General Information
1. About CPSC 344
Human Computer Interaction (HCI) design is "design for human use". Computers are a ubiquitous part of many interactions in our lives, from the mundane every-dayness of light switches and vending machines to entertainment and education to sophisticated instruments and complex energy and defense systems.
In this course, we will guide you to broaden your grasp of what a user interface can and should be, what computer science is and can be, and try your hand at doing better yourself. It is a fast-paced, hands-on, project-based experience designed around active lecture sessions supported by readings, assignments, and weekly workshop sessions, where students practice and explore the concepts introduced in lecture, and go well beyond them to learn and apply HCI techniques in the assignments that build into group projects.
During this pandemic, the shift to online learning has greatly altered teaching and studying at UBC, including changes to health and safety considerations. Keep in mind that some UBC courses might cover topics that are censored or considered illegal by non-Canadian governments. This may include, but is not limited to, human rights, representative government, defamation, obscenity, gender or sexuality, and historical or current geopolitical controversies. If you are a student living abroad, you will be subject to the laws of your local jurisdiction, and your local authorities might limit your access to course material or take punitive action against you. UBC is strongly committed to academic freedom, but has no control over foreign authorities (please visit http://www.calendar.ubc.ca/vancouver/index.cfm?tree=3,33,86,0 for an articulation of the values of the University conveyed in the Senate Statement on Academic Freedom). Thus, we recognize that students will have legitimate reason to exercise caution in studying certain subjects. If you have concerns regarding your personal situation, consider postponing taking a course with manifest risks, until you are back on campus or reach out to your academic advisor to find substitute courses. For further information and support, please visit: http://academic.ubc.ca/support-resources/freedom-expression
Relationship to other UBC-CS HCI Courses (Full listing of our HCI offerings): CPSC 344 and 444 form a two-course undergrad sequence; 444 covers more advanced evaluation material.
2. Instructor and Office Hours
Instructor: Dongwook Yoon (email: yoon at csDELETEthisTEXT.ubc.ca)
Office Location: ICICS/CS X663
Office Hours: 9:00 - 10:00 AM, Mon and Wed; Or, by appointment. Follow communication conventions (below) for fastest response.
3. Lecture, Workshops, TAs
Lecture: Mon and Wed 3:30-5:00 PM at MacLeod 2018. In-person only, but recordings will be posted on Canvas. Check Canvas - Modules for details and materials.
Workshops: CPSC 344 has four "workshops" (listed as Tutorials on SSC). In-person only at ICICS, X360 (no recordings provided); Check Canvas - Modules for details and materials. The waitlisted students can use the mirrored course materials here.
Section | Time | TAs | Location |
---|---|---|---|
T2A | Thu 10-12 | Tommy Nguyen and Merry Shirvani | ICICS/CS X360 |
T2B | Fri 12-14 | Zhe Liu and Merry Shirvani | ICICS/CS X360 |
T2C | Fri 14-16 | Mui Tanprasert and Jackie Liu | Forest Sciences Centre 1003 |
T2D | Thu 12-14 | Tommy Nguyen and Jackie Liu | ICICS/CS X360 |
Each tutorial will be temporarily closed at the beginning of the term. This is because we need to fill each workshop to its maximum of ~30; and thus must optimize students' schedule constraints to accommodate access by students who wish to take the course. During the first two weeks of the term, we'll assign each student to a tutorial session based on their schedule flexibility by running a workshop balancing (assignment) survey. Students in the waitlist must finish the survey.
4. Prerequisite
CPSC 210 (or its equivalent) is a pre-requisite for CPSC 344.
The main purpose of the pre-requisite is to ensure that you have experience programming in at least two different languages. Having mastered two, it is feasible to pick up another relatively easily; during prototyping you may need to quickly learn a new language as well as the ones you already know.
The other most useful skill for you to bring to class is experience working on a team, a huge part of 344. You should also have strong written and verbal communication ability.
Please contact the instructor if any of these are a concern for you.
5. Communication
Please follow the logistics below:
- for anything relevant to the larger group (conceptual questions, logistics issue, etc.): Post public-to-class on the course Piazza discussion group (sign-up link), which will be checked daily by course staff, and this way the whole class can benefit. All instructor posts will appear here.
- for personal logistics (project, assignments, etc.): Post to course staff on Piazza .
- for confidential or personal matters: Talk to or email the instructor. Include "[CS344]" in the subject line of any email for a faster response.
6. Resources
Required textbook: Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interaction, Rogers, Sharp and Preece (RSP), 5th Ed, 2019, Wiley. Available on UBC Library website and Amazon.
Pre-readings, videos lectures, slides: Canvas - Modules
Course-Level Learning Goals
- Conceptual design: learn and use design techniques such as sketching, brainstorming, and storyboarding to develop design ideas given a set of requirements.
- Prototyping: learn and use prototyping techniques, tools, and frameworks to sketch, build and evaluate human-computer interfaces.
- Evaluation: learn and use evaluation techniques such as surveys, observations, and interviews; further, learn to combine them for complex research designs.
- Analyze: synthesize and present quantitative and qualitative data by identifying patterns in the data using descriptive statistics and thematic analytical techniques.
- Critique: learn how to critique interfaces in terms of design principles, human abilities and limitations, and evaluation heuristics.
- Process: learn how to reason about the stages of a design project, which questions are appropriate to ask at each stage, and how to choose the right research, prototyping, or evaluation technique to use.
- Understand: models of human cognition with respect to usability: human sensory systems, memory, mental models, and information processing abilities.
- Communicate: learn how to convey your design ideas through writing, oral presentation, critique sessions, group work, and whiteboarding.
- Collaborate: learn how to manage working with design briefs in a group setting, delegate and prioritize resources, communicate effectively within a group, and utilize group member strengths and support weaknesses
Policies
Waitlist Policy
Course waitlists are being handled centrally by the Computer Science department. Go here for more information. Students who attend workshops will be given waitlist priority.
If you do not plan to take the course, please remove yourself from lecture or waitlist, so others may get in.
Late Deliverables
Late assignments and pre-reading quizzes will receive no credit. In the extraordinary circumstance (e.g., medical or family emergency) that you are prevented from completing and submitting component on time, or fully participating in your group's work, we may allow late turn-in. In this case, contact your TA or the course staff well in advance of the deadline (a usual expectation would be 24 hours). At discretion of staff considering the circumstance, a penalty may still be imposed of a mark reduction of 0.98^(hours late).
Academic Expectations
In addition to all university rules, regulations, and academic guidelines, the following policies will hold in CS344:
- Attendance and prompt arrival is expected at all classes and workshops. Quiz, assignment and team project marks will suffer from absences.
- There will be no makeup for the midterm. Should the midterm be missed, the final exam will absorb the midterm's component of the grade.
- A student must pass the final exam in order to pass the course. If you fail the final exam (score < 50%), your final course grade will equal your final exam mark.
- If your Final exam score is higher than your Midterm score, the Final exam score will replace your Midterm mark and have effective weight of 50% towards your final grade.
- To request that a deliverable be fully or partially re-graded: the request must be printed, physically signed, scanned, and submitted to the grader via email. We reserve the right to re-grade the entire deliverable.
Deliverables and Tentative High-Level Mark Allocation (tentative)
Your team's performance in the course project plays a large part in your individual mark. In addition, in your individual mark the peer component relates to your contributions and participation in your team.
Component | Breakdown | Weight | Type |
---|---|---|---|
Deliverables | Details on the deliverables page | 45% | 43% group, 2% individual |
Exams | Midterm (20%) and final (30%) | 50% | Individual |
Peer evaluation | Assessed on group deliverables | 5% | Individual |
Total | 100% | 43% group, 57% individual |
Workshop attendance: On-time attendance is expected at workshops. If you know of an unavoidable conflict in advance (e.g., a job interview that could not be scheduled at another time), inform your TA and teammates in advance.
Two absences (or four late arrivals) will be automatically excused. After that, each unexcused absence will be marked as 1% deduction from your final mark and each late arrival as 0.5%.