CMSC 434 Human Factors in Computer and Information Systems

University of Maryland Dept. of Computer Science Spring 1997
Dr. B. Shneiderman

Class hours: Tue & Thu 9:30pm - 10:45pm
Room: Engineering 3140, Learning Theater

Office hours: Tue & Thu 11am - noon
Room: AVW 3177 Phone: 301-405-2680

Email: ben@cs.umd.edu

Teaching Assistant:

Books: B. Shneiderman, Designing the User Interface, 2nd Edition, Addison-Wesley, (1992)

Recommended to review statistics: R. Runyon & A. Haber, Fundamentals of Behavioral Statistics, 8th Edition, McGraw- Hill (1996).

Recommended to review experiment design: P. Badia and R. Runyon, Fundamentals of Behavioral Research, Addison-Wesley (1982).

Topics: Human factors issues in the development of software, use of database systems, and design of user interfaces for interactive systems. Science base (theories, models, usability studies, and controlled experimentation), and software engineering with user interface development environments. Issues include: programming and command languages, menus, forms, and direct manipulation, graphical user interfaces, computer supported cooperative work, information search and visualization, input/output devices, and display design.

Homework: Critiques will be written for an experimental study and for a working system. Students will implement user interfaces with modern software tools such as Visual Basic (in teams of 2 people).

Term Projects: Conduct a controlled experiment on a design issue (in teams of 2 - 4 people).

Projects: Students will implement user interfaces with modern software tools such as Visual Basic, and conduct a controlled experiment on a design issue. Critiques will be written for an experimental study and for a working system.

Week Topic Chapter Project
1/30 Introduction, UIMS 1, 14
2/4 Evaluation methods 13
2/11 Theories 2 Exp't Critique (2/13)
2/18 Menus+Forms 3 Proposal (2/18)
2/25 Command Langs 4 VB Implementation (2/27)
3/4 Direct Manipulation 5 Materials (3/4)

Exam 13,14,1-5 (3/6)

3/11 Interaction Devices 6 References (3/11)
3/18 Response Time 7 Pilot Results (3/18)
----Spring Break --------
4/1 Messages+Color 8 Statistics (4/1)
4/8 Multiple Windows 9 System Critique (4/8)

Exam 6-9 (4/10)

4/15 CSCW 10 Raw Data (4/15)
4/22 Info Exploration Tools 11 Draft Intro(4/22)
4/29 Manuals+Help 12
5/6 Social Impact, Reports 15 Final Project (5/6)
5/13 Reports

Final Grade:


Last revised 1/30/97.