ICS 667, Week of 1/10: Introduction to Course and Methodologies

New Topics and Readings

Introduction to the course

Overview of course format. Demonstration of disCourse.

Introduction to Usability Engineering and Usage Centered Design

Rosson & Carroll Ch. 1; Constantine & Lockwood Ch. 1-2. See also Constantine & Lockwood (1995/2000) Engineering Usability

Introduction to major methodologies to be surveyed, and issues underlying choice between methdologies.

Principles, Guidelines, and Rules

Constantine & Lockwood Ch. 3. For an extreme example of rules, see the MITRE Guidelines

Just read the introduction and then browse through the guidelines. Are these sufficient to engineer usable systems? Find out in Assignment 1.

Slides

These slides were developed for a lecture style presentation, so may not always be interpretable as an online resource, but I'm making them available to help show what I focus on and because they may contain some ideas not in the readings.

01_Introduction.pdf

Activities

In class we discussed concepts of "usability" and how one would go about designing for usability.

Some things you can do on your own:

• Show each other some systems you have recently had usability problems with.
• Watch someone else use a system they are not familiar with. Try to identify the sources of difficulties they encounter.
• Review a system in small groups against the list of principles and guidelines in the Constantine & Lockwood readings.

New Assignment

Assignment 1: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly (Due 1/19)

The End.