Fall 2016
This course will cover concepts in human-computer interaction that focus on designing user interfaces. Topics include understanding when to use different interfaces, modeling and representing user interaction, principles of user experience design, eliciting requirements and feedback from users, methods for designing and prototyping interfaces, and user interface evaluation. Students interested in learning the process behind building a user interface and gaining hands-on experience designing a user interface should take this course.
Programming experience is not necessary. There will be weekly assignments, readings, labs, and UI Camp as a bootcamp for design tools.
Nearly all course information will be available on the course website. The course is expected to require 10 hours / week of work outside class for assignments, readings, labs, and other activities.
Location: Room 130, 85 Waterman St
Time: 1pm-2:20pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays
See the course calendar for important dates.
Day | Visitor | Title | Company |
Sep 13 | Ha Phan | Product Designer | GoPro |
Sep 27 | Courtney George | Experience Designer | Adobe |
Oct 11 | Andrew Evans | Product Designer | IDEO |
Oct 20 | Larry Goldberg | Accessibility Director | Yahoo |
Oct 25 | Alex Hadik | UX Designer & Frontend Developer | IBM |
Nov 8 | Jill Woelfer | UX Researcher | |
Nov 10 | Behzad Aghaei | UX Designer | Apple |
Dec 1 | Jessica Tran | Design Researcher | Microsoft |
Jeff Huang, 407 CIT, jeff @cs.brown.edu
Office hours: Tuesdays 2:30-4:30pm
Lily George (Head TA) lily_georgebrown.edu
John Filmanowicz (Head TA) john_filmanowicz @brown.edu
Abraham Peterkin (TA) abraham_peterkin @brown.edu
Alicia DeVos (TA) alicia_devos @brown.edu
Catherine Hong (RISD TA) chong01 @risd.edu
Isaac Semaya (TA) isaac_semaya @brown.edu
Jiyun Lee (TA) jiyun_lee @brown.edu
Julia Wu (TA) julia_wu @brown.edu
Jina Yoon (TA) jina_yoon @brown.edu
Neilly Tan (TA) neille-ann_tan @brown.edu
Nathaniel Parrott (TA) nathaniel_parrott @brown.edu
Quinn Li O'Shea (TA) quinn_li_oshea @brown.edu
Shaun Wallace (TA) shaun_wallace @brown.edu
Yuta Arai (TA) yuta_arai @brown.edu
Zachary Deocadiz (RISD TA) zdeocadi @risd.edu
Nediyana Daskalova (Graduate TA) nediyana_daskalova @brown.edu
Email cs1300tascs.brown.edu to reach all the TAs (most questions should be directed here).
Email cs1300htas @cs.brown.edu to reach the Head TAs, Graduate TA, and Jeff (e.g. questions about your course grade).
Email Jeff for sensitive issues (e.g. feedback about course, disagreement with a TA).
If you have questions or disagreements about your grade for an assignment, first email the TA who graded you - if the issue isn't resolved, our policy is to escalate issues to the Grad TA.
Please do not email any individual TA or Head TA. They have been advised to ignore emails not sent to the TA list. This is to ensure we apply a consistent policy for questions, and so you can get a faster response to your emails.
Hours are on Sundays, Mondays, and Thursdays. Some TAs alternate which weeks they are on, so please check the Google Calendar to see who is on this week.
Day | Time | Location | TAs |
Sunday | 5-6 | CIT 207 | Isaac and Neilly (alternating) |
Monday | 5-6 | CIT 207 | Jina and Nate (alternating) |
Thursday | 5-6 | CIT 207 | Quinn Li |
If you've got questions about assignments or course material, ask them on Piazza.
Assignments are graded by undergraduate TAs and reviewed by Head TAs, using a rubric developed with the instructor. If you feel an assignment was graded unfairly, first reach out to the TA who graded you - if you still disagree, please email the Graduate TA (nediyana_daskalovacs.brown.edu) and explain why you think your assignment deserved a better grade. The Graduate TA will make a determination about whether your score will be changed within a week.
@Slides will be posted just before class starts but may be available on Canvas beforehand. Readings and assignments will be posted one week in advance with the due date for reading comments or assignment in parentheses (submit everything to Canvas).
TAs will lead multiple labs during the semester outside of the course lecture hours where students can gain experience with a specific interaction design tool or UI development for a specific platform. They will be in a tutorial + exercise format, and take place in List 315. Students should take 4 labs in total (UI Camp counts as 2).
UI Camp will be a bootcamp run by the TAs to have small groups work with 5 different design tools on various small design tasks. It will be an all-day workshop that happens on the weekend following the first day of class, and be considered as a Lab. UI Camp is new this year, and considered optional, but students are strongly encouraged to participate. UI Camp and the UX Visitors Series are generously supported by Adobe and Balsamiq.
Lab | Signup Sheet | Handout | Slides |
Lab 1: Balsamiq + Invision | Link | Link | Link |
Lab 2: Sketch + XD | Link | Link | Link |
Lab 3: Illustrator | Link | Link | Link |
Lab 4: Photoshop | Link | Link | Link |
Lab 5: proto.io + Quant UX | Link | Link | Link |
Lab 6: Principle + Figma | Link | Link | Link |
Lab 7: Framer | Link | Link | Link |
Lab 8: React | Link | Link | Link |
No-show policy: if you sign up for a lab and can't attend, please let us know at least 24 hours ahead of time -- otherwise, you'll lose priority for lab signups, and will have to sign up after everyone else. This might make it hard to sign up for four labs, so please try to let us know ahead of time if you need to miss a lab.
Reading comments are due at 11:55pm on the due date listed in the schedule. No late reading comments will be accepted, except by using a late pass (see below). For assignments 20%, of an assignment grade will be deducted for each week it is late. So an assignment turned in 9 days late will have 40% points off.
All student get 3 late passes, each of which can be used to compensate for an assignment or reading comment turned in 3 days (72 hours) late (usable once per assignment or reading comment). These will be automatically applied at the end of the course. Note that each late pass reimburses 1% of the total course grade. There are no benefits to having extra late passes when the semester ends. Any further accomodation requires a note sent to the Head TA contact email from either 1) a Dean of the College or 2) Health Services or a Doctor stating the time period of not being able to do coursework.
The Collaboration Policy explains the policies around working with other students or using outside-class resources for your assignment. It can be viewed in Canvas and is marked as an assignment worth 0 points. Your work will not be graded until you have agreed to the collaboration policy by submitting that assignment.
The schedule emphasizes user-related topics in the first half of the course, then design topics in the second half of the course.
Week | Topic |
Week 1 | IntroductionWe start with an overview of the course, and highlight challenges in designing user interfaces. |
Week 2 | Interfaces BasicsWe'll learn how we arrived at the traditional desktop interface, and the desktop metaphors the shaped the way many people use computers today. |
Week 3 | Input TechniquesWe will dive into the details of computer input and direct manipulation to explore performance and human motor capabilities, and find out there's more to the mouse, keyboard, and touchscreen than meets the eye. |
Week 4 | User-Centered DesignUsers become the center focus as we look at how to design for them from beginning to end. |
Week 5 | Understanding UsersTo find out what users desire from an interface, we must first use techniques to gather data about how they might use it, and the interpret this data. |
Week 6 | Usability EvaluationWe learn about both formal and informal methods of evaluating user interfaces, including usability testing and user-free evaluation methods. |
Week 7 | Interaction DesignWe look beyond just the interface to learn about the process of interaction design that involves modeling and representing users. |
Week 8 | Visual DesignWe learn about fundamental principles of designing graphical user interfaces. |
Week 9 | PrototypingWe will use low-fidelity and high-fidelity prototyping as ways to iteratively improve the design of the interface. |
Week 10 | Interfaces for PeopleHow does social behavior affect the interactions people have with interfaces? How do interfaces appeal to the emotional nature of users? We also explore issues surrounding making interfaces more accessible. |
Week 11 | CritsThis week involves an in-class activity where we get practice critiquing each others' interfaces from the Prototyping assignment using the traditional design crit process. |
Week 12 | PresentationsStudents showcase assignments in class. |
How can I register for the course?
Be one of the first 140 people to pre-register, or use an override code sent to 60 people selected from those who apply afterwards. This year, the course will not have more than 200 students, and we are expecting fewer than that.
I am a RISD student interested in taking the course. How do I enroll?
If you are sent an override code, there's a RISD form you will need Jeff to sign to register (bring it to the second day of class). Please refer to the RISD instructions. For further guidance, email the TA list with "(RISD)" in the subject to get the attention of the RISD TAs.
Can I take the course as a capstone?
Yes, you must extend an assignment or a Development Lab into something that has substantial development and design components. This can be done as a group, but the amount of work should be proportional to the group size.
When is the last day of the course?
December 12, 2016 at the latest. There is no final exam.
Will there be a textbook for the course?
No, all readings will be made available on Canvas.
Can I take this course as a non-CS concentrator?
Yes, the course has no prerequisites.
How do I apply a late pass to a late assignment or reading comment?
They are automatically accounted for. No penalties are applied until the end of the semester.