Course Syllabus
Spring 2008 CpSc 427:  Interface Design  
Instructor: Dr. David Dailey

Meeting Time:  Period B: 9:30 a.m. - 10:45 TR

Meeting Place: 224 AT&SH.

Instructor's Office Hours: Monday, Wednesday 9:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m..; Tuesday 8:00 a.m. - 9:30 a.m.., or by appointment.

Instructor's Office location: AT&SH 248

Instructor's e-mail address:  david.dailey@sru.edu

Assessment: The connection of course outcomes, with departmental outcomes and ultimately with university outcomes is discussed at some length at http://cs.sru.edu/~whit/assessment/.

Prerequisites:  CpSc 413 and CpSc 317. 

Recommended Textbook: Ratner -- Human Factors and Web Development -- Lawrence Erlbaum publisher.

Required reading: Class web page found at http://srufaculty.sru.edu/david.dailey/cs427/index.htm

Computing labs: The class will primarily use equipment provided in the classroom; but other machines on campus are available and may be used as well.

Method of determining final grade: Assignments: 30%; quizzes 15%; class participation 15%; team project (including writeup and presentation): 40%.

Final exam:  The course will not have a final exam, but rather will meet (as per http://www.sru.edu/pages/5647.asp) for a final class Thursday April 30th, at 8:00 am.

Attendance policy: Regular attendance is expected. Excessive absences will have an effect on your grade. If a prolonged illness should cause you to miss several class periods, you are expected to discuss this with the instructor.

Late work: Assignments will be accepted until three weeks after the due date, but with a penalty of 10% for any assignment turned in after the due date and a penalty of 20% for work turned in more than one week after the due date. Assignments more than three weeks late, or beyond the end of the semester, cannot be accepted.

Make-up exams: It is the student's responsibility a) to notify the instructor beforehand if he or she must miss an exam due to illness or family emergency and b) to take the initiative in finding a time suitable to the instructor for a make-up exam. Make-up exams must be scheduled within one week following the original exam date.

Academic Integrity: 

All academic work for this course must consist of your own work. See the University's statement on Academic Integrity (online at.http://academics.sru.edu/catalog/apol.asp) . Though it remains the student's responsibility to read and understand the University's expectations here, I wish to emphasize the following excerpts from that statement:

"Academic dishonesty may take many forms. Examples of academic dishonesty include, but are not limited to, the following: (...)

• plagiarizing and/or submitting the work of another as your own;
• (...)
• any attempt, or actual, collusion willfully giving or receiving unauthorized or unacknowledged assistance on any assignment (both parties to the collusion are considered responsible.)"

The fact that this course is in Computer Science does not lessen the student's responsibility to make sure that work submitted for a grade is his or her own work. Again, from the University's statement on Academic Integrity:

• "All academic work, including, but not limited to, papers, computer programs, assignments, and tests, must consist of the students’ own work.
  
• Students are expected to learn and practice proper techniques for accurately citing resource material.
  
• Students are expected to be honest in all academic work, refraining from all forms of cheating.
  
• Students are expected to function as students, including, but not limited to, attending class regularly and completing all assignments and examinations."

Assignments and tasks: Each assignment will be explained in class. Any uncertainties students may have about an assignment should be raised at the time the assignment is made. Students may be required to use e-mail for certain assignments; assignments submitted via e-mail must include, in this order, the course number, the student's last name and the assignment number in the subject line of the message. Assignments submitted through e-mail that do not follow the exact format explained in class may receive a grade of zero.

Several homework assignments will be given during the semester. Unless otherwise stated, these assignments are to be completed individually by each student. Students may be called upon to present and explain their work to the class or to the instructor and should be consistently and adequately prepared to do so.

Team projects may be assigned. To the extent that it is possible, each student's contributions to such projects should be identified.

As the semester progresses, additional details about assignments may be found on the class web page.

Class discussion: Interface design is a topic with few certainties. Opinions abound. It is expected that the student will augment the discussion  through readings of the literature in the subject.

Tentative Schedule of Topics

The instructor reserves the right to change topics covered or the order in which they are covered at his/her discretion. Assignments shown may vary. Refer to lecture notes and/or course web-site for details.

Week 1 --   Class introduction; methods of changing web pages.

Week 3 --  XML

Week 4 --   Introduction to SVG

Week 5 --  Making widgets using SVG

Week 6 --   Human factors literature and background. Psychometrics

Week 7 -- Further topics in statistical evaluation. (multidimensional scaling, analysis of variance

Week 8 --  Navigation, timing, spatial frequency..

Week 9 --   Design specifications for team project are due.

Quiz: Probable time for quiz.

Weeks 14-15 --  Final projects: presentation, discussion and critique.