Fall 2019
INF 385P Usability
DESCRIPTION
This course will give students a foundational introduction to user experience (also known as UX, CX, HCI) and introduce some of the core UX research methods in use today, as well as applying these methods to a product to create a final presentation that can hopefully be used in their portfolio/job seeking adventures. Accordingly, the class will cover 5 major areas: 1. Have an in-depth understanding of some primary UX methods relevant to product development (e.g. Heuristic evaluation, Moderated User testing, UX Benchmarking). 2. Understand the principles of other important UX tools/methods (e.g. Information architecture tests (card-sorts), RITE testing, Competitive Analysis, Thematic coding of qualitative data, etc.). 3. Have a working understanding of the most frequently used UX methods at each point of the development lifecycle, with a specific focus on which methods are best suited to evaluative research. 4. Learn the scientific underpinnings of the various methodologies, including the specific advantages and disadvantages of each. 5. The “real world” application of these skills to industry-paced projects
COURSE NOTES
The rapid expansion of the Internet and e-commerce has brought software usability engineer- ing into prominence. As more and more information exists in electronic form (and sometimes ONLY in electronic form), the storage and retrieval of information is increasingly a human-com- puter interface (HCI) design problem. As computing oozes into every nook of citizenry, itââ¬â¢s increasingly important for software developers, and indeed any web site developers, NOT to depend on their own intuitions as to what designs are likely to be seen as usable. The way web and other user interface designers and developers address this intentionally is by pursu- ing a course of ââ¬Åuser-centered designââ¬Â (UCD). UCD involves employing a collection of usabili- ty engineering methods across the life-cycle of a software product. The class will cover three major areas: 1. the perceptual, cognitive, and other scienti c underpinnings of usability, 2. the usability engineering methods used in the pursuit of UCD, and 3. the justi cation for the application of usability engineering in a software development proj- ect. The course will entail four major instructional techniques: 1. lecture on the scienti c underpinnings and the methods of usability engineering, 2. exercises, to demonstrate the use of such methods, 3. individual usability engineering projects, with the results to be shared with the class. Objectives: The student successfully completing this class will: - understand aspects of how human beings take in and process information, - know what the methods of usability engineering are and have experience with some of them - understand why software developers are NOT the end-user - be able to make the arguments for cost-justifying a user-centered design approach - have had exposure to a variety of usability labs, - know how to carry out a usability evaluation and write a usability test plan and report. https://www.ischool.utexas.edu/sites/default/files/images/webform/INF385P_Usability_FA%2716_syllabus_v4.pdf
PREREQUISITES
Graduate standing.