CSE 3461 User Interfaces

CSE 3461.03 Introduction to User Interfaces

Fall Term 2012

WWW-page: http://www.cs.yorku.ca/course/3461

Announcements and Frequently Asked Questions (Press 'Reload' to see the newest information)

Oct 28 - Class on Oct 30 is taking place as scheduled (co-curricular days start on Oct 31).
Oct 16 - Clarification that assignments are due at 4pm.
Oct 04 - The Oct 09 class has been cancelled
Sep 25 - assignment 1 is now finalized (any further changes will be marked)
Sep 21 - slides and demo programs for first few lectures posted
Sep 06 - this WWW page first published

General Information

This course introduces user interfaces and the tools and mechanisms to create and prototype them. Students work in small groups and learn how to design user interfaces, how to realize them and how to evaluate the end result.
Prerequisites: General 3rd year prerequisite: CSE2011 3.0, and a cumulative grade point average of 4.5 or better over all completed major computer science courses
Course Credit Exclusion: ITEC3230 3.0, ITEC3461 3.0
NCR Note: No credit will be retained by students who successfully completed AS/SC/COSC4341 3.0

Lectures	TR 14:30-16:00, TEL 1004
Instructor	Wolfgang Stuerzlinger
E-mail
Office Hours	1-2pm on Tuesdays in CSEB 3048

Topics Covered

Introduction
Console applications vs. GUI applications, sequential programming vs. event-driven programming, interaction techniques, WIMP concepts
User interfaces
Input model, event-driven model, output model, window managers, containment hierarchy, model-view-controller concept, graphical user interfaces, widgets, text interfaces, direct manipulation
Mechanisms for creating user interfaces
UI prototyping, window design and component layout, GUI toolkits in programming languages, GUI builders, interaction devices (input & output devices), WWW user interfaces
Introduction to human-computer interaction
Human sensory and cognitive limits and capabilities, guidelines and basic principles for UI design

Required Textbooks

None, but see 'Weekly Readings' below!

Evaluation

The topics of this course will be applied in practical programming assignments. Assignments will be done in groups of 3. The midterm will be held during class time.

	Percent of final grade	Due date
Assignment A1 - Color Chooser for Bar Charts	10%	Oct 22, 4pm
Assignment A2 - Layout Manager	20%	Dec 03, 4pm
Midterm	30%	Oct 25, in class
Final Exam	40%	Dec 10, 2-5pm, TEL 0001

The drop date is Nov. 9, 2012.
Grades can be viewed via the ePost system here.

Lecture Notes and Additional Material

Weekly Readings

Readings are assigned weekly. Four copies of each of the readings are available for 2-hour loan from the Stacie library. These books are not very expensive and are available from most bookstores (and online from chapters.ca) should you wish to purchase them instead.

The readings will be discussed in class, and material from the readings will appear on exams. The readings are taken from the following:

Donald A. Norman, The Design of Everyday Things, Doubleday 1990, ISBN 0-385-26774-6. Basic Books 2002, ISBN 0-465-06710-7. On reserve in the Stacie Library under TS 171.4 N67 2002
Alan Cooper, The Inmates are Running the Asylum, Sams 1999, ISBN 0-672-31649-8. On reserve in the Stacie Library under QA 76.9 H85 C673 1999

Reading Schedule

Material	Due Date
The Design of Everyday Things, Chapter 1	Week 2
The Design of Everyday Things, Chapter 2	Week 3
The Design of Everyday Things, Chapter 3	Week 4
The Inmates are Running the Asylum, Chapter 1	Week 5
The Inmates are Running the Asylum, Chapter 2	Week 6
No reading due to midterms	Week 7
The Inmates are Running the Asylum, Chapter 3	Week 8
The Inmates are Running the Asylum, Chapter 4	Week 9
The Inmates are Running the Asylum, Chapter 5+6	Week 10
The Inmates are Running the Asylum, Chapter 7	Week 11

Other Texts and Resources

The Java Swing Tutorial Notes.
Joel Spolsky, User Interface Design for Programmers, Apress, 2001.
Dan Olson, Developing User Interfaces, Morgan Kaufmann, 1998.
Steven J. Gutz, Matthew Robinson, Pavel Vorobiev, Up to Speed with Swing, Manning Publications, 1999.
Alan Dix, Janet Finlay, Gregory Abowd, Russell Beale, Human-Computer Interaction, Prentice Hall, 1998.
Everett N. McKay, Developing User Interfaces for Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Press, 1999.
Jef Raskin, The Humane Interface, Addison Wesley, 2000.
R. Eckstein, M. Loy, D. Wood, Java Swing, O'Reilly, 1998.
David M. Geary, Graphic Java 2, Mastering the JFC, Volume II: Swing, Prentice Hall, 1999.
Larry Gonick, Woollcott Smith, Woolcott Smith, The Cartoon Guide to Statistics, HarperCollins, 1994.
Ben Shneiderman, Designing the User Interface, Addison Wesley, 3rd ed. 1998.
Jenny Preece, Human-Computer Interaction, Addison Wesley, 1994.
Michael E. Wicklund, Usability in Practice: How Companies Develop User-friendly Products, AP Professional, 1994
Donald A. Norman, S. Draper, editors, User Centered System Design, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1986.

Course Policies

Course Enrolment: Course enrolment is handled by the Computer Science Undergraduate Office. Instructors can not 'sign students in' to this course.
Switching Sections: CSE3461 is sometimes offered in two sections. Students are required to attend the lectures, submit the assignments, and write the midterm and final for the section in which they are enrolled. (Note that assignments and exams may differ between sections.) For questions pertaining to changing your enrolment status, please visit the Computer Science Undergraduate Office.
Attendance at Lectures: Students are expected to attend the lectures. Although much of the course information will be posted on the web, additional information will be given during the lectures that is not posted on the web. Students who skip lectures do so at their own peril!
Group Assignments: The assignments for this course are to be done in groups. Groups shall contain three students, and all students in a group must be enrolled in the same section. The grade for an assignment is recorded for each group member. It is up to the members of each group to ensure the equitable distribution of assignment work. Assignment submissions from groups with fewer or more students will not be marked. Students may reconfigure their groups throughout the term, but not in the 15 days before the assignment due date.
Software Development Platform: For the purpose of marking, programming assignments are required to compile and execute on Prism. Software developed on other platforms should be verified on Prism before submission.
Submission of Assignments: Assignments are due by 4pm (!) on the specified date and are to be submitted electronically with the 'submit' command in Prism (unless otherwise specified). Late submissions will not be accepted (see 'Late assignments' below).
Grading: Assignment marking will use letter grades. See the explanation of the letter grades below.
Late Assignments: Late assignments will not be accepted and will receive a zero grade unless arrangements have been made with the instructor prior to the due date. Exceptions to the late policy will be made only under very special circumstances (e.g. serious illness) and only with proper documentation (i.e., a letter from your doctor). Missed midterms will be handled in the same manner.
Requests for Remarking: Once returned, marked assignments and exams should be reviewed by students, and any request for remarking should be submitted to the instructor within one week. Requests must be accompanied by a written description of the marking error. Only problems of mark addition, and serious marking errors will be considered - remarking requests of a frivolous nature may result in your mark being lowered.
Guide to the Meaning of Letter Grades: The following is a guideline to the grading scale used. It is a copy of the York University official grading scheme. The first number within the parenthesis is the numeric equivalent of a grade. It is typically used in order to derive weighted averages of multiple letter grades. The range that follows the number is used to map a numeric grade (out of 9) to a letter grade.
A grade of C means doing what was asked for, a B means doing a good job on what was asked for, and an A means doing an excellent job and showing originality. Originality in the undergraduate environment means doing things that were not explicitly asked for but are useful additions or extensions of the work - doing things above and beyond the call of duty.
- A+ (9, 8.5...9) Exceptional - Thorough knowledge of concepts and/or techniques and exceptional skill or great originality in the use of those concepts and techniques in satisfying the requirements of a piece of work or course.
- A (8, 7.5...8.4) Excellent - Thorough knowledge of concepts and/or techniques together with a high degree of skill and/or some elements of originality in satisfying the requirements of a piece of work or course.
- B+ (7, 6.5...7.4) Very Good - Thorough knowledge of concepts and/or techniques together with a fairly high degree of skill in the use of those concepts and techniques in satisfying the requirements of a piece of work or course.
- B (6, 5.5...6.4) Good - Good level of knowledge of concepts and/or techniques together with a considerable skill in using them in satisfying the requirements of a piece of work or course.
- C+ (5, 4.5...5.4) Competent - Acceptable level of knowledge of concepts and/or techniques together with considerable skill in using them to satisfy the requirements of a piece of work or course.
- C (4, 3.5...4.4) Fairly Competent - Acceptable level of knowledge of concepts and/or techniques together with some skill in using them to satisfy the requirements of a piece of work or course.
- D+ (3, 2.5...3.4) Passing - Slightly better than minimal knowledge of required concepts and/or techniques together with some ability to use them in satisfying the requirements of a piece of work or course.
- D (2, 1.5...2.4) Barely Passing - Minimum knowledge of concepts and/or techniques needed to satisfy the requirements of a piece of work or course.
- E (1, 0.5...1.4) Marginally failing
- F (0, 0...0.4) Failing
Missed midterm: Missed midterms will receive a zero mark, unless prior arrangement has been made with the instructor. Note that exceptions to the late policy will be made only in serious cases and if the circumstances are documentable and beyond your control. Please see also the Departmental WWW page on Academic Policies for details regarding academic dishonesty, etc.