Related Course/s:

A unit of study in the Bachelor of Business Information Systems, Bachelor of Science (Computer Science and Software Engineering), Bachelor of Information Technology , Bachelor of Science (Professional Software Development),  Bachelor of Science (Computer Science), Bachelor of Information and Communication Technology, Bachelor of Science (Information Technology) and Bachelor of Applied Information and Communication Technology

Aims & Objectives:

• Describe the process and principles of User-Centred Design and explain the role of User-Centred Design in the software development process.
• Discuss different methods of researching, analysing and documenting context of use (i.e., users, goals and tasks and environment)
• Create a prototype user interface and discuss design decisions in relation to:
  · conceptual design
  · interaction styles and interaction devices
  · interface controls, and
  · psychological principles
• Set and justify measurable usability requirements
• Discuss different usability evaluation methods and critically evaluate user interface designs using both inspection and empirical usability evaluation methods
• Describe and follow guidelines for the ethical treatment of human research participants.

Teaching Methods:

Lectures (24 hrs), Tutorials (24 hrs)

Assessment:

Individual and group reports (both written and oral), MCQ tests, Examination

Generic Skills Outcomes:

Students will be provided with feedback on the following Key Generic Skills
· strategies for working in a small team,
· analysis skills,
· preparation of effective written and oral reports.

Content:

• Definition and motivation for usability and user-centred design
• Context of use: users, goals and tasks, and environment
• Data gathering methods: interviews, surveys, observation, card sorting, background research, competitive analysis
• Ethics of human research
• Requirements analysis and documentation: user profiles personas, scenarios, task analysis, use cases, storyboards
• Conceptual design: Prototyping, interaction styles
• Physical design: design principles, guidelines and standards, layout and colour, interface controls and interaction devices
• Psychological principles: memory, attention, perception, human-action-cycle, mental models
• Usability requirements
• Evaluation: Inspection and empirical usability evaluation methods, data analysis and presentation
  

References:

Stone, D., Jarrett, C., Woodroffe, M., Minocha, S. (2005). User interface design and
evaluation. San Francisco, CA: Morgan-Kaufmann.

Courage, C. & Baxter, K. (2005). Understanding your users: A practical guide to user
requirements, methods, tools and techniques. San Francisco, CA: Morgan-Kaufmann.

Dumas, J. S. & Redish, J. C. (1999). A practical guide to usability testing. Revised Edition.
Exeter, UK: Intellect Ltd.

Snyder, C. (2003). Paper Prototyping: The fast and easy way to design and refine user
interfaces. San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann

Cooper, A & Reimann, R (2003). About Face 2.0. Wiley: Indianapolis.

Dix, A., Finlay, J., Abowd, G., & Beale, R. (1998) Human-Computer Interaction. Third Edition,
Prentice Hall.

Hackos, J. T., & Redish, J. C. (1998). User and task analysis for interface design. New York:
Wiley.

Preece, J., Rogers, Y., & Sharp, H. (2002). Interaction design: Beyond human-computer
interaction. New York: John Wiley.