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This course provides an introduction to the design of usable interfaces and
the relationship of user interface design to human 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 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 site 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.
Role of Writing:
One of the biggest challenges is remembering that half of what
we do is the design work and the other half is the communication
of that design work. The clients almost never bridge the gap for
us; we need to bridge it. -- Gitta Salomon
This course seeks to expand students' conception of software design as a component of the design
of socio-cognitive technical systems. Writing natural language documents
is as important as writing code in this kind of work. The software professional
engaged in interface design and testing will need to communicate
and collaborate 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.
Meetings
Tuesdays 12:00-2:400 POST 126 (and possibly elsewhere when we need a workable room for projects).
We will also make use of computer-mediated communication:
see disCourse.
Pau
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