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This course will stress the design of usable interfaces and
the relationship of user interface design to human-computer
interaction, including consideration of individual cognitive
and ergonomic factors and the social contexts within which computer
systems are used. Students will receive an introduction to the
theory of Human Computer Interaction while applying this theory
to a design project.
Role of Writing:
This course seeks to prepare students for
designing software artifacts to function well as components
of human and social systems. Writing of natural language documents
is an important part of this kind of work. The software professional
engaged in interface design and testing will need to communicate
effectively with colleagues and customers. Hence, achieving quality
in technical writing is itself an appropriate objective of this
course,
which
has been designated Writing-Intensive.
Role of Programming:
Students will be required to design, implement and evaluate the
interface for a simple application. What "implement"
means depends on the goals and needs of the project as well
as your skills. You could use a traditional programming language,
a scripting language, multimedia authoring tools, or a web editor.
No particular programming language is required.
The implementation
must be sufficiently complete to enable some form of empirical
evaluation by having users test the interface.
Meetings
Tuesdays 1:30-4:10 Kuykendall 209 (location subject to revision
if it sucks).
We will also make use of various online forms of interaction:
see disCourse.
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