CS 352 Winter 2012
Introduction to Usability Engineering

Instructor: Prof. Margaret Burnett
Office: KEC 3051
E-Mail: burnett at eecs ...

Dr. Burnett's Office Hours are listed on my home page

TAs: Balaji Athreya and Beatrice Moissinac
TAs' Email: athreya at eecs.oregonstate.edu (Balaji), moissinb at onid (Beatrice)
TAs' Office hours location: KEC Atrium
TAs' Office hours:

• Beatrice: Wednesdays 9:30-11:00.
• Balaji: Thursdays 9:30-11:00.

Course Description

This class will give you hands-on experience with usability evaluation and user-centered design. In this class you will not learn how to implement user interfaces, but rather how to design these based on the needs of users, which you will determine, and learn how to evaluate your designs rigorously. This is a class for those who wish to know more about usability, human-computer interaction, the psychological aspects of computing, evaluation, and/or experimentation.

There will be no programming. However, a significant portion of your grade will be based on a team project, where you will propose, prototype (using a special prototyping tool called "CogTool"), and evaluate your own solutions.

Learning Objectives

At the completion of this course, students will be able to:
1. Describe the human centered design process and usability engineering process and their roles in system design and development.
2. Discuss usability design guidelines, their foundations, assumptions, advantages, and weaknesses.
3. Describe basics of human subjects research.
4. Complete a basic human subjects research certification form.
5. Design a user interface based on analysis of human needs and prepare a prototype system.
6. Assess user interfaces using different usability engineering techniques.
7. Make an oral presentation that justifies design decisions.

How the course will be conducted, method of instruction

This class is meant to be a hand-on course. This means that you will be required to work on group projects (~4 person groups) and classwork (in addition to doing readings) outside of class time. This class will also be very interactive. Participation will count towards your final grade, and I want a healthy discussion in each class session.

You are responsible for having done the reading before attending class that day and be ready to participate in the discussion. To ensure that everyone keeps up with the reading, there will be a short quiz almost every week. I may not go over all the reading material in class, preferring to spend that time elaborating or discussing that material with you. This does not mean the assigned reading is not important, or will not be covered in a test.

Grading

I have high expectations. Thus, in this class, "A" does not mean "adequate" or "nothing really wrong" -- it means "excellent". For an A, you should expect to work hard and get the most you can out of the class.

Weights:

• Participation: 3%
• Assignments and quizzes: 15%
• Midterm: 25%
• Final exam: 30%
• Project: 27%. This comes from:
  • Proposal: 10%
  • Formative research into your users and their tasks: 20%
  • Prototype: 25% (5% as of first design gallery, 20% at end)
  • Evaluation plan: 10%
  • Evaluation: 25%
  • Presentation: 10%

Note: The team receives one grade for the group project. However, allocation of the grade among team members will in some cases not be equal, if team members do not contribute relatively equally to the effort.

• Here are your scores to date as of 02/13. (Your Proposal grade is explained in the comment in that column heading -- hover to see it.)
• Here are your scores to date as of 02/24.
• Here are your scores to date as of 03/20.

Textbooks

• Required: Interaction Design by Sharp, Rogers & Preece, 3rd Edition, 2011.
  We just changed to the 3rd edition (December 28), since I just learned of it. For this term, you can use either the 2nd ed or the 3rd ed -- we will make it work. Note: the 2nd edition is cheaper, but not likely to be re-sellable. (Available at OSU bookstore. Also on reserve at the OSU library, Valley Reserves -- QA76.9.H85 P72 2007)
• Optional: Rocket Surgery Made Easy by S. Krug, New Riders, 2010. (Available at OSU bookstore.) ISBN/SKU 978-0-321-65729-9.

We will also have selected readings from other sources, but you don't have to buy those.

Other resources and links

• Slides from:
  • Slides: first day of class (introduction, design principles, etc.)
  • Slides: design process.
  • Slides: design principles and process (cont.), in-class design activity.
  • Slides: project and team.
  • Slides: interviewing.
  • Slides: field interviews.
  • Slides: observing users. Examples: Observing people in E-cafe, Observing teachers in system tutorial.
  • Slides: observing users, cont.
  • Slides: memory.
  • Slides: perception and attention.
  • Slides: mental models.
  • Slides: concepts and prototypes.
  • Slides: evaluation 1.
  • Slides: evaluation 2.
  • Slides: evaluation 3.
  • Slides: Attention Investment.
  • Slides: Surprise-Explain-Reward.
  • Slides: Gender.
• Steve Krug's demo (pertains to both interviewing and prototype evaluation). (local WMV. local MOV)
• A very good book: The design of everyday things, by Donald Norman.
• Realism in UI design: A "less is more" article on when more realistic appearances are worse. (Local copy).
• Interface hall of shame.
• Cogtool resources:
  • CogTool site for downloads, documentation, the QA forum, etc. You can download it (free) for your laptop (Mac or PC).
  • Another option is to run it from any Engineering lab or remote desktop by executing this app:
    \\stak.engr.oregonstate.edu\apps\CogTool
• Nielsen's heuristics for Heuristic Evaluation
• What do HCI researchers work on? Here is the Advance Program for ACM's 2012 CHI conference, which is the primary conference in HCI. There are several papers and events with OSU authors on the program. :-)
• Microsoft's "Channel 9" interview with Dr. Burnett on gender differences in software development environment usage.

Other policies

Students with Disabilities: Accommodations are collaborative efforts between students, faculty and Disability Access Services (DAS). Students with accommodations approved through DAS are responsible for contacting the faculty member in charge of the course prior to or during the first week of the term to discuss accommodations. Students who believe they are eligible for accommodations but who have not yet obtained approval through DAS should contact DAS immediately at 737-4098.

Link to Statement of Expectations for Student Conduct, i.e., cheating policies: http://oregonstate.edu/studentconduct/regulations/index.php#acdis

Schedule (subject to change)

Things I might work into the above if time permits: Goal-oriented design.

Margaret M. Burnett
Date of last update: Mar. 20, 2012