| Course Code | COMP3511 / COMP9511 |
| Course Title | Human Computer Interaction |
| Convenor | Gelareh Mohammadi |
| Admin | Alexandra Vassar |
| Classes |
Lectures
: Monday 13:00-15:00, Tuesday 14:00-16:00
Timetable for all classes |
| Consultations |
Individual consultation can be arranged by e-mail
class email: cse.comp3511@unsw.edu.au |
| Units of Credit | 6 |
| Course Website | This course runs on Moodle: https://moodle.telt.unsw.edu.au/course/view.php?id=51285 |
| Handbook Entry | http://www.handbook.unsw.edu.au/undergraduate/courses/current/COMP3511.html |
This course provides an introduction to user-system interactions, both analysis and design. The approach is cognitive, focusing on matching user goals with computer technologies.
Lecture topics are summarised in the Course Schedule below.
Course Aims:
Pre-requisites
The assumed knowledge for this course is that you know how to write a report and/or essay for your assignments. Because students come from a variety of backgrounds, with different knowledge bases, the assumed knowledge is not extensive. The course does, however, involve extensive reading.
After completing this course, students will be able:
Monday 1-3pm and Tuesday 2-4pm is a common lecture time slot that will include lecture materials and design diary exercises. You will be expected to have listened to the relevant lecture in advance of tutorials, completed any associated Design Diary activities, and to come prepared to the online class. Further exercises will take place in the tutorials.
Each week you will be required to participate in your timetabled tutorial/laboratory class. This will be held online using MsTeams and other collaborative learning tools. You will be using OneNote for Design diary activities and please remember to date each page. It will act as evidence of your original design and assignment work which is a compulsory component of this course.
Regular progress on assignment 2 group work is required and will be checked with weekly or fortnightly deliverables. This is designed to keep you working regularly on your assignments so that you don’t leave things until the last minute. During some scheduled tutorial classes (see web site and assignment pages for dates) there will be assessable in-class activities and checkpoints (due at the beginning of the class) relating to assignment milestones. Late penalties may be applied if you have not adequately prepared for these activities or made contact with your tutor and group members if you cannot attend in real-time.
This will also be a time for you to ask questions of your tutor, and for your tutor to give you some feedback on your work.
The practical periods in the tutorial/laboratory are intended to facilitate group discussion and to give you the ability to work through practical examples. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the tutorials will be online, but participation and attendance is still expected. If you are having internet connectivity issues, please ensure you still complete the associated work and exercises and submit them to the tutor to check.
Your design diary will be marked every few weeks for assessment and review. You are encouraged to find your own design examples of bad user interaction experiences, as you go about your daily routine. This may involve you taking a photograph, as an example, and uploading a copy of that photo into your diary and writing up your ideas as to why the interaction is poor and solutions to improve.
This course appears to some as being “easy”, but the reality is that it isn’t. (This comment comes from student feedback). Many unfortunately don’t make this realisation until the final weeks.
Lecture Recordings:
We will be using a combination of recorded lectures and livestream. Details and recordings will be available in Moodle.
Failing to take into consideration the needs of your software user audience will lead to costly disaster. People will become frustrated because the application does not work the way that they expect. You know it yourself – you have encountered web sites that are difficult and non-intuitive to use. We aim to show you a design process that helps reduce such user interface difficulties before users are unleashed on your software. This design process starts with understanding people. The process involves an on-going working relationship with potential users during the entire design of a system; not just in the software-testing phase.
Engineers have created many software applications without consultation with the immediate user audience. They may have talked to the managers of the software (those that will pay the development cost bills) but have not talked to the end users. The end users have valuable insight into the workflow of organizations, and this is complimented with knowledge from other stakeholders.
The intention is not for lectures to reiterate the text material but to re-activate it, re-represent it, elaborate it, and demonstrate the application of it to design. This implies, and it will be assumed, that you have done the reading prior to lecture. If you have questions about the reading, the lectures, or the interrelation between the two, make sure that you ask in lectures or via the various consultation methods described below.
The Student Code of Conduct ( Information , Policy ) sets out what the University expects from students as members of the UNSW community. As well as the learning, teaching and research environment, the University aims to provide an environment that enables students to achieve their full potential and to provide an experience consistent with the University's values and guiding principles. A condition of enrolment is that students inform themselves of the University's rules and policies affecting them, and conduct themselves accordingly.
In particular, students have the responsibility to observe standards of equity and respect in dealing with every member of the University community. This applies to all activities on UNSW premises and all external activities related to study and research. This includes behaviour in person as well as behaviour on social media, for example Facebook groups set up for the purpose of discussing UNSW courses or course work. Behaviour that is considered in breach of the Student Code Policy as discriminatory, sexually inappropriate, bullying, harassing, invading another's privacy or causing any person to fear for their personal safety is serious misconduct and can lead to severe penalties, including suspension or exclusion from UNSW.
If you have any concerns, you may raise them with your lecturer, or approach the School Ethics Officer , Grievance Officer , or one of the student representatives.
Plagiarism is defined as using the words or ideas of others and presenting them as your own. UNSW and CSE treat plagiarism as academic misconduct, which means that it carries penalties as severe as being excluded from further study at UNSW. There are several on-line sources to help you understand what plagiarism is and how it is dealt with at UNSW:
Make sure that you read and understand these. Ignorance is not accepted as an excuse for plagiarism. In particular, you are also responsible that your assignment files are not accessible by anyone but you by setting the correct permissions in your CSE directory and code repository, if using. Note also that plagiarism includes paying or asking another person to do a piece of work for you and then submitting it as your own work.
UNSW has an ongoing commitment to fostering a culture of learning informed by academic integrity. All UNSW staff and students have a responsibility to adhere to this principle of academic integrity. Plagiarism undermines academic integrity and is not tolerated at UNSW. Plagiarism at UNSW is defined as using the words or ideas of others and passing them off as your own.
If you haven't done so yet, please take the time to read the full text of
The pages below describe the policies and procedures in more detail:
You should also read the following page which describes your rights and responsibilities in the CSE context:
| Item | Topics | Due | Marks | Contributes to |
|
Assignment 1
(User Interface Analysis) |
user experience goals
usability goals heuristics and design principles |
Weeks 4 | 20% | 1,2,3 |
|
Assignment 2
(Consolidated Group Design and Evaluation) |
All topics | Week 4,5,7,8,9,10 | 40% | 1,2,3,4,5,7,8 |
| Design Diary | All topics | Week 2-10 | 15% | 1-9 |
| Final Exam | All topics | Exam period | 25% | 1-10 |
*You must attend at least 80% of all tutorials to pass the course, unless documented special consideration is in place.
*Important Notes:
(subject to minor changes and updates as needed which will be posted on Moodle page)
| Week | Lecture | Tutorial | Assignment | Quiz |
| 1 |
Part 1:
|
No Tutorials | Assignment 1 released | - |
| 2 |
Part 1:
|
Introduction
Heuristics Stakeholders |
- | |
| 3 |
Part 1:
|
Personas / Scenarios
Accessibility |
Assignment 2 Released (Form Group) | - |
| 4 |
Part 1:
|
Surveys and Interviews
Assignment 2 work |
Assignment 1 Due
Assignment 2 Checkpoint (Product Description Statement) |
- |
| 5 |
Part 1:
|
Requirements
Paper Prototype Memory |
Assignment 2 Group Checkpoint (Consent Documents, Questionnaires) | - |
| 6 | Flexibility Week - No Classes | No Tutorials | - | - |
| 7 |
Part 1:
|
Problem Solving
Assignment 2 work |
Assignment 2 Group Checkpoint (Revised Product Description Statement, Context Scenarios, Requirements, Questionnaire Summary) | - |
| 8 |
Part 1:
|
Cognitive Load Theory | Assignment 2 Checkpoint (Electronic Prototype) | - |
| 9 |
Part 1:
|
In-class Usability Testing | Assignment 2 Checkpoint (Individual Reflection) | - |
| 10 |
Part 1:
|
Group Presentations | Assignment 2 Group Presentations | - |
| Exam period | - | - | - | Final Exam |
Required Text Book (all students)
References
Other resources
Students seeking resources can also obtain assistance from the UNSW Library. One starting point for assistance is:
info.library.unsw.edu.au/web/services/services.html
We will use both lab-based feedback and/or electronic survey tools to gather feedback about the course. This is used to assess the quality of the course in order to make on going improvements. We do take this feedback seriously and approach the design of this course using user centred design philosophies. Students are also encouraged to provide informal feedback during the session, and to let the lecturer in charge know of any problems, as soon as they arise. Suggestions will be listened to very openly, positively, constructively and thankfully, and every reasonable effort will be made to address them. The MyExperience evaluations from last year showed that students were very satisfied with most aspects of the course. In particular, students really enjoyed tutorials/labs and found they learned a lot. Students were also generally happy with the assignment load. Some CSE students requested a more technology based prototype focus and so will be including electronic prototypes as part of the 2 nd assignment.
Students valued the up to date lecture content and slides, which we will strive to maintain. Lecture recordings will be available online, with the onus on students to ensure they listen to each lecture before their tutorials so they can keep pace with the course and tutorial requirements.
Due to the online nature of the course, we will NOT have fortnightly in class quizzes. In lieu of class attendance, Design Diaries will be marked each week.
Student feedback indicated that guest lectures as well as the perspectives of different lecturers were valuable, and so we will continue to provide these.
A few students asked for shorter more concise lectures. However, other students really enjoyed the detailed examples which they indicated supported their learning and understanding. And yet other students asked for more examples. We thus aim to provide a balance between these competing demands in large student cohorts. A few students requested more concise assignment milestones. We provide reminders in many formats including the assignment specifications, lecture summary notes, and in tutorials. We will, however, endeavor to keep things more concise. The onus is still on individual students to track these on a weekly basis, otherwise it is easy to fall behind and miss deadlines. We note that HCI is an ill-defined domain, so assignment specifications will never be as clear-cut or concise as most other CSE subjects.
Resource created Tuesday 19 May 2020, 05:32:01 PM, last modified Wednesday 20 May 2020, 11:37:41 AM.