IST 331: User Centered Design

Fall 2013
Section 1: Tues/Thurs 2:30 pm-3:45 pm (room IST 208), 3 credits Book: Interaction Design: beyond human-computer interaction; 3rd Edition. (ISBN: 0470665769) *** Marcela Borge 102F IST Building 865-1045 College of IST mborge@psu.edu Office Hours: 1:30 pm-2:30 pm, Thurs and by appointment *** Teaching Assistant: Na Li 325D IST Building nzl116@ist.psu.edu

Office Hours: 10:00 am 12:00 pm, Thurs 1:30 pm 3:30 pm, Fri

1. COURSE OVERVIEW
Most design requires informed, creative, problem solving. There are many important considerations when designing a new form of computing technology or interaction, but this course will focus on one very important piece of the puzzle: the user. More specifically, the course will focus on how knowledge of people can help you to approach design from a thoughtful, creative, and critical frame of mind. The course serves as a focused introduction to the concept that people interact with design all the time and what you create can help, hinder, and even fundamentally change what people do and how they do it. Understanding how and why people interpret and use common artifacts can help designers to predict how new designs will be used and how to create more useful artifacts that better meet user needs. To understand the user requires that we develop knowledge about human cognition (how people think and interpret information), motivation, social interaction, and behavior. In this way, designers are similar to ethnographers or detectives, collecting information about people and their activities and reconstructing it conceptually to tell a story. Designers use this information to plan out, build, and evaluate design ideas. In this way, designers are like engineers. Interaction design is a challenging and complex field that requires development of diverse knowledge: knowledge about design concepts, methods, and techniques. It further requires practice applying this knowledge, and active reflection on the designs we envision and the knowledge we develop about our potential users. As such, this course will focus a great deal on the thinking processes inherent in design practices. This course will be thought provoking and fun, but by no means easy. We will explore topics through in-class presentations, discussions, readings (from both text and on-line sources), design challenges (done in groups assigned the first week), and exams.
Course Books and Materials

Required Book: Interaction Design: beyond human-computer interaction; 3rd Edition.

(ISBN: 0470665769)

Sketchbook
Supplementary Book: Sketching User Experiences: The Workbook by Saul Greenberg, Sheelagh Carpendale ( ISBN# 0123819598)

2. COURSE OBJECTIVES
This course provides a balance between theory and practice, which are tightly intertwined in this area. Basic and more advanced readings will introduce the student to current thinking about facts, theories, and ways to apply theory, gather, and interpret new data. The course objectives are as follows:
Model and develop critical thinking processes inherent to the design of digital artifacts Introduce students to the idea that people are a core component in technical systems

Explore real human cognition and behavior that influence the development and use of, and accidents that will arise in technical systems due to having people as part of the system. Introduce basic design and evaluation concepts and methods Practice applying design and evaluation concepts and methods Empower students to have authority over their own learning and design projects Emphasize the fun, creative, and challenging aspects of interaction design

A small group project, drawing on the different backgrounds students bring to the program, will support integrating these various types of knowledge and applying them to an illustrative interface or system. The teaching philosophy includes mini-lecture, discourse, collaborative design (not to be confused with group work), and presentations. At the conclusion of this course, students will be able to:
Be familiar with theories, problems, and terms in the area of human-computer interaction and use this knowledge to make collaborative design claims, discuss associated design trade-offs, and make informed design decisions Understand and employ paper prototyping techniques Define in a quantitative and qualitative way some of the most relevant aspects of user's behavior. Be able to gather data in several ways to explore how people individually and as a group use an interface. Understand the difference between group work and collaborative design teams

3. COURSE ORGANIZATION
3.1 The IST 331 Web Site I will be testing the use of Yammer to supplement the course and we will evaluate its utility and usability as part of the course. The website can be found by searching for the following group on Yammer: IST 331-FA2013. Each week we will post the weekly course topic, additional resources or readings, and some critical content questions to the website. 3.2 The WordWall The WordWall is a Google docs page designed as a means for me to be aware of the words or phrases that students may need more help understanding. The link to the wall can be found below: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QjzzoNPicZQ8ogzu2N_GWUMfUbeVGB_ZwQmdnhce9xk/edit Please note that you all have the ability to edit this paper I would ask that you do not delete anything, but rather just add words. I will use this document to supplement the summaries and additional resources we provide for each other. 3.3 Course structure The course is divided into two parts: Part 1 (knowledge building) and Part 2 (knowledge application).

Part 1 of the course focuses on developing your understanding of Interaction design concepts and methods. Part 1 runs from Aug27th through October 20th. During this time the focus will be on introducing concepts and discussing their meaning and implications. On Tuesdays you will be

expected to bring your books so you can skim them prior to the presentation and add words or phrases to the WordWall (described in the next section). Then, I will provide a short summary of
the chapter and the class will work to look up additional ideas and resources related to chapter contents. Ideally this should take no more than 30 minutes. Then you will be placed into teams and required to complete a related activity. These are classwork/homework, as they are due at the beginning of class each Thursday. You will have the rest of class on Tuesday and all of Wednesday to complete the activity.. Every week you will have a short quiz covering some major concepts for that week. We will then go over the quiz and everyone will have the option to retake the quiz over the weekend if they so choose in order to improve their grade. Please note that the highest grade you can get on a retake is a B and you may not retake quizzes from a prior week. After covering Chapters 1-8, we will review and discuss the chapters and then you will take a midterm exam. Part 2 of the course will run from October 21st- December 22nd. This part of the course will emphasize application of interaction design concepts and methods. I will use midterm results to sort the class into project teams. Students who do not do well on the midterm will be placed in a team with either Na Li (the TA) or me. In this way we can help struggling students more one-on-one. During part two, each team will decide on a project to work on for the rest of the semester and work collaboratively to carry out interaction design methods, complete and submit a final project to be evaluated by the entire class. 3.4 Team assignments Students will be sorted into teams in week 1. These teams will remain constant for all of Part 1 of the course. After week 8, teams will be resorted based on midterm performance, specialized skills, and interests; this will be your team for the rest of the course. 3.5 Weekly Quizzes In the first part of the course I assign take-home weekly quizzes as a means for students to get feedback on their understanding of course concepts. You cannot do well on the quiz by simply searching through the book for answers. The quiz requires that you have done the readings and can understand the content well enough to extend and apply it. If you do not do well on the quiz, I offer retakes. Retakes are the same exact quiz except that most of the points come from student explanations about why they got it wrong, what was confusing or hard to understand, what they did to better understand the concept, and how they can improve their ability to take quizzes in the future. As you can imagine, retakes are graded on the quality of the reflection as well as the accuracy of the new answer. They take twice as long to finish as the original test, so I encourage you to try your best on the original quiz. 3.6 Final Team Project

Teams will be responsible for completing a team project where they design or develop a digital design that addresses an important problem or need for students (in this class or other classes). I am also open to alternative design projects as long as teams make an appointment to speak with me about it in week 9. 3.7 Final Grades Your final course grade will be determined by the weighted average of the following assessment items: Weekly Design Challenges (25%) Weekly Quizzes (15%) Class Participation (25%) Midterm (10%) Final project (25%) Each individual activity will be graded on a 100-point scale. 3.8 Class participation As stated above, class participation is worth 25% of your grade. Given its high worth, it is important that you understand what constitutes participation. For this class attendance is important because most of the design challenges are completed during class. This approach makes it easier for students to work with their team, but requires that the entire team be present. It is important to note that students who are absent during the week will not get credit for teamwork completed during their absence. Therefore, absences can reduce both the participation grade and the grades for weekly design challenges. Class participation is comprised of the following: (40) Class attendance and ACTIVE participation during class (40) Posting to Yammer: I require that students stay current on design/technology research as well as news related to problems associated with technology design or that can be helped with the use of technology. These examples that you find should be used to think about course materials each week, by extending your thinking, challenging popular thought or research findings, trying to understand a difficult concept, and sharing resources with the class. (You should try to post each week, but you can post extra on a following week to make up for a previous week- but need to make arrangements with instructor ahead of time). Each week you can earn up to 50 points and can choose how you do so: 50 point for original posts and replies to folks who respond to your post, or 45 for thoughtful replies to others original posts and 5 points for reading and liking material. Please note that I get all the yammer activity data from the university, which will allow me to look closely at participation. (20) Moderating Word wall/Yammer (two teams assigned each week) 100 points total

3.9 Extra credit I offer various forms of extra credit: Participation in IST research, volunteering to present on a topic or example related to the weekly readings, volunteering to present on a problem or design decision your team is working on, and adding extra discussion on Yammer. Any of these extra credit opportunities is available to students on a first come first serve basis. Each week we will have volunteer sign-ups. Preference will be given to teams or individuals who have not yet volunteered or have had less volunteer opportunities. Each volunteer opportunity can help to improve a past grade, such as participation or a midterm grade. There are limited slots each week, so volunteer early- do not wait till the end of the semester.

4. Course Schedule
Each week we will cover a new topic. For the first two weeks, I will present a summary of the readings and discuss some additional resources on the web to supplement the readings. After that, student teams will volunteer to take over. , in order to better meet student needs, please not that this syllabus may change in part two of the semester. I provide an initial guideline for part 2 of the semester. Week 1 Aug 26-Sep 1 Topic: (Reading) Introduction and Organization (Chapter 1) Activity Tuesday: Introduction and Syllabus discussion. Thursday: Word Wall + Class discussion final syllabus decisions Tuesday: Word Wall + in class design challenge 1 Thursday: Discussion/Quiz corrections Deliverable Tue: Thurs:

2 Sep 2-8

Underlying Concepts of Design (Chapter 2)

Wed: Quiz Thurs: BEFORE CLASS Design Challenge 1 .0 Sat midnight: Yammer Post

3 Sep 9-15

Design Considerations at the Level of the Individual (Chapter 3)

4 Sep 16-22

5 Sep 23-29

Tuesday: Word Wall + in class activity 2 Thursday: Discussion/Quiz corrections Design Considerations for Social Tuesday: Word Wall + in and Emotional Interaction (Chapter class activity 3 4 & 5) Thursday: Discussion/Quiz corrections Exploring Interface Types Tuesday: Word Wall + in (Chapter 6) class activity 4 Thursday: Discussion/

Tues: Design Challenge 1.1; Quiz Retake Wed: Quiz Sat midnight: Yammer Post Tues: Design Challenge 2 Story; Quiz Retake Wed Midnight: Quiz Sat midnight: Yammer Post Tues: Design Challenge 2.2; Quiz Retake Wed Midnight: Quiz Sat midnight: Yammer

Post 6 Tuesday: Word Wall + in Tues: Design Challenge 3 Sep 30-Oct 6 Data Gathering class activity 5 (Game); Quiz Retake (Chapter 7) Thursday: Focus group Wed Midnight: Quiz WAGES (in Psychology Sat midnight: Yammer BLD). Post 7 Data Interpretation Tuesday: Word Wall + in Tues: Design Challenge Oct 7-13 (Chapter 8) class activity 5 3.3; Quiz Retake Thursday: Wed Midnight: Quiz Discussion/Quiz Sat midnight: Yammer corrections Post 8 Chapters 1-8 Propose questions, Tue: Due end of classOct 14-20 Identify problematic Turn in 5 exam concepts, and take test Questions on Thursday. Due end of Class Five most difficult concepts Thurs: Midterm Exam Part 2 of Course: Students work on Projects Tu/Thurs and give presentations 9 The Design Process: Requirements Tue: Word Wall; Work Fri: Initial root concept, Oct 21-27 (Chapter 9 & 10) on Project and problem scenario. Thurs: Peer Reviews Sat midnight: Yammer Post 10 The Design Process: Requirements Teams 1& 2 present Fri: Initial design goals, Oct 28-Nov 3 (Chapter 9 & 10) examples of one form of requirements resources requirements analysis. or supplements Sat midnight: Yammer Post 11 The Design Process: Design Tue: Word Wall; Work Fri: Information design Nov 4-10 (Chapter 11) on Project considerations, Thurs: Peer Reviews alternative design ideas, and design rational. Sat midnight: Yammer Post 12 The Design Process: Design Teams 3 & 4 present Fri: Interaction design Nov 11-17 (Chapter 11) examples of considerations, requirements resources Alternative forms of or supplements interaction, & design rationale. Sat midnight: Yammer Post 13 The Design Process: Evaluation Tue: Word Wall; Work Fri: Evaluation Plans Nov 18-24 Chapter 12 & 13) on Project Sat midnight: Yammer Thurs: Peer Reviews Post 14 Thanksgiving No Classes Have Fun or if behind Nov 25-Dec 1 Catch up or do EC 15 The Design Process: Evaluation Teams 5 & 6 present Evaluation results and Dec 2-8 Chapter 12 & 13) examples of interpretations

requirements resources or supplements 16 Dec 9-15 17 Final Dec 16-22 Post link to Final Project, with design documentation Final course Evaluations

Sat midnight: Yammer Post Sat midnight: Yammer Post

Online Collaborative Evaluation of Peer Projects

5. University Policies and Other Administrative Items

5.1 Academic Integrity Each individual and group assignment will be checked with Turnitin, an online database for plagiarism detection. Talking over your ideas and getting comments on your writing from friends are NOT examples of plagiarism. Taking someone else's words (published or not) and calling them your own IS plagiarism. Plagiarism has dire consequences, including flunking the paper in question, flunking the course, and university disciplinary action, depending on the circumstances of the offense. The simplest way to avoid plagiarism is to document the sources of your information carefully. I strongly encourage you to discuss individual assignments with others (this is actually a well-known technique for effective learning), but you (1) must indicate clearly on your assignment the people with whom you discussed the assignment and (2) complete an individual write-up written by youand you alonein your own words. With respect the team project, I expect that teamwork should be the effort of all team members. If your team has interpersonal conflicts or members who are not contributing adequately to project milestones, please make an appointment with the instructor or TA to discuss the situation. Finally, familiarize yourself with the Penn State Principles and University Code of Conduct: Academic integrity is a basic guiding principle for all academic activity at Penn State University, allowing the pursuit of scholarly activity in an open, honest, and responsible manner. In according with the Universitys Code of Conduct, you must not engage in or tolerate academic dishonesty. This includes, but is not limited to cheating, plagiarism, fabrication of information or citations, facilitating acts of academic dishonesty by others, unauthorized possession of examinations, submitting work of another person, or work previously used without informing the instructor, or tampering with the academic work of other students. Any violation of academic integrity will be investigated, and where warranted, punitive action will be taken. For every incident when a penalty of any kind is assessed, a report must be filed. 5.2 An Invitation to Speakers of English as a Second Language If you are uncomfortable with public speaking or writing in English, I strongly encourage you make an appointment to meet with me privately during the first two weeks of this class to establish ways to ensure you are comfortable in completing the required assignments and speaking in class.

5.3 An Invitation to Students with Disabilities The College of Information Sciences and Technology welcomes persons with disabilities to all of its classes, programs, and events. If you need accommodations, or have questions about access to buildings where IST activities are held, please contact us in advance of your participation or visit. If you need assistance during a class, program, or event, please contact the member of our staff or faculty in charge. Access to IST courses should be arranged by contacting the Office of Human Resources, 332 IST Building: (814) 865-8949. It is Penn States policy to not discriminate against qualified students with documented disabilities in its educational programs. (You may refer to the Nondiscrimination Policy in the Student Guide to University Policies and Rules.) If you have a disability-related need for reasonable academic adjustments in this course, contact the Office for Disability Services (ODS) at 814-863-1807 (V/TTY). For further information regarding ODS, please visit the Office for Disability Services Web site at http://equity.psu.edu/ods/. In order to receive consideration for course accommodations, you must contact ODS and provide documentation (see documentation guidelines at http://equity.psu.edu/ods/ guidelines/documentationguidelines). If the documentation supports the need for academic adjustments, ODS will provide a letter identifying appropriate academic adjustments. Please share this letter and discuss the adjustments with your instructor as early in the course as possible. You must contact ODS and request academic adjustment letters at the beginning of each semester. 5.4 Statement on Nondiscrimination and Harassment The Pennsylvania State University is committed to the policy that all persons shall have equal access to programs, facilities, admission and employment without regard to personal characteristics not related to ability, performance, or qualifications as determined by University policy or by state or federal authorities. It is the policy of the University to maintain an academic and work environment free of discrimination, including harassment. The Pennsylvania State University prohibits discrimination and harassment against any person because of age, ancestry, color, disability or handicap, national origin, race, religious creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or veteran status. Discrimination or harassment against faculty, staff, or students will not be tolerated at The Pennsylvania State University. You may direct inquiries to the Office of Multicultural Affairs, 332 Information Sciences and Technology Building, University Park, PA 16802; Tel 814-865-0077 or to the Office of Affirmative Action, 328 Boucke Building, University Park, PA 16802-5901; Tel 814-865-4700/V, 814-863-1150/TTY. For reference to the full policy (Policy AD42: Statement on Nondiscrimination and Harassment): http://guru.psu.edu/policies/AD42.html