Course Syllabus

Enrolling in INF 132

We’ve had a huge demand for Informatics 132, and are working to expand the capacity, including adding new discussion sections. At present, registration requires an authorization code so that we can prioritize enrollment based on whether the course is required and graduation date. We expect to be able to accommodate all graduating seniors for whom the class is a requirement, and may be able to open up to additional students if there is capacity. All student who wish to take the class must attend the first meeting on April 4 at 9:30am in ICS 174.

 


Course Overview

Students in this course will learn and practice the process of User Experience Design and Engineering. They will learn different methods for user research, user interface design and evaluation and experimental design. Students will have to carefully chose among available methods and apply them to obtain empirically verified evaluation results. They will practice collaboration in teams, including the presentation of the project results in oral and written form.

At the conclusion of this course, students should be able to:

  • realize the importance of user-centered design, and formative and summative evaluation
  • choose between different methods for user needs analysis and user interface evaluation
  • select an appropriate design for user studies
  • carry out usability experiments
  • have attained the ability to evaluate user interfaces of low and medium complexity
  • have familiarity with some of the outstanding research problems in the field of Human-Computer Interaction and User Experience

Prerequisite: INF 131

Class format: The class sessions will be a mix of lecture format and student presentations on plans and progress in their projects.

Course Deliverables: Students will work in groups of 5 (or so depending on total enrollment) to complete a user experience project involving several deliverables and a cumulative report due at the end of the quarter. There will also be a number of individual assignments throughout the quarter.

Exams: Grading will be based on individual and group assignments. There will be no final exam. There are no planned quizzes, but we reserve the right to add quizzes if we believe students are not doing the assigned readings.

Class Meetings

Lectures: Tue/Thu, 9:30am - 10:50am, ICS 174

Discussions:

  • Discussion 1 with Rahul Sridhar: Wednesday, 12:00-12:50pm, SSL 171
  • Discussion 2 with Pratik Shetty: Wednesday, 1:00-1:50pm, DBH 1425
  • Discussion 3 with Pratik Shetty: Wednesday, 12:00-12:50pm, MSTB 114
  • Discussion 4 with Rahul Sridhar: Wednesday, 4:00-4:50pm, PSCB 230

Everyone is required to attend both lectures and their discussion section. You must attend the discussion in which you are enrolled. Project team members must all be enrolled in the same discussion section.

Readings

Students are expected to have read the assigned reading before the lecture. Most readings will be available online or in digital copies.

Students should be familiar with the textbook from INF 131, and a copy will be on reserve in the library:

  • Shneiderman, et al. (2017). Designing the user interface : strategies for effective human-computer interaction. Boston: Pearson.

This textbook is a valuable reference for many of the activities we will be doing in the class.

Instructors and Office Hours

Instructor:

Matthew Bietz, mbietz@uci.edu, Office: DBH 5208

TAs:

Rahul Sridhar, rsridha2@uci.edu
Pratik Shetty, ppshetty@uci.edu

We will have office hours by appointment, just drop us an email or catch us before or after class to schedule a time to meet.

Additional Information

All students should read the Course Overview and Policies page which contains details about the course, grading, attendance, academic integrity, disability accommodations, and other information.

The materials in Canvas are the official syllabus for this class. Items may be updated periodically. It is each student's responsibility to check Canvas regularly.

Course Summary:

Date Details Due