The final exam was given Tuesday, 7 June, from 11:30 to 2:30 in Center 216 (our usual class room). Here are links to the this year's final and the final exam from the 2003 of this course.

The TA, Rares Saftoiu, and I will hold a review session on Monday, 6 June, from noon to 13:50 in CSB (Cognitive Science Bldg) 004. Rares will also have extra office hours on that day, from 14:00 to 15:30 in APM 4402, and I will be in my office most of the day, but definitely from 16:00 to 17:00, and will also drop into Rares office hours. In addition, i will be available from 14:00 to 15:00 on Friday, 3 June.

There is a wiki for this class (and also CSE 271) to use, at http://cse-gsa.ucsd.edu/wiki/UserInterfaceDesign; it includes material from CSE 271, Spring 2003 that is now out of date.

The midterm of Thursday 12 May is online; the median was 78, the mean 77, standard deviation 11.5, high 97, low 44.

Homework and readings are posted on their respective webpages, not given in class. All webpages are subject to frequent and/or unannounced updates. You should check this page frequently for notices. Also, be sure to reload pages frequently, because sometimes they are updated frequently!

In cases where two (or more) students' answers to homework problemsare strongly overlapping, a grade of zero will be assigned, and there will be more drastic consequences for repeat offenders. You can talk with other students about how to approach homework problems, but you are not allowed to work together on solutions. See the Integrity of Scholarship Agreement (from Scott Baden) and UCSD's official policies on Plagariasm; see also the most recent amended policy (sorry, it's in MS Word). You are expected to abide by these rules; failure to do so can have serious consequences.

The class notes do not cover everything you need to know for this course, and their emphasis often does not reflect the importance of material. Also, the notes DO NOT serve as a substitute for the lectures or the assigned readings. Moreover, the lectures and readings go beyond the text, which is somewhat below the level of the class as a whole, although its content is very important for practical applications. In addition, there will be handouts, diagrams on the board, and possibly guest appearances at lectures. In short, all of assigned readings, lectures, notes, and text are absolutely necessary; moreover, some topics are only introduced in the homework.

New technologies provide the means to build superb new systems, as well as phenomenally ugly and awkward systems that still fully meet their performance and functional requirements. This course will explore several approaches towards a scientific understanding of basic issues, such as usability, representation and coordination that arise in interface design and related areas, such as how to best organize complex information in multimedia. There will be some focus on social issues, semiotics, and new media interfaces. See the course outline for more detail.

We may distinguish the following levels of interface design issues:

1. technology;
2. ergonomics;
3. individual psychology; and
4. social, cultural, and organizational issues.

• semiotics - the study of signs and meaning, including metaphor;
• ethnomethodology - the sociology of ordinariness;
• narratology - the study of stories;
• discourse analysis - the study of discourse;
• actor-network theory - a network approach to the sociology of technology and science; and
• cognitive linguistics.

Prerequesites

CSE 20, 21, 100 or equivalent, and the ability to comprehend texts in sociology, cognitive science, and linguistics. You will need to be able to understand and use discrete mathematics. Some experience in industry may be helpful.

Tuesday, Thursday, 12:30 to 13:45 pm, in Center 216

Section ID 527935, Section A00

The discussion section is Wednesday, 16:00 - 16:50, in Center 119

My office hours begin at 17:00 on Wednesdays.

The only required book is McCracken and Wolfe; other required readings will made available on the web or handed out in class.

• User-Centered Website Development, by Daniel McCracken and Rosalee Wolfe, Prentice-Hall, 2003. ISBN 0-13-041161-2.

Recommended Books

• Designing the User Interface, by Ben Shneiderman and Catherine Plaisant, Addison Wesley, 2004 (fourth edition). ISBN 0-321-19786-0.
• The Way We Think, by Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner, Basic Books, 2002. ISBN 0-465-8785-X.
• Human-Computer Interaction, by Jenny Preece, Prentice-Hall, 1998. ISBN 0-13-239864-8.
• Interaction Design, by Jennifer Preece, Yovonne Rogers, and Helen Sharp, Wiley, 2002. ISBN 0-471-49278-7.
• Information Visualization, by Robert Spence, Addison Wesley, 2001. ISBN 0-201-59626-1.
• Understanding Comics, by Scott McCloud, Harper Collins, 1993. ISBN 0-06-097625-X.
• Introduction to Barthes, Mireille Ribiere (Hodder & Stoughton, 2002). ISBN 0-340-84499-X.

Some Other Relevant Books

• The Design of Everyday Things, by Donald A. Norman, Doubleday, 1988.
• Aramis, or the Love of Technology, by Bruno Latour, Harvard University Press, 1996.
• Requirements Engineering: Social and Technical Issues, ed. by Marina Jirotka and Joseph Goguen, Academic Press, 1994.
• The Humane Interface, by Jef Raskin, Addison Wesley, 2000.
• GUI Bloopers, by Jeff Johnson, Morgan Kaufmann, 2000.
• Life Stories: The Creation of Coherence, by Charlotte Linde, Oxford, 1993.
• The Literary Mind, by Mark Turner, Oxford, 1997.
• The Civilization of Illiteracy, by Mihai Nadin, Dresden Univ Press, 1998.
• Algebraic Semantics of Imperative Programs, by Joseph Goguen and Grant Malcolm, MIT Press, 1996.

There will be homework assignments, a midterm, and a final. Homework will count for 30% of your grade, the midterm for 20%, and the final for 50%. In special cases, it may be possible to substitute a project for part of the final exam.

1. Reading assignments.
2. Class notes: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, A.
3. Homework assignments.
4. Miscellaneous. These items were assembled by the teacher for your interest and/or amusement.

The previous version of this course has links to its midterm, and to quizes and exams for previous versions of this class.

• A tutorial by Dana Dahlstrom and Vinu Somayaji is also available (warning: it may not always agree with this version of the course).
• The ACM TechNews newsletter usually contains two or three articles that relate closely to user interface design issues; this link is for the current issue, but back issues are also available.
• Homepage of the book Designing the User Interface, by Ben Shneiderman, Addison Wesley, 1998 (thrid edition).
• Homepage of Interactions magazine, published by the ACM.
• The Yale Style Manuual, perhaps the best general style manual available on the web.
• The Interface Hall of Fame and Interface Hall of Shame.
• Homepage of Ben Shneiderman.
• Essays of Don Norman.
• The UCSD Semiotic Zoo.
• Homepage of Jennifer Preece; see in particular, the subsite on her new book, Online Communities.
• Homepage of Gilles Fauconnier at UCSD; many interesting readings and links on mental spaces, blending, cognitive linguistics, and cognitive semantics.
• Homepage of Seana Coulson at UCSD; many interesting publications on blending and cognitive linguistics.
• Homepage of Phil Agre at UCLA; many interesting publications on "information studies", plus a good bibliography, and many interesting links.
• Homepage of Geoff Bowker, interesting material on sociology of science, including biodiversity informatics, information infrastructure, classification systems, medical records, and more.
• Homepage of Leigh Star, interesting material on sociology of science, including boundary objects, classification systems, information systems, and more.