Designing Interactive Systems (Winter 2019)
Class Information: Aachen
Lab | Mon, 14:30 - 16:00 (starting 14.10.2019) |
Room: AH VI | |
Studio | Wed, 10:00 - 12:00 (starting 09.10.2019) |
Room: 2356|053.2 | |
Language | English |
Credits | 6 |
Class Information: Bonn
Studio & Lab | Tue, 13:00 - 17:15 (starting 22.10.2019) |
Room: b-it building, room 0.109 | |
Language | English |
Credits | 6 |
Exams
Midterm Exam | 27.11.19 |
1st Final Exam | 04.02.20 |
2nd Final Exam | 06.03.20 |
This class introduces students to the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and user interface design. Specifically, the course covers the following topics:
- Fundamental concepts of human cognition, such as perception and memory performance.
- Models of interaction between people and their environment, such as affordances, mappings, constraints, slips, and mistakes.
- Milestones in the history of Human-Computer Interaction.
- Principles of iterative design.
- Techniques for prototyping user interfaces.
- User studies and evaluation methods.
- Golden rules of user interface design.
- User interface design notations.
After this class, students will know how user interfaces have been developed over the past decades, and what constants of human performance need to be considered when designing them. This class forms the basis for the classes “Designing Interactive Systems II” (which looks at more technical aspects of user interface development) and “Current Topics in HCI and Media Computing,” as well as the “Post-Desktop User Interfaces” seminar and other courses from our research group. Students will be able to apply iterative design, prototyping, and evaluation methods to design usable, appropriate user interfaces in a user-centered fashion. All assignments are group-based to foster collaboration skills, and project-centered to strengthen organizational skills, conflict management, and presentation skills. Learning to think in designers' terms is a crucial competence for computer scientists working on user interfaces, a job that requires collaboration in interdisciplinary teams.
This class is limited to 120 seats. You need to register to obtain a seat in this course.
Contact
Syllabus
Aachen:
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Course Introduction, Fitts' Law, The CMN Model
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Studio 1: Course Introduction
Wed, Oct 9th
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Lab 1
Mon, Oct 14th
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Studio 2
Wed, Oct 16th
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Gestalt Laws, Information Content, Visibility, Affordances
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Lab 2
Mon, Oct 21st
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Studio 2
Wed, Oct 23rd
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Mappings, Constraints, Seven Stages of Actions
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Lab 3
Mon, Oct 28th
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Studio 3
Wed, Oct 30th
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Knowledge in the World and Head, Mistakes, Slips
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Lab 4
Mon, Nov 4th
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Studio 4
Wed, Nov 6th
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History of HCI 1: From Abacus to Macintosh
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Lab 5
Mon, Nov 11th
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Studio 5
Wed, 13th
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History of HCI 2: Visions, UbiComp, Phase of Technology
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Lab 6
Mon, Nov 18th
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Studio 6
Wed, Nov 20th
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Visual Design & Midterm Exam Preparation
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Lab 7: Visual Design
Mon, Nov 25th
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Midterm Exam
Wed, Nov 27th
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DIA Cycle, Observing Users, Brainstorming, Storyboards
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Lab 9: Midterm Exam Discussion
Mon, Dec 2nd
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Studio 9: Project Milestone 1
Wed, Dec 4th
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Prototyping
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Lab 10
Mon, Dec 9th
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Studio 10
Wed, Dec 11th
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Evaluating With and Without Users
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Lab 11
Mon, Dec 16th
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Studio 11
Wed, Dec 18th
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Responsiveness, GOMS Model, Interface Efficiency, Golden Rules of Design
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Lab 12
Mon, Jan 6th
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Studio 12
Wed, Jan 8th
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Notations I: Grammars and STNs
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Lab 13
Mon, Jan 13th
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Studio 13
Wed, Jan 15th
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Notations II: Petri Nets, State Charts, Design in Business
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Lab 14
Mon, Jan 20th
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Studio 14
Wed, Jan 22nd
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Exam Preparation & Project Presentations
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Lab 15: Exam Preparation
Mon, Jan 27th
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Project Presentations
Wed, Jan 29th
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Final Exams
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Final Exam PT1
Feb 4th
AH II, AH IV, and AH V, Informatik Zentrum, Aachen -
Final Exam PT2
Mar 6th
PPS H2 (2315|001), AH V (2356|050), Aachen
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Bonn:
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Course Introduction, Introduction to Fitts' Law, The CMN Model, Gestalt Laws, Information Content, Visibility, Affordances
Tue, Oct 22nd
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Mappings, Constraints, Seven Stages of Actions
Tue, Oct 29th
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Knowledge in the World and Head, Mistakes, Slips
Tue, Nov 5th
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History of HCI 1: From Abacus to Macintosh
Tue, Nov 12th
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History of HCI 2, Midterm Exam Preparation
Tue, Nov 19th
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Visual Design & Midterm Exam
Tue, Nov 26th
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Midterm Exam
Wed, Nov 27th
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DIA Cycle, Observing Users, Brainstorming, and Storyboards
Tue, Dec 3rd
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Prototyping
Tue, Dec 10th
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Evaluating With and Without Users
Tue, Dec 17th
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Responsiveness, GOMS Model, Interface Efficiency, Golden Rules of Design
Tue, Jan 7th
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Notations I: Grammars, STNs
Tue, Jan 14th
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Notations II: Petri Nets, State Charts, Design in Business
Tue, Jan 21st
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Exam Preparation & Project Presentations
Tue, Jan 28th
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Project Presentations
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Final Exams
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Final Exam PT1
Feb 4th
Room 0.109, b-it building, Bonn -
Final Exam PT2
Mar 6th
PPS H2 (2315|001), AH V (2356|050), Aachen
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Grading
Your grade will be calculated as follows:
Assignments | 20% |
Project | 20% |
Midterm | 25% |
Final Exam | 35% |
Fields of Study
- Computer Science (B.Sc.), (M.Sc.)
- Media Informatics (M.Sc.)/Multimedia-Benutzung und -Wirkung/in Aachen (mandatory course)
- Software Systems Engineering (M.Sc.)/Areas of Specialization/Media Computing and Interactive Systems
- Technical Communication (B.Sc.) (mandatory course)
Course Allocation and Registration Guide
Number of SWS: V3+Ü2
ECTS Credits: 6
Course language: English for all lectures, assignments, and exams
We only have 120 seats are available for this course. To have a chance for a seat in this course, you have to complete the following steps:
- Register for the course in RWTHonline by Thursday, 10.10.2019.
- Sign the Declaration of Compliance and hand it in before 5pm, Thursday, 10th October. Note: Scans or pictures are not valid, you need to hand in your form in person. We will give priority to students who hand in the Declaration of Compliance before this deadline.
On Friday, 11.10.2019, we will announce who has been selected for the course by email.
Reading Material
- (Required) Donald Norman, The Design Of Everyday Things, ISBN 8601400351710.
- Alan Dix, Janet Finlay, Gregory D. Abowd, Russell Beale, Human-Computer Interaction , ISBN 0130461091
- Ben Shneiderman, Designing the User Interface: Strategies for Effective Human-Computer Interaction, ISBN 0321197860
- Carolyn Snyder, Paper Prototyping, ISBN 978-1558608702, also see the accompanying site.
We highly recommend that you buy Norman's book, since you have to read it for class during the first few weeks. From the Dix et. al., and Schneiderman books, you just have to read some chapters. You can find these books in the library.
FAQs – Frequently Asked Questions
Projects
Aachen
Bonn
Group #
|
Project topic
|
---|---|
1 | Carcuum |
2 | Act n' Play |
3 | Smartypants |
4 | Konmari Katze |
Previous Offerings
WS 18/19 - WS 17/18 - WS 16/17 - WS 15/16 - WS 14/15 - WS 13/14 - WS 12/13 - WS 11/12 - WS 10/11 - WS 09/10 - WS 08/09 - WS 07/08 - WS 06/07 - WS 05/06 - WS 04/05 - WS 03/04