Course Logistics

There are no official course prerequisites. But the assignments and the final project will require building web-based user interfaces, so some fluency in programming is needed. Web programming skills are a plus, but not required. The course will include tutorials on HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Here's a breakdown of how the grading will work:

• Design Project: 50%
• Assignments: 20%
• In-class activities and participation: 20%
• Studio participation: 10%

Rubric-based grading: Most assignments and project milestones will be graded based on a set of rubrics, which are designed by course staff to best capture the learning objectives of an assignment. But please keep in mind that design work is inherently subjective.

Self and peer assessment: Metacognition is an extremely powerful way to learn, and self- and peer-assessment offer great opportunities for metacognition. You'll be asked to assess yourself, as well as your teammates after some project milestones.

Class attendance: As you come to each class, course staff will hand out a unique code to be used for the day. You need to insert that code in your nanoquiz submission, which will verify that you came to class that day in person.

Studio attendance: It's mandatory. Your TA mentor will keep track of your attendance and reflect it on your participation grade.

Nanoquiz and in-class activities: You'll get to see your attendance and nanoquiz grades after class. 5 lowest grades will be removed in your final grade. This covers all lateness and absence cases, so use them sparingly. If you have a special situation (e.g., medical, family) regarding your attendance, please talk to course staff.

Late policy: No late submissions are allowed for the project. For individual assignments, you'll lose 10% for each late day. Submissions will be accepted until three days after the deadline. No submission automatically gets a 0.

You may discuss assignments with others, but you should always give credit and be intellectually honest.

For all individual assignments, you should write the solution entirely on your own. Sharing or seeing other students' solutions (written material or code) is not allowed. If you discussed the assignment with anyone, you should explicitly list them in your report.

For programming assignments, you may use third-party libraries, but you should give proper attribution. If the assignment asks you to implement a particular feature, you should create your own version.

For teamwork, you should try your best to contribute to your team's success and actively collaborate with your teammates. Making no or minimal contribution for any given milestone is problematic and can cause significant damage to your team. If that is the case, please report to the course staff and we will make appropriate adjustments to the team and grading, which might sometimes involve re-assignment of teams and individual grading.

Failure to adhere to these policies may lead to serious penalties, including an F in the course and reference to the departmental and university committee.

A major part of the course is for you to design an interactive prototype that is carefully catered to your target users. This will be done in a team of 3-4 students.

There is no official textbook. We will mix various resources that best explain the core concepts in human-computer interaction.

This doesn't mean that there aren't great books. Here's a short selection of books we recommend:

• Don Norman, The Design of Everyday Things, 1990.
• Jef Raskin, The Humane Interface, ACM Press, 2000.
• Steve Krug, Don't Make Me Think, New Riders Publishing, 2005.
• Edward Tufte, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, Graphics Press, 1983.