Announcements and Daily Activities

Fall 1997

Thursday, September 4

Overview of course

Some calculator programs on the Web:

We'll be discussing the user interfaces of these and two other calculators in class.

Tuesday, September 9

We'll be discussing chapters 1-2 and doing exercises related to them.

Thursday, September 11

We'll be discussing chapters 3-4 and continuing exercises from Tuesday.

Tuesday, September 16

First quiz covering chapters 1-4. It will consist of several short-answer questions and one or two extended answer questions. Discussion of chapter 5.

Thursday, September 18

Email me your first paragraph of the Usability Heuristics project.

We'll be writing a paragraph that applies a Usability Heuristic to an application selected by me.

We'll be conducting usability testing from your paper scenarios that you created last week.

Tuesday, September 23

The first project with Usability Heuristics is due today.

Discussion of chapter 6: Usability Testing.

Thursday, September 25

Further discussion of chapter 6: Usability Testing.

Start design of vocabulary learning software, an in-class project.

Tuesday, September 30

Introduction to Java.

Quiz covering chapters 5 & 6.

Thursday, October 2

More coverage of java.

Tuesday, October 7

The third project is assigned: the design and implementation of a text-based interface for an application that recommends movies. I'll be giving an overview of how the back-end movie database works.

Thursday, October 9

The usability testing project is due today.

Coverage of exception handling in Java.

We resume group work on designing an application for learning foreign language vocabulary.

Tuesday, October 11

Technical quiz covering Java basics and exception handling.

We will consolidate our in-class designs for the vocabulary learning project.

Tuesday, October 21

Review technical quiz covering Java.

Group work on the vocabulary learning project.

Thursday, October 23

The text-based version of the movie rating project is due by 23:59 today.

Overview of GUI implementation in Java.

More group work on the vocabulary learning project.

Tuesday, October 28

Continued overview of GUI implementation in Java.

Continuation of group work on vocabulary learning project

Thursday, October 30

Group presentation of vocabularly learning project.

Revisions of group projects.

Tuesday, November 4

Paper specifications of interface design are due.

Introduction to Dialog boxes.

Implementation of group work.

Thursday, November 6

More group work on implementation of vocabulary learning project.

Tuesday, November 11

Overview of the GridLayout manager and other suggestions for laying out the interface.

GUI layout of project 4 is due today by 23:59.

Implementation of vocabulary learning project

Thursday, November 13

Group presentation of vocabulary learning project.

Work on integrating group effort on vocabulary learning project.

Tuesday, November 18

Vertical implementation of project 4 is due today by 23:59.

Quiz on gui implementation and event listeners.

Debriefing of group work on vocabulary learning project.

As time permits, discussion of user testing for the vocabulary learning project.

Thursday, November 20

Usability testing of vocabulary learning project.

Group selection for final project.

Tuesday, November 25

Full implementation of project 4 is due today by 23:59.

Tuesday, December 2

Review chapter 7in Nielsen.

Thursday, December 4

Review chapters 8-10 in Nielsen.

Presentation of using threads for improving interface responsiveness.

Tuesday, December 9

Discussion of Gray and Salzman article.

Course evaluations.

Thursday, December 11

Quiz covering usability evaluation methods.