HCI 432 User-Centered Interactive Web Development

Winter 2001

Instructor

Dr. Craig Miller
Office: 830 CTI Building, 312-362-5085
Email: cmiller@cs.depaul.edu
Web page: http://facweb.cs.depaul.edu/cmiller
Scheduled Office Hours: TBA Possible office hours (by appointment or chance): Weekday afternoons

Course Meeting

Tuesday 5:45-9:00
Loop Campus

Textbooks

HTML 4 for the World Wide Web, Fourth Edition by Elizabeth Castro. ISBN 0-201-35493-4.
JavaScript for the World Wide Web, 3rd Edition by Tom Negrino and Dori Smith. ISBN 0-201-35463-2.

Prerequisites

HCI 440 and HCI 430. The HCI 430 prerequisite may be waived if the student has programming experience.

Overview

This course teaches the concepts and practices of user-centered design in the development of interactive Web pages. Students will learn enough technical Web programming, including HTML and Javascript, to develop client-side prototypes. Projects include developing and testing interactive prototypes of Web sites.

Goals

Projects

  1. Four individual Web assignments using HTML and JavaScript
  2. User and task analysis for proposed Web site
  3. Conceptual design
  4. Horizontal and vertical prototyping
  5. Full prototyping

Grade Determination

20% (40 points) Individual assignments (10 points each)
20% (40 points) Group Projects (10 points each)
20% (40 points) Group Report
30% (60 points) Quiz (20 points) and Test (40 points)
10% (20 points) Group participation

Students receiving more than 90% of possible points are guaranteed at least an A-, more than 80% at least a B-, more than 70% at least a C-, and more than 60% at least a D.

Policies

While attendance does not comprise a formal part of the grade, students are expected to attend all classes and participate in in-class exercises. Class will start promptly at 5:45. Students are individually responsible for material they may have missed due to absence or tardiness. Furthermore, since some group work will occur during class, a student who misses class will jeopardize their standing with the group.

All group projects will be completed in groups of three or four. While students will have some control on group selection, the instructor reserves the right to modify groups in order to meet course objectives. While the group may assign a primary role to each group member, all group members are jointly responsible for the entire assignment. Generally, each group member will receive the same grade. However, in some cases, additional credit may go to those who make an exceptional contribution to a project and reduced credit to those who contribute little to a project. Such adjustment of credit would be made in addition to the grade awarded for group participation.

Quizzes and tests can only be made up with a serious documented excuse (e.g. illness, death in the family). A make-up quiz or test must be arranged as soon as possible and always before the student attends the next class meeting. Arrangements involving other excuses require prior permission from the instructor.

Late projects will be accepted without penalty until 2pm the day following the due date. Projects turned in later than 2pm the day following the due date will not be accepted. For projects requiring a working prototype, the working prototype must always be ready for testing by classtime.

Assignments submitted by email are generally not accepted.

University Policies

Plagiarism: The university and school policy on plagiarism can be summarized as follows: Students in this course, as well as all other courses in which independent research or writing play a vital part in the course requirements, should be aware of the strong sanctions that can be imposed against someone guilty of plagiarism. If proven, a charge of plagiarism could result in an automatic F in the course and possible expulsion. The strongest of sanctions will be imposed on anyone who submits as his/her own work a report, examination paper, computer file, lab report, or other assignment which has been prepared by someone else. If you have any questions or doubts about what plagiarism entails or how to properly acknowledge source materials be sure to consult the instructor.

Incomplete: An incomplete grade is given only for an exceptional reason such as a death in the family, a serious illness, etc. Any such reason must be documented. Any incomplete request must be made at least two weeks before the final, and approved by the Dean of the School of Computer Science, Telecommunications and Information Systems. Any consequences resulting from a poor grade for the course will not be considered as valid reasons for such a request.

Tentative Schedule

Week Topic Text Reading Tests and Due Project
Jan 9 Course overview, user-centered design, overview of Web technology, HTML and simple Web pages Course notes and Castro ch. 1 - 8  
Jan 16 Advanced HTML Castro ch. 9 - 11 Individual assignment 1
Jan 23 Intro to Javascript and Object-based programming Negrino and Smith ch. 1-2 Individual assignment 2
Jan 30 Advanced Javascript Negrino and Smith ch. 6 Individual assignment 3 and Quiz
Feb 6 The Date class and timing prototypes Negrino and Smith ch. 7 Individual assignment 4
Feb 13 User and task analysis for the Web   Final test
Feb 20 Conceptual design   Project proposal with user and task analyses
Feb 27 Paper and pencil prototyping   Conceptual design
Mar 6 Testing partial prototypes   Horizontal and vertical prototypes
Mar 13 Full prototype testing   Full prototype
Mar 20     Group report

Links to Web pages discussed in class