coursecast video of the lecture

Required Readings:
  • Nielsen Text: Chapter 9

Course Evaluation day. Fill out the official course evaluation site https://my.cmu.edu/site/main/page.academics or the Tepper equivalent (if you are in Tepper), and the questionnaire for this course.

13 Tues,
Dec 9, 2008
(last day of class)

13: Guest lecture: Interaction Design: Perspective from a local professional

Coursecast video of the lecture

Turn in Homework 6.

  Thurs,
Dec 11

The last day to turn in any homeworks for late grades or re-grading is Thursday, December 11, 2008.

   

FINAL EXAM

See information about the final.

3 hour exam.

  • Mon. December 15, 8:30am-11:30am, room 136A Baker Hall
  • Alternative time: Wed, Dec 10, from 8:30am-11:30am, room NSH 1305

Official CMU Calendar for Fall, 2008

October 22 W Mini-2 Classes Begin (TSB only)
October 24 F Mini-2 Course Add Deadline without Dean's Permission (except TSB & HNZ/ISM)
October 24 F Mini-2 Course Audit Grade Option Deadline (except TSB & HNZ/ISM)
October 24 F Mini-2 Course Drop Deadline to Receive Tuition Adjustment (except TSB & HNZ/ISM)
October 31 F Mini-2 Course Add Deadline without Dean's Permission (HNZ/ISM only)
October 31 F Mini-2 Course Audit Grade Option Deadline (TSB only)
October 31 F Mini-2 Course Drop Deadline to Receive Tuition Adjustment (TSB only)
November 3 M Semester Course Drop and Pass/Fail Grade Option Deadline; Assign Withdrawal Grade for Course Dropping After This Date (except TSB)
November 5 W Mini-2 Course Add Deadline without Dean's Permission (TSB only)
November 5 W Mini-2 Course Audit Grade Option Deadline (TSB only)
November 5 W Mini-2 Course Drop Deadline to Receive Tuition Adjustment (TSB only)
November 10-14 M-F Spring 2009 Registration Week
Nov. 17-Dec. 5 M-F Semester & Mini-2 University Course Assessment
November 18 T Mini-2 Course Drop and Pass/Fail Grade Option Deadline; Assign Withdrawal Grade for Course Dropping After This Date (except TSB)
November 26-28 W-F Thanksgiving Holiday; No Classes
December 5 F Semester & Mini-2 Last Day of Classes (except TSB)
December 5 F Semester & Mini-2 Course Drop Deadine to Receive a Withdrawal Grade (except TSB)
December 10 W Reading Day (except TSB & HNZ/ISM)
December 10 W Semester & Mini-2 Last Day of Classes (TSB only)
December 10 W Semester & Mini-2 Course Drop Deadline to Receive a Withdrawal Grade (TSB only)
December 11-12 Th-F Final Examinations (except TSB)
December 13-17 Sa-W Final Examinations (TSB only)
December 15-16 M-T Final Examinations (except HNZ/ISM)
December 18 Th Final Grades Due by 6 p.m.