| Course Code | COMP4511 |
| Course Title | User Interface Design and Construction |
| Convenor | Aaron Quigley |
| Admin | Aaron Quigley |
| Classes |
Monday 2-4pm and Thursday 11-1pm (please follow the link to course lectures below)
http://timetable.unsw.edu.au/2021/COMP4511.html |
| Consultations | Please use the forums here WEB cms for questions. |
| Units of Credit | 6 |
|
Course Lectures
|
https://moodle.telt.unsw.edu.au/course/view.php?id=62463
(access Moodle and continue to blackboard collaborate please) |
| Handbook Entry | http://www.handbook.unsw.edu.au/undergraduate/courses/current/COMP4511.html |
| Student Reps |
stureps@cse.unsw.edu.au
Email the stureps if you have any issues with the course. They will pass these anonymously to the relevant people to get the issues resolved. |
COMP4511 is a hands-on project-based course designed to build and solidify the basic skills you acquired in COMP3511/9511. Students will be required to build their interface at least three times (remember the process is iterative!), once as a low fidelity prototype, moving to a higher fidelity electronic prototype and finishing with a beta version of the app. This semester, we will be using React to help us write the app. The course will provide you with a basic understanding and the building blocks required to create your app, and let you guide the design and development process.
The process doesn't start with coding, it starts with an understanding your users. You develop personas of your target audience and work through the design issues: What information are they going to be dealing with? What are the workflows? How are they going to interact with the application? What is the application going to look like?
As you learned in Human Computer Interaction, you have to conceptualise your design on paper and evaluate prototypes with users. Then you start on the design of your system, not focussing on just the code but also the object oriented design. You will build the code implementation iterating through both your object oriented design and your user interface design.
The real insights come when we usability test your application. Do your users really understand how to use your application? Does it work the way that they expect - not what you as a programmer expect. That's the challenge. What is the difference between a bug and a design flaw? Proper evaluation techniques will help you uncover both.
We teach a process that is relevant to industry. Preparing students for the real world challenges of user interface design. And face it, user interfaces are everywhere.
The process is not just about putting buttons and text on screen. COMP3511 only touched the surface of what user interface design is all about. Are you up for the challenge of designing graphical user interfaces?
COMP3511 Human Computer Interaction is a pre-requisite and you need a mark of 70 or better (you are expected to start design, prototyping and designing usability tests in the first week). You should have completed COMP2911 which introduces you to object oriented techniques, UML and design patterns, with a mark of 65 or higher.
Before commencing this course, students should already be familiar with the basic concepts of user centred design cycle, heuristic and cognitive evaluations, paper prototyping, and usability evaluations. Additionally, you must be able to write a number of usability-based documents, including consent forms, questionnaires, usability test plans, etc. (learnt in COMP3511/9511). Students are also expected to be familiar and comfortable working with OO concepts. Because students come from a variety of backgrounds, with different knowledge bases, the assumed knowledge is not extensive. The course does, however, involve some reading that will be based on industry experience and standards.
This course is designed to further develop student understanding about the theories and principles behind user interface design. The students are expected to undertake a semester long project, where they will gain familiarity with bothlow-and high-fidelity prototyping techniques and will also be introduced to Swift to assist with the development of a functioning prototype or an app.
After completing this course, students will be able to:
This course contributes to the development of the following graduate capabilities:
| Graduate Capability | Acquired in |
| Scholars capable of independent and collaborative enquiry, rigorous in their analysis, critique and reflection, and able to innovate by applying their knowledge and skills to the solution of novel as well as routine problems |
Lectures, tutorials/labs and assignments
|
| Entrepreneurial leaders capable of initiating and embracing innovation and change, as well as engaging and enabling others to contribute to change |
Lectures
|
| Professionals capable of ethical, self- directed practice and independent lifelong learning |
Labs and assignments
|
| Global citizens who are culturally adept and capable of respecting diversity and acting in a socially just and responsible way | Lectures |
Every week, starting in Week 1 we will have lectures on Monday and Tuesday. We will use the Monday lecture to explore UX and UI methods and gain further understanding of concepts within the space. On Tuesdays, we will focus on playing with React Native and putting together some example apps. The lectures will consist of lecture material, design diary and design exercises and activities. We expect all students to engage and participate with the content, ask questions and use this time to solidify understanding of material.
My teaching ethos has developed and matured over the past 15+ years. I first started teaching in 1995 and I have continued teaching regardless of my research, industrial, supervisory, directorial or professorial work responsibilities. The central tenet of my teaching philosophy and approach is the SECI model of learning, which I was introduced to when I first taught in Japan. This model helps me focus on student learning and my teaching as part of a continual process to be refined and reflected upon, from class to class and from year to year. This learning model has four phases and distinguishes between two different kinds of human knowledge: tacit and explicit. The phases in this model include, Socialisation (online forums, class, student to student interaction, group work, open discussion), Externalisation (books, slides, notes, code), Combination (seminar preparation, practicals, assignments, team work) and Internalisation (reflection, application, personalised learning). My job, as educator, is to construct a framework for students to combine the knowledge presented in an external form or acquired through socialisation so they can hence effectively internalise it. In order to support these four phases, I have developed four guiding teaching principles for effective pedagogy, which include, Reflection on learning, Positive Learning Environment, Theory and Application and Grounding for life long learning.
In COMP4511 I apply SECI by first introducing theory which can be discussed in class, forum and in group work. Next, we introduce the relevant coding concepts in React Native. Students are asked to externalise what they have learned in these two parts with, code, labs and design diaries. Next, students are asked to combine this knowledge in their assignments and team work. Further reflection and learning allows for fresh internalisation of these items.
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 |
|
Due | Marks | |
|
Design Diary
|
Weeks 5 and 10 | 25% | ||
|
Individual Research and Presentation Assignment 1
|
Week 8 | 25% | ||
|
Group Project
|
See spec for details | 50% |
| Week | Lectures | Links | Tute/Labs | Assignments | Links | Notes |
| 1 |
Logistics,
Design Thinking Introduction |
Slides | - |
|
|
|
| 2 |
Personas and Scenarios
User Stories for Requirements User Story Mapping Introducing React Native (1) |
Slides
|
- |
|
- | - |
| 3 |
Introducing Atomic Design methods
Creating a Design System start React Native Basics |
Slides
|
- |
|
- | - |
| 4 |
Information Architecture in Mobile App Design (note Oct 4th public holiday)
|
Slides
|
- | Group Project Checkpoint 1 | - | - |
| 5 |
Prototyping with Figma/Other
Usability Testing React Native |
Slides
|
- |
Design Journal 1
Group Project Checkpoint 2 |
- | - |
| 6 |
Flexibility Week
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 7 |
Mobile Design Principles
React Native |
Slides
|
- |
Group Project Checkpoint 3
|
- | - |
| 8 |
Visual Design in App Design and Colour Theory
React Native |
Slides
|
- |
Individual Research and Presentation |
- | - |
| 9 |
Multi Generational Design and Inclusive Design
React Native |
Slides
|
- | - | - | - |
| 10 | Demos/Project Work |
|
- |
Design Journal 2
Group Project Checkpoint 4 |
- |
|
Texts and recommended readings:
Other resources (e.g. links to on-line documentation) will be provided linked from the lecture slides.
This course is evaluated each session using the myExperience system.
In the previous offering of this courses, students noted the disconnect between the theory and the practice along with the pacing of the react native materials. Students were also concerned about the number of places to access and get course material and the use of Teams.
Based on their comments, we have decided to team teach the practice lecture to better integrate the theory and the practice and to incorporate more exercises to help pace the react native material. We are using WebCMS to host course content and allow for submission upload and we only link to Moodle to allow for access to the course lecture recordings.
Resource created Monday 06 September 2021, 03:13:08 PM, last modified Thursday 16 September 2021, 03:18:49 PM.