The final exam was Friday, 13 June, from 7 to 10 pm, in Petersen 104; unfortunately, it was not possible to change the schedule.

A glossary of terms used in classical and algebraic semiotics is available to help you review; also, Section 10 of the class notes has been much revised, again to help you review.

There was a review session at 11 am on Friday, 13 June, Petersen 104.

There is a gradesource account for this class; it supports anonymous reporting of grades, and also gives a variety of statistics. Dana Dahlstrom can give you your "secret number."

We have had several cases where answers to homework problems have had strongly overlapping content. In the future, a grade of zero will be assigned for such answers, and there will be more drastic consequences for repeat offenders. You are allowed to 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.

Please use the discussion board, at http://discus4.ucsd.edu/messages/2284/2284.html, for all questions that are not strictly personal, so that all students may benefit equally from the answers. The TA will post answers for everyone to read, consulting with the professor as needed.

The midterm was on Wednesday, 7 May; you may also wish to look at exams from previous versions of this class, though of course these will differ from this year's.

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

The class notes do not cover everything you need to know for this course, and their emphasis may 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, and are at least as important as the text. In addition, there will be handouts, diagrams on the board, and possibly guest appearances at lectures. But this does NOT mean that you can ignore what is in the text; you are responsible for all assigned readings. In short, all of lectures, notes, text, and other readings are absolutely necessary.

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 of 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.

Monday, Wednesday, 5:00 to 6:20 pm, in Petersen 104

Section ID 465858, Section A00

The discussion section is Wednesday, 11:00 - 11:50, in Solis 111

My office hours begin at 6:20 on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday.

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

• Designing the User Interface, Ben Shneiderman, Addison Wesley, 1998 (third edition). ISBN 0-201-69497-2.

Recommended Books

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

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 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 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.