BCS 228: Course Title

BCS 228 Human-Machine Interaction

Spring Semester 2004

Instructor:	Keith S. Karn, Ph.D. Adjunct Assistant Professor 110 Meliora Hall (Mail box on 3^rd floor) Phone: 271-9047 or 226-3893 keith@cvs.rochester.edu	Teaching Assistant:	Luke Guerrero Junior Computer Science Phone 274-4890 lg003k@mail.rochester.edu

Office Hours:	By appointment		By appointment

Texts:	The Design of Everyday Things Donald A. Norman 1990. New York, Doubleday.
	An Introduction to Human Factors Engineering, Second Edition. Christopher D. Wickens, John D. Lee, Yili Liu & Sallie E. Gordon Becker. 2004. Upper Saddle River, NJ. Pearson / Prentice Hall.

Meetings:	Tuesdays and Thursdays 7:40-8:55 PM in room 269, Meliora Hall

About the Course:

The theme of this course is human-centered design. We will explore human capabilities and limitations (emphasizing cognitive factors such as perception, information processing, memory, and motor control) that must be considered in order to design human-machine systems that are safe, comfortable, efficient, and fun to use. By applying knowledge of these human factors in the design of a product students will bridge the gap between theory and practice. Team projects will be used to experience an iterative design process that includes analysis of user needs and product goals, conceptual design, physical design, prototyping, usability testing, and refining of the design.

Before starting the course, students should have a basic understanding of behavior and sensory processes, such as that taught in BCS 151 [Perception & Action] and BCS 110 [Neural Foundations of Behavior] or BCS 111 [Foundations of Cognitive Science].

Course Requirements and Grading:

Course requirements include reading, class participation, exercises, exams, and hands-on project work. The following scheme determines the students' grades.

Class participation and exercises 22%

Design Project 50

Midterm Exam 14

Final Exam 14

____________________________________________________

Total 100%

Course Requirements in More Detail:

Class Participation & Exercises (22% of final grade).

The course is intended to involve significant participation by students focused on discussion of the readings, class exercises, and the design project. Students are expected to read assignments before class and come to class prepared to discuss thoughts, ideas, questions, and examples from life experiences that relate to the topic. Readings from the textbooks and additional sources are outlined in the schedule. Additional readings may be added. Missing class for other than a documented medical condition or a religious holiday will reflect negatively on your class participation score.

Hands-on exercises (both in and outside of class) will illustrate lecture and reading material and often relate to the design project. Exercises will be collected or reviewed in class from time to time so the instructor can assess student progress. Exercises may include:

· Teamwork role-playing	· Project planning
· Task analysis	· Story-boards and scenarios
· User profiles	· Paper prototyping
· User requirements analysis	· Icon design

Design Project (50% of final grade).

The design project will involve collaborative learning and problem solving in small teams assigned by the instructor. This will be an in-depth design project including:

· Benchmarking competitive products	· Documenting design decisions & rationale
· Defining requirements & product goals	· Physical design & prototyping
· Establishing user profiles	· Usability testing
· Task analysis	· Re-design based on test results
· Logical design	· In-class design presentation

Each group member will receive an individual grade that is weighted by the individual's level of involvement in the project (as determined by the instructor with input from team members as necessary). Here is how the various parts of the project will contribute toward the student's course grade.

Front-end planning(user profiles, user requirements, benchmarking, etc.)	10%
Conceptual & logical design (design notebook including scenarios, task analysis, storyboards, logical flow diagrams, etc.)	16
Usability test (test plan, methods, results)	12
Physical design (final design, prototype, presentation)	12

Total design project contribution to final grade	50%

Exams (each of two exams contribute 14% for a total of 28% of the final grade).

There will be one midterm exam and a final exam. These may be a combination of short answer, multiple choice, and essay questions.

Schedule

Day Date	Topic	Facilitator	Reading Due
Thursday 1/15	Introduction and Overview	Instructor	· Wickens Ch. 1
Tuesday 1/20	The Design of Everyday Things (Usability Evaluation Exercise)	Instructor	· Norman Ch. 1-4 · Sinclair et al. An electoral butterfly effect.
Thursday 1/22	The Design of Everyday Things (Interdisciplinary Design Team Exercise)	Instructor	· Norman Ch. 5-7 · Hopkins When designers ignore consumers… · Kessler Designs that made consumers, reviewers cringe
Tuesday 1/27	Overview of Design Processes (Teamwork Exercise)	Instructor	· Wickens Ch. 3. Focus on p.31-36 Roth Disenfranchised by design: voting systems
Thursday 1/29	Introduction to design problem: Voting system issues	Guest: Prof. R. Niemi	· Niemi & Herrnson Beyond the Butterfly · Public Law 107-252: Help America Vote Act, p. 64-68.
Tuesday 2/3	Front End Planning: User Profiles (User Profile Exercise)	Instructor	· Wickens p.357-360, · Cooper The Inmates Are Running the Asylum, Ch. 9
Thursday 2/5	Front End Planning: User Requirements	Instructor	· Ulrich & Eppinger Product Design and Development Ch. 3 · Wickens p.37-48
Tuesday 2/10	Front End Planning: Benchmarking to Set Usability Goals and Gather Design Ideas (Project Planning Exercise)	Instructor	· Ulrich & Eppinger Product Design and Development Chs. 4 & 5 Focus on p. 61-64 & 88
Thursday 2/12	Human Characteristics: Movement, Biomechanics & Work Physiology Lecture1, Lecture2, Lecture3, Lecture4	Guest: Mr. P. Hickey	· Wickens Ch. 11 & 12
Tuesday 2/17	Human Characteristics: Sensation and Perception	Instructor	· Wickens Ch. 4 & 5
Thursday 2/19	Human Characteristics: Cognitive Processing	Instructor	· Wickens Ch. 6 & 7
Tuesday 2/24	Conceptual Design: Task Analysis (Task Analysis Exercise)	Instructor	· Wickens p. 61-63, 50-58 · Hackos & Redish Ch. 3
Thursday 2/26	Conceptual Design: Scenarios, Storyboards, Brainstorming (Storyboard Exercise)	Guest: Ms. K. Goldstein	· Wickens p. 50-53, 405 · Nielsen Usability Engineering. Ch. 4
Tuesday 3/2	Basic Design Considerations for Displays and Controls	Guest: Ms. D. Litwiller	· Wickens Ch. 8 & 9 & 10
Thursday 3/4	MIDTERM EXAM	Teaching Assistant	· All of the above

Spring Break (Schedule continued on next page)

Day Date	Topic	Facilitator	Reading Due
Tuesday 3/16	Logical Design for Kiosk-based Products	Guest: Dr. M. Gerard	· TBD Wickens Ch. 15 · TBD
Thursday 3/18	Physical Design for Human-Computer Interaction: Design Guidelines, Standards, Widgets, and Nomenclature	Guest: Mr. G. Davis	· "Controls" sections from: Apple. Aqua Human Interface Guidelines · Windows XP - Visual Guidelines
Tuesday 3/23	Physical Design: Low Fidelity Prototyping (Paper Prototyping Exercise)	Instructor	· Wickens p. 396-406, 488-490
Thursday 3/25	Physical Design: High Fidelity Prototyping (Screen prototyping exercises)	Teaching Assistant	· TBD
Tuesday 3/30	Usability Evaluation Displays & Controls	Instructor	• Wickens Ch. 2, p.42-44, 57-60, 66-71, 475-479 • Rubin Handbook of Usability Testing. Ch. 8
Thursday 4/1	Stress, Environmental Factors, and Workload	Instructor	• Wickens Ch. 13 • Hackos & Redish Ch. 4 • Casey Set Phasers on Stun (Tigershark chapter)
Tuesday 4/6	Usability Assessment (Field trip - Xerox Usability Lab)	Guest: Mr. M. Meetze	· Louderback Hail to the Usability Test
Thursday 4/8	Safety, accidents, and human error	Instructor	· Wickens Ch. 14 · Casey Set Phasers on Stun (Salyut chapter)
Tuesday 4/13	Usability Test: Pilot	Instructor	• TBD
Thursday 4/15	Physical Design: Visual Design for Icons and Graphics	Guest: M. Krolczyk	• TBD
Tuesday 4/20	Revising the Design Based on User Input / Current Topic in Design: Revolution vs. Evolution	Instructor	· Wickens p. 72-73, 380-382. · Levy Insanely Great Ch. 3
Thursday 4/22	Training / Instructions /Help Systems	Instructor	· Wickens p. 473-476 · Baecker et al. excerpts
Tuesday 4/27	Design Presentations:		·
Thursday 4/29	Design Preentations		·
Sunday, 5/9 @ 12:30	Final Exam (Date determined by registrar)	Teaching Assistant	· All of the above.

Academic Honesty Relating to Group Project Work.

The University’s Academic Honesty Policy has been made clear to all students. This policy also pertains to the extensive group project work in this course. Each group member is expected to contribute equally. Any attempt to exaggerate your contributions to the group will be considered academically dishonest. All group members are accountable for reporting group deficiencies.

Office