CMSC 434 Midterm Topics General Outline

You can use this as a guide, but this overview outline is not necessarily exhaustive or in the exact order of presentation and discussion.

1. Lecture Topics
   1. Introduction
      1. Advances in technology versus in humans
      2. Problems with so-called Waterfall model
      3. Iterative interface design process (cyclical)
         • Design
         • Implement
         • Evaluate
   2. Psychology of Everyday Things
      1. Design versus user error
      2. Examples of poor design and consequences
      3. Lessons and goals of good design
      4. Value of understanding human psychology
   3. Task and User Centered Design
      1. Interaction of needs and abilities
      2. System-centered design
         1. Technology-driven motivations
         2. Arguments against system-centered
      3. Task-centered design
         1. Real people, real workflows, real tasks
         2. Creating task/usage/experience scenarios
         3. Validating (and rewriting) tasks
         4. Using scenarios to help guide design
         5. Walkthrough using scenario
         6. The need to prioritize tasks
      4. User-centered design
         1. Considering abilities, needs, context, tasks
         2. Involving the users
         3. Premises behind user-centered design
         4. Levels of user involvement
         5. Participatory design advantages
         6. Avoiding the illusory customer
         7. Usability
      5. Example metrics of success
         1. Time to learn
         2. Retention over time
         3. Performance speed (productivity)
         4. Error rates
         5. Subjective satisfaction
   4. Prototyping
      1. Need to identify intended users and tasks
      2. Part of iterative design process
      3. Considering workflow in prototyping
      4. Spectrum of prototypes
         1. Low fidelity prototyping
            1. Paper-based approach
            2. Psychology of pencil sketches
            3. Storyboarding
            4. PICTIVE
            5. Physical simulation and playtending
            6. Concept of a fail-fast phase
         2. Low/Medium hybrid fidelity prototyping
         3. Reasons not to start here
            1. Photo-based scketches
            2. Scripted simulations
            3. Living mock-up videos
         4. Medium fidelity prototyping
            1. Computer-based prototypes and purpose
            2. Variety of tools
            3. Still a "code built isn't meant for final product" stage
            4. Reasons not to start here
            5. Horizontal prototype concept
            6. Vertical "drops" in a prototype
            7. Use of scenarios
            8. Wizard of Oz technique
   5. Design Psychology, Representation, Manipulation
      1. POET principles and related concepts
         1. Affordances/Visibility/Signifiers
         2. Constraints
         3. Mappings
         4. Causality/Feedback
         5. Transfer effects
         6. Consistency and Cultural standards
         7. Mental Models / Conceptual Models
         8. Comfort and Undo
      2. Understanding the brain
      3. Visual structures
      4. Metaphors, "look and feel"
      5. Understandable actions
      6. Cultural standards
      7. Conceptual/cognitive models
      8. Direct manipulation
      9. Defining a target audience
      10. Things that can make design challenging
      11. Concepts of joy-centered design
   6. Evaluation: Qualitative Methods (NOTE: Depending on how far we get.)
      1. Introspection method
         1. designer-based
         2. user-based (for conceptual model extraction)
      2. Direct observations
         1. Simple observation
         2. Think-aloud
         3. Constructive interaction
         4. Data collection approaches
      3. Query-based
         1. Interviews
         2. Retrospective testing
         3. Surveys and questionaires
   
   
   
2. Other sources of information
   1. Homework 1 and 2
   2. Project Phases 1.1, 1.2, 1.3
   3. Project Phase 2.1
   4. In-class exercises
   5. Required readings
      1. Design of Everyday Things, Prototyping for Tiny Fingers, Technology Affordances, etc. on ELMS
      2. Getting to Know Users and Their Tasks

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