Designing Interactive Systems I

Videos of the lectures from WS 2015/16 are available on iTunes U.

News

• Friday, October 07, 2016: Registration Guide for Aachen
• Friday, October 07, 2016: Registration Guide for Bonn
  
• Friday, October 07, 2016: Please buy a copy of Don Norman's book "The Design of Everyday Things". You can order it onAmazon: Paperback (13.95€). You will need this to prepare for your midterm exam.
• Friday, October 07, 2016: First lab of WS 2016/17 in Aachen: Monday, 17th October, 2016, Room 2354|030 (AH IV)
• Friday, October 07, 2016: First lab of WS 2016/17 in Bonn: Tuesday, 8th November, 2016, B-IT Main Lecture Hall

Course Content

Aachen

Bonn

Project

What is this Course about?

This class introduces students to the field of human-computer interaction (HCI) and user interface design. Specifically, the course covers the following topics:

• Fundamental characteristics of human cognition, such as reaction time, rules of 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
• User interface prototyping techniques
• 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 assignments to foster collaboration skills, and project-based to strengthen project planning, 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.

Course Allocation

Fields of study:

• Informatik (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)

Number SWS: V3 + Ü2
ECTS Credits: 6
The lecture recordings are in English. All assignment submissions and exams must be written in English.

Course Registration

Lecturers

• Jan Borchers
• Krishna Subramanian

Timings

Aachen

Bonn

Grading

Your grade will be calculated as follows:

Missing the Midterm Exam

• If you cannot attend the midterm for valid reasons (medical reason, exam schedule conflicts), you need to inform us before the midterm, and submit a scanned copy of the evidence (medical certificate, course registration, boarding passes) within 5 days after the midterm.
  • If the reason for missing the midterm is valid, you will do your first attempt of the midterm for the parts that you missed on the same date as the second chance exam.
• If the reason is not valid, you will not get any score from that midterm. If your overall score passed the course, you will not have a chance to take the midterm again.
• If you are writing the final exam on the 2nd chance date and had a valid reason for missing the midterm (see above), you will have to take both the midterm and final exam in the second chance on the same date.

Assignments

Assignments and project make up 40% of your final grade.

For assignments that are handed in after the due date, we will deduct one grading step for every 24 hours. Assignments that are handed in after they have been discussed in the lab session will not be graded and will automatically receive a 5.0 grade.

Code of Conduct

We do not tolerate plagiarism or cheating. If you hand in any exam, assignment, or seminar paper that violates the terms of the {file name="Declaration of compliance.pdf" desc="Declaration of Compliance"}, you will fail the course, and it may result in further consequences (Bachelor- / Masterordnung: §10 (4), DPO97: §8 (4)).

Reading Material

• (Required) Donald Norman, The Design Of Everyday Things, ISBN 0465050654
• 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.

Lecture Videos

Video recordings of every lecture that was held in Aachen during WS 2015/16 is available on iTunes U for reviewing. The labs will include in-class discussion of the concepts discussed in the lecture.

FAQs – Frequently Asked Questions

!!Past Offerings:

• Course information WS 1516
• Course information WS 1415
• Course information WS 1314
• Course information WS 1213
• Course information WS 1112
• Course information WS 1011
• Course information WS 0910
• Course information WS 0809
• Course information WS 0708
• Course information WS 0607
• Course information WS 0506
• Course information WS 0405
• Course information WS 0304