USER INTERFACE DESIGN

G5 B UID

10 Credits

Semester A, 1997-98

Dr. Frank E. Ritter

441 Psychology

95 - 15292

Frank.Ritter@nottingham.ac.uk

Gail Reynard (gtr @ cs)

A - Design Track (room 1209, 1700-1800 Mon., free lab timeTBA)

1. Introduction (6/10) p1

Aims and Objectives.

Course Structure.

Coursework requirements:

¥ One evaluation exercise, where you get to evaluate interfaces. 20% of the final mark.

¥ Two prototype user interfaces. One will be in HTML, and one in Tcl/Tk. Each will count 20% towards the final mark.

¥ One design exercise that requires doing some specification as well as more detailed implementation. 40% of the final mark.

¥ Due dates: approx. weeks 6, 9, 12.

Simple exercises to illustrate the issues.

2. User Interface Development (13/10) p2, p17, p24

Problems

The UI Development Life Cycle

Design Trade-offs

Example Theory

3. The Human User (20/10) p3-6,8

Interaction and Communication.

Human Information Processing.

Models and Metaphors.

4. Analysis & Design (27/10) p17-22

Requirements Analysis

Task Analysis

Design Models

5 & 6. Interaction Styles (3/11; 10/11) p13

Menus and Form Filling.

Command Languages.

Direct Manipulation & Virtual reality.

7. The H/W Interface: Input/Output Devices (17/11) p11, p12

I/O devices.

8. User Interface Evaluation (24/11) p29

What to measure.

Usability Labs.

9. Data Collection (1/12) p30, p31

How to collect data. Ethics.

Direct Observation.

Automatic Monitoring.

Questionnaires & Reviews.

10. Data Analysis (8/12) p30-31, p34

What to do with the data.

References

Recommended Text

J.Preece et al (1994) Human Computer Interaction. Addison-Wesley. (7 copies in the library, several in the short term loan collection). The bookstore has some and will get some more.

Other useful texts

D.A.Norman (1988) The Psychology of Everyday Things. Basic Books. (The paperback edition is called The Design of Everyday Things.) A good book for inspiration in general; very easy to read.

There are useful books in the library, too many to mention. Feel free to use them as well.

Web site:  www.psychology.nottingham.ac.uk/staff/  ritter/uid

B. - Software Tools Track (1407, 1000- 1200 Mon.)

This part of the course uses a double period. The first hour will typically be a lecture, and the second hour will be working on the terminals, which are also available at other times.

1. Introduction to HTML (13/10)

2. Example usability experiment, KLM, and GOMS (20/10)

3. HTML II (27/10)

4. HTML III (3/11)

5. Tcl/Tk I (10/11)

6. Tcl/Tk II (17/11)

7. Tcl/Tk III (24/11)

8. Lab time (remaining Mondays)

References

Web sites for HTML

J.K.Oosterhout (1994) Tcl and the Tk Toolkit. Addison Wesley.

Welch, B.B., Practical programming in Tcl and Tk. 1995, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.