Course Syllabus

COURSE INTRODUCTION 

Hi and Welcome to CS 352 – Introduction to Usability Engineering*

My name is Anahita Sanandaji and I will be your instructor for this course. I am super excited to work with all of you!

I received my PhD degree in computer science from Oregon State University in 2018. My research interests are Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), data visualization and analytics, social computing, and User Experience (UX) research and design. As a researcher in the field of HCI, I focus on designing innovative user interfaces and technologies that improve human interaction with computers. My teaching interests include usability engineering, UX/UI design, data visualization and analytics, and programming. I have five years of experience both as a graduate teaching assistant and also an instructor for courses including usability engineering, databases, and data structures.

In this course, you will develop techniques to help understand the users or potential users of the application. You will learn how to exploit that research to start crafting an application that the users will find useful, or even enjoy. In summary, you will NOT learn how to implement user interfaces, BUT rather how to design these based on the needs of users, which you will determine, and learn how to evaluate your designs rigorously.

Here is my introduction video:

Please note: Video lectures for CS 352 is presented by Professor Terry Rooker (Links to an external site.)

Let's have a great term!

Enrolled students can learn more about the course here:  Course Introduction

SYLLABUS and SCHEDULE 

This is the full syllabus. 

This is the schedule of class activities.  

This is the Policies Quiz that you need to score 100% to get access to the weekly models.  

WHERE TO GO FOR HELP 

Anahita Sanandaji (instructor): sanandaa@oregonstate.edu

Please check syllabus "Getting Assistance" part to become familiar with the steps you should take to ask questions and find answers to your questions for this class.

Communication Policies:

I will be using Canvas Announcements to broadcast information about the class. Please make sure your Canvas preferences are set to send you email notices of new Announcements.  

Please check syllabus " Getting Help" part to become familiar with the steps you should take to ask questions and find answers to your questions for this class. Please tag your email with "[CS 352]" in the subject line.

Instructor Communication Policy: I will check email and Piazza frequently and will respond to course-related questions within 1 business day if possible.

Instructor Office Hours: Will be announced weekly. I also take office hours by appointment and frequently check Piazza and my email. 

TA Information:

Enrolled students, please see this link for TA info: Who is Grading Whom

TA Office hours: by appointment

Piazza information:

Piazza is a Q&A discussion forum. You can access Piazza as a separate website or as a tool within Canvas.  You can enroll yourself in Piazza by following the link in the left sidebar.

Slack information:

Slack is a synchronous discussion forum for more casual conversation with fellow class members.

Please read Slack - How To (for Students) to become familiar with the steps required to set up Slack for this class.

Other Useful Links:

Tutoring (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

Ecampus Student Resources (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

TOOLS

Here are some tutorials to help introduce you to the tools we'll be using in this course. Please let me know if you have any additional questions about any of these topics:

General Tools and Websites

1. Canvas (which you are in currently) is the course management software used for this course and contains most of the instructional material besides the textbook. When searching for help on how to use Canvas, it helps to include the term "instructure" which is the name of the company that makes Canvas.

Canvas Basics Guide

2. TEACH is the website where you enable your ENGR account. On the TEACH page there should be a link for you to "Create a new account (Enable your Engineering resources)". The login for your ENGR account is the same as your ONID login.

3. The Ecampus Exams and Proctoring Form is where you will tell us who your proctor will be for the exams. Please see the module titled Proctored Exam Information.

4. Piazza is a Q&A discussion forum.  You can access Piazza as a separate website or as a tool within Canvas. You can enroll yourself in Piazza by following the link in the left sidebar.

5. Slack is a synchronous discussion forum for more casual conversation with fellow class members. Please read Slack - How To (for Students) to become familiar with the steps required to set up Slack for this class.

Class Project and Prototyping Tools

The work in this course produces design and requirements documents, and diagrams. In addition, you will produce static and dynamic prototypes. Your group can choose the tool(s) which best enables you to produce these products. The final prototype must be interactive, i.e. it must include links for controls to show the next screen. Once you understand the project requirements you can decide for yourselves.  

Everyone must be able to access the tool(s). Some group member might have access to a custom tool through their work. But if it requires a company account to access it then please do not use it.  The project should be produced by everyone.

Some of the existing prototyping tools that you can consider for your project