cs 615 - FALL 2021

User interface design

Syllabus

STAFF

Instructor: Funda Durupinar Babur

Office: M-03-0201-08

Office Hours: By appointment, via Calendly The default setting for Calendly is 15 min, but you can make consecutive appointments. Appointments can be face-to-face in my office or via Zoom.

DESCRIPTION

This course examines the principles of user interface design. You will learn to design, prototype, and evaluate user interfaces. This is a project-based course. You will work in small groups to construct an interactive user interface, taking a user-centered, iterative approach. You are expected to attend the classes and be active, i.e. participate in the discussions and activities.

Course Format

The course will be held remotely during September. We will use Blackboard Course Room for our online sessions. All the course information and material including slides, assignments, and announcements will be on Blackboard. The plan is to switch to in-person mode in October.

TExtbooks

There are no required textbooks, but the following books are recommended. They are all available on Healey Library Online resources. Click on the images to access them through the library with your UMB account. Additional reading materials will be available on Blackboard.

GRADING

Attendance and participation (15%):

You are expected to attend the classes and participate in the discussions and activities.

Assignments (15%):

Midterm (25%):

Final Project (45%):

You will design, implement, and evaluate a web-based, mobile, or desktop user interface with groups of three to five. You will create a dedicated webpage with links to your project reports and files. The project will be completed in eight steps:


  1. Project proposal with the topic, teams, website (10pts)

  2. User, task, domain analysis (10pts)

  3. Scenario and storyboard designs (10pts)

  4. Paper prototyping and low-fidelity testing (20pts)

  5. Computer prototyping (20pts)

  6. Implementation (20pts)

  7. Demos (10pts)



Collaboration

While you are allowed to discuss possible solutions, you may not share written material or code with others. Your written solutions/code must be entirely your own. You must list all your collaborators in your submissions. Please see the academic integrity policy below.


LATE SUBMISSION POLICY

Any unexcused work received past the due date will receive a deduction on the following scale:

  • Less than 1 day late: 10 points

  • More than 1 day late: 20 points * number of days.

So, an assignment with an original grade of 100 will receive 90 if it is submitted a few hours later than the deadline, 80 if it is submitted the next day (>24 hrs past deadline) until it receives no credit after the 5th day.

Tentative SCHEDULE

CS 615 Schedule

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY AND CHEATING POLICY

Any student submitting somebody else’s work as their own, or copying their own old work (whole or in part) to a new submission, will receive a grade of 0 for the assignment and potentially the entire course. In particularly drastic cases, plagiarism can lead to expulsion from the University. The instructor will not tolerate dishonesty and make no exceptions to this policy. Please protect yourself and the instructor from this unpleasant business by being honest and submitting only your own work. It is perfectly acceptable to cite and quote other authors, but you must clearly identify these parts as citations or quotes. If you do use quotes, you will be graded on your own synthesis, not on the quality of the work you are citing or quoting. Assignments with evidence of plagiarism cannot be resubmitted.

Students are required to adhere to the University Policy on Academic Standards and Cheating, to the University Statement on Plagiarism and the Documentation of Written Work, and to the Code of Student Conduct which is available online at: https://www.umb.edu/academics/academic_integrity

ACCOMMODATIONS

UMass Boston is committed to creating learning environments that are inclusive and accessible. If you have a personal circumstance that will impact your learning and performance in this class, please let me know as soon as possible, so we can discuss the best ways to meet your needs and the requirements of the course. If you have a documented disability, or would like guidance about navigating support services, contact the Ross Center for Disability Services by email (ross.center@umb.edu), phone (617-287-7430), or in person (Campus Center, UL Room 211). To receive accommodations, students must be registered with the Ross Center and must request accommodations each semester that they are in attendance at UMass Boston. For more information visit: www.rosscenter.umb.edu. Please note that the Ross Center will provide a letter for your instructor with information about your accommodation only and not about your specific disability.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Course materials will be available on Blackboard.