CMSC 434 Final Topics General Outline
Use this as a guide; the outline is not necessarily exhaustive and is not in order of presentation (similar topics are clustered in this list).

I. Lectures

A. Psychology of Everyday Things
  1. Good and bad designs
  2. Pathelogical examples
  3. Design -vs- User Error
  4. The ultimate goal of good design
  5. The role of user-friendly terminology

B. Task-Centered Design
  1. Develop examples
  2. Use tasks in design
  3. Validate and rewrite tasks
  4. Prioritize
  5. Create low level prototype
  6. Walkthrough using scenario

C. User-Centered Design
  1. Waterfall model
  2. System centered design
  3. Usability
    1. Ease of learning
    2. Recall
    3. Productivity
    4. Minimal error rates
    5. High user satisfaction
  4. Participatory design

D. Prototyping
  1. Low fidelity prototype
    1. Paper-based
    2. Storyboarding
    3. Physical simulation
    4. Tutorials and manuals
  2. Medium fidelity prototype
    1. Computer-based prototypes
    2. Vertical
    3. Horizontal
    4. Scenario
    5. Throw-away, incremental and evolutionary integration
    6. Wizard of Oz

E. Qualitative Methods for Usability Evaluation
  1. Introspection method
  2. Conceptual model extraction
  3. Direct observation
    1. Simple observation methods
    2. Think-aloud
    3. Constructive interaction
  4. Interviews
    1. Retrospective testing
    2. Questionaires/surveys
  5. Continuous evaluation

F. Design Psychology, Representation, Manipulation
  1. Metaphor, cognitive model, look and feel
  2. POET principles
  3. Cultural standards
  4. Target audience
  5. Things that make design hard
  6. Different representations for data
  7. Metaphor pros and cons
  8. Direct manipulation

G. Elements of UI Design
  1. Metaphor, cognitive model, look and feel
  2. Components of visual language
    1. Layout
    2. Typography
    3. Imagery
    4. Sequencing
    5. Visual identity
    6. Animation
    7. Color and texture
  3. Visual Consistency
  4. Navigational cues
  5. Legibility and Readability
  6. Levels of abstraction
  7. Idioms

H. Graphical Screen Design
  1. Components of visible language
  2. Use of grids
  3. Visual Consistency
  4. Relationships between screen elements
  5. Navigational Cues
  6. Legibility and readability
  7. Imagery

I. Web Design
  1. Breadth -vs- Depth
  2. Navigation -vs- Content
  3. Seller -vs- Buyer
  4. Colors, images and information scent
  5. Issues with download time, browser versions and screen resolution
  6. Content formats
  7. Frames (pros/cons)
  8. Protoype and framework modeling
  9. Universal accessibility

J. Heuristic Evaluation
  1. Design principles and usability heuristics
  2. Discount usability engineering
  3. The heuristic evaluation process
  4. The phases of heuristic evaluation
  5. How to perform evaluation
  6. The use of severity ratings
  7. The nine heuristics

K. Time Predictions
  1. Fitt's Law
  2. Keyboard Level Model

L. Quantitative Evaluation
  1. What types of things are tested via quantitative evaluation?
  2. What is the experimental design process?
  3. What is an experimental hypothesis?
  4. What is the experimental method?
  5. What are independent variables? What are dependent variables?


II. Other sources of information
  1. Homework assignments.
  2. Projects.
  3. Class examples and exercises, and discussion points raised during the project presentations.
  4. Design of Everyday Things - Chapter 1 (required reading) [log into ELMS before clicking the link]
  5. Lewis/Rieman Chapter 2 - Getting to Know Users and their Tasks (required reading)
  6. Rettig - Prototyping for Tiny Fingers (required reading)
  7. Book chapters that were parallel to our class topics (these were optional).
  8. Material from lecture slides. The only exception to this is that I will not ask you about the statistical analysis details (eg: T-Tests and how to use them).







Web Accessibility