1(Designing) User InterfacesG22.2280-001OverviewSpring 05Copyright Poelman & Associates, Inc. (c) 2005. All rights reserved.2Me• Professor Logan Poelman• You can call me:– Logan– Mr. Poelman (pronounced like Pole – man)–Professor– Professor Poelman3Why are you here?• Interested in understanding the art & science behind designing usable user interfaces• Interested in the Web UIs or Java Swing UIs• Want to learn something that you can apply in other courses, disciplines or vocations.• Other?4What you can do …• Please attend each and every lecture.• Please be prepared for each lecture.• Please get to lecture on time. That means be seated and ready to go by 7:00 PM• To understand how to get the most out of this class see that section on the class web site.• If you have special needs that can be accommodated to help you learn better in this course please let me know by sending me an email detailing your needs AND introduce yourself to me after class to let me know who your are. • I’d like to learn the names of as many of you as I can. I’ll need your help to do that.5Caveats• This course requires fluency in spoken and written English greater than most CS courses.• This course is very open ended – you will not be told every step of every exercise • You must:– Use your own judgment– Prioritize tasks– Take initiative– Work in teams and as individuals– Determine / create your own solutions– Invent, innovate and experiment6Course Description (from the class site)• Theory and practice GUIs• Understanding the processes …• Topics:– General design principles– General design process– Widget choice– Application design– Layout– Desktop UI– Web design• Assignments … Java SWING based UIs … Web UIs …• Discussion … – different UIs, different level users, Internationalization– GUI vs. non-graphical based UIs – Desktop, Web, Dedicated hardware, …7Course Description• A course devoted to understanding the design of User Interfaces (UI). • Primarily focused on Graphical User Interfaces (GUI).• Design Process – a process to create a UI from idea to working prototype. Methods and techniques to facilitate the steps in the process. • Design Tools – Paper, pens, whiteboards, wordprocessors and GUI/HTML editors. • Design Components - understand the choices of layout, widgets, navigation, typefaces, images, colors, …• Understand via the hands on design of several UIs.8This Course is Hard•This is a very hard course for many students. I force you to think in ways that many students are not accustomed to. Many assignments are very open ended and "fuzzy." You will need to collaborate and create ideas with your group that you are assigned to. You will be asked to generate educated opinions about things. • We focus on the theory and practice of graphical user interfaces (and other types of interfaces and interface technologies). We do this by creating imaginary future systems that will need UIs for them (think of me like the CEO of some crazy start up with a ridiculous ideas and a wad of cash ;-)• It is a course devoted to understanding the processes and tasks behind an iterative approach to designing good User Interfaces including:– idea generation– collaboration– gathering requirements–analysis–design– usability research–coding–web design–testing– alternative UI devices–refactoring• Assignments will involve taking a problem that no solutions actually exist for yet, and creating the information that would lead you to being able to design a user interface for the solution to these problems.9Course Goals• Learning to think about what constitutes a good UI and a bad UI• Learning techniques to develop a good UI• Understanding the similarities and differences between UI “platforms” i.e. desktop, web browser, PDA, kiosk, VRU, phone, dedicated console, …• Difference between Engineering and Design10Not Course Goals•Notto teach graphic design/graphic arts•Notto teach you Java or HTML•Notto teach a specific platform•Notto concentrate only on desktop GUIs, web GUIs or even GUIs alone. Instead a bit of each and others.11Course Schedule (see website)FINAL EXAMMay 912) Input & OutputMay 2HW#5DMMT Complete Book11) Web Site CritiquesApril 25DWSTW Ch 8,910.) Web Design - Cleaning up the WWWApril 18HW#4HW#5DWSTW Ch 69.) App Design (cont)April 11DWSTW Ch 58.) App DesignApril 4HW#3HW#4MIDTERM EXAMMar 28EUID p. 517-7007.) Application DesignMar 21HW#3SPRING BREAK - NO LECTUREMar 14HW#2DWSTW Ch 7, 10, 126.) ACTIVITY IN CLASS: Collaborative Design Session - Please Attend.Mar 7EUID p. 109-3365.) What makes a good, bad or great UI? Why the Mac, Win, KDE all stink. Flow & CsikszentmihalyiLayout & Organizational structuresFeb 28HW#1HW#2President's Day - NO LECTUREFeb 21EUID p.53-107 & p.337-516DWSTW Ch2,3,44.) Swing Programming Intro & WidgetsFeb 14HW#1EUID p.701-729DWTW Ch.13.) UI Widgets & Input DevicesFeb 7HW#0EUID Chap 1 & 22.) A process - Design vs. implementationJan 31HW#01.) What is a UI?Jan 24Homework Due DateHomeworkAssigned DateReading due dateLecture SlidesLecture TopicDate12Misc Class Info• Office Hours– 6-7pm Mondays 4thFloor Warren Weaver Hall Room 401• Class Web Page– check it every week– Suggest checking Monday before class– http://www.cs.nyu.edu/courses/spring05/G22.2280-001/index.html• Class mailing list– http://www.cs.nyu.edu/mailman/listinfo/g22_2280_001_sp05– Subscribe with you OFFICIAL email address– Read email daily–Use it• You needs a CIMS account or equivalent–email [email protected] to request a new account.13TAs• <<TBD>>• TA office hours will be posted by second week of class on the class website.14Reading Assignments• There are three required texts:– "Don't Make Me Think!" - Krug - Que - 2000. - ISBN 0 - 7897 - 2310 – 7– "Essential User Interface Design" - Galitz -Wiley - 2002 - ISBN 0 - 471 - 08464 – 6– "Designing Websites that Work: Usability for the Web" - Brinck, Gergle & Wood - Morgan Kaufman Publishers - 2002 -ISBN 1 - 55860 - 658 - 0• Optional but recommended:– "About Face" - Cooper - IDG - 1995 - ISBN 1 - 56844 - 322 – 4 (hard to find and dated but good)– "Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience" - Csikszentmihalyi - Harper Perennial - 1990 -ISBN 0 - 06 - 092043 – 2• You will be assigned reading assignments each week. You are expected to complete the readings before the next