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Course Syllabus

Master 2019/2020

Digital Interactive Products Development

Category 'Best Course for Broadening Horizons and Diversity of Knowledge and Skills'
Category 'Best Course for New Knowledge and Skills'
Type: Compulsory course (System and Software Engineering)
Area of studies: Software Engineering
Delivered by: School of Software Engineering
Where: Faculty of Computer Science
When: 1 year, 3, 4 module
Mode of studies: distance learning
Instructors: Pavel Manakhov
Master’s programme: Software and Systems Engineering
Language: English
ECTS credits: 4
Contact hours: 56

Course Syllabus

Full Syllabus

Abstract

The objective of this multidisciplinary course is to form professional competencies related to designing digital interactive products as well as to practice communication with design teams. Long gone are the days when designers and UX professionals used to join the software development process on the last stages when most of the work is already done. Now designers and developers work side by side from the very beginning of any project. It is of great importance for them to work together as a whole, which means that effective communication between the two teams is crucial for a project's suc-cess.
Learning Objectives

Learning Objectives

  • Form professional competencies related to designing digital interactive products.
  • Practice communication with design teams.
Expected Learning Outcomes

Expected Learning Outcomes

  • Understand the concept of usability
  • Understand the context of use concept
  • Understand the concept of user experience
  • Know the Goal-Directed Design process
  • Appreciate the difference between interaction design and user interface design
  • Know design-informing models of different kinds
  • Acquire practical skills in creating various design-informing models
  • Understand the role of research questions in study planning
  • Understand the classification of UX research methods
  • Know different qualitative and quantitative UX research methods
  • Acquire practical skills in forming recruitment criteria for a usability study
  • Know different types of composition
  • Know how to create a sign
  • Understand the concept of usability goals
  • Understand the concept of the design space
  • Understand the concept of design questions
  • Understand the concept of visual style
  • Understand the classification of types
  • Understand approaches to choosing pairs of type-faces
  • Understand the principles of contrast and nuance
  • Understand how to apply different types of colour schemes
  • Understand Gestalt principles
  • Understand the concepts of visual hierarchy and visual flow
  • Appreciate the difference between conceptual and detailed design
  • Appreciate the need of exploring a number of design alternatives
  • Be able to choose and customise types
  • Be able to select and combine colours
  • Be able to select and use images
  • Be able to design harmonious screen layout
  • Acquire practical skills in proposing design concepts of a complete app by a given set of functions
  • Acquire practical skills in presenting design concepts
  • Acquire practical skills in creating pixel-perfect mockups in accordance with a given visual style
  • Acquire practical skills in writing a design specification
  • Know different forms of design knowledge such as design patterns and design rules
  • Know how to find appropriate design knowledge for a particular project
  • Understand Tognazzini’s First principles of interaction design
  • Acquire practical skills in presenting best practices found during a preliminary study
  • Know different forms of design representation
  • Understand the classification of design tools
  • Acquire practical skills in preparing an interactive prototype
  • Understand the concept of UI idioms
  • Understand Norman’s Stages-of-action model
  • Understand the concept of usability problems
  • Understand problems such as inefficiencies, feature requests, and software bugs
  • Appreciate the difference among moderation techniques for usability testing
  • Acquire practical skills in planning usability testing
  • Acquire practical skills in conducting usability tests
  • Acquire practical skills in making sense of data gathered through usability testing
  • Acquire practical skills in representing results of a usability study
  • Acquire practical skills in making design changes to eliminate found interaction problems
  • Be prepared to write usage scenarios
  • Be able to conduct Cognitive walkthrough
  • Be able to conduct Scenario-based walkthrough
  • Be able to conduct design reviews
  • Acquire practical skills in planning the development of an app by a given design specification
  • Acquire practical skills in implementing an app
  • Acquire practical skills in undertaking functional testing
  • Acquire practical skills in working with another design/development team
  • Understand the difference between design systems and other forms of design knowledge
  • Appreciate the need of creating a design system
  • Be able to create and support a design system
  • Appreciate the need to include design tasks in the backlog
  • Understand how to prioritize design tasks
  • Understand how UX work is integrated into agile software development cycle
  • Understand the concept of design sprints
  • Understand different perspectives on user experience
  • Know different time spans of experience such as anticipated, momentary, episodic, and cumulative
  • Know the peculiarities of conversational UI design process
  • Appreciate the need of building the discourse model
  • Understand Grice's maxims
  • Know the peculiarities of creating spatial interfaces
Course Contents

Course Contents

  • Essentials of Interaction Design
    The concept of the user interface. The concept of the interaction. The context of use concept. The concept of user experience. The concept of usability. Mark Hassenzahl’s Model. Goal-directed design process. Design-informing models.
  • Introduction to UX Research
    The concept of research questions. The classification of user research methods. The classifica-tion of usability evaluation methods. Recruitment criteria. Ways of looking for participants.
  • The Process of Design Creation
    The concept of usability goals. Why an exploration of design alternatives is necessary. The concept of design questions. The process of synthesizing solutions and comparing them. The difference between conceptual and detailed design. Creativity tools.
  • Accumulated Design Knowledge
    Forms of design knowledge. How to find appropriate design knowledge for a particular project. Tognazzini’s First principles of interaction design.
  • Overview of Prototyping Tools & Techniques
    Classification of prototyping methods. Overview of modern 2D prototyping tools.
  • Essential Usability Evaluation Concepts
    How people interact with digital things. Norman’s Stages-of-action model. The concept of usa-bility problems. Interaction problems of other kinds.
  • Usability Testing: Preparation
    Preparing for usability testing. Data collection techniques.
  • Usability Testing: Moderation & Data Analysis
    Overview of moderation techniques for usability testing. Moderating usability tests. Usability data analysis.
  • Usability Inspection Methods
    Cognitive walkthrough. Scenario-based walkthrough. Design reviews.
  • Building Efficient Design Teams
    Building the design process that is right for you. Variety of team roles. Company’s design cul-ture.
  • Design Systems
    Design systems and it does matter. Scaling design in your company.
  • Agile & UX
    Agile principles and values. Fitting interaction design work into agile software development cycle.
  • User Experience & Experience Design
    Overview of modern theories about experience. Properties of experience. Qualities of experi-ence. Evaluating user experience.
  • Designing Non-traditional Interfaces
    Conversational user interfaces. Peculiarities of creating CUI. Spatial user interfaces. Peculiari-ties of creating spatial interfaces.
  • Building Efficient Design Teams (2 модуль)
    Building the design process that is right for you. Variety of team roles. Company’s design culture.
  • The Process of Design Creation (4 модуль)
    The concept of usability goals. Why an exploration of design alternatives is necessary. The concept of design questions. The process of synthesizing solutions and comparing them. The difference between conceptual and detailed design. Creativity tools.
  • Usability Testing: Moderation & Data Analysis (4 модуль)
    Overview of moderation techniques for usability testing. Moderating usability tests. Usability data analysis
  • Usability Testing: Preparation (4 модуль)
    Preparing for usability testing. Data collection techniques.
Assessment Elements

Assessment Elements

  • non-blocking Quiz 1 (Q1)
    This is an individual assignment which implies taking the "Interaction Design: An Introduction" quiz online.
  • non-blocking Homework 2 (HW2)
    This assignment implies forming recruitment criteria which later will be given to another team. A draft of the criteria is prepared by every team and presented on the 4th seminar, otherwise the team loses a portion of the grade for practice activities. During the seminar the professor discusses the draft with the team and gives tips on how to improve it.
  • non-blocking Homework 3 (HW3)
    This assignment implies proposing design concepts of a complete app by a given set of functions, user and/or interactions models, and best practices found in the analogous apps. The design concepts are prepared by every team and presented on the 5th or 6th seminars, otherwise the team loses a portion of the grade for practice activities. During the seminars the professor discusses the proposed concepts with the team and gives tips on how to improve them.
  • non-blocking Homework 4 (HW4)
    This assignment implies developing a test plan to evaluate another team’s app while simultaneously working on an interactive prototype of your team’s app. A draft of the plan is prepared by every team and presented on the 10th or 11th seminars, otherwise the team loses a portion of the grade for practice activities. During the seminars the professor discusses the draft and the prototype with the team and gives tips on how to improve them.
  • non-blocking Quiz 5 (Q5)
    This is an individual assignment which implies taking the "Usability Inspection Methods & Intro to Usability Evaluation" quiz online.
  • non-blocking Homework 6 (HW6)
    This assignment implies conducting usability tests in accordance with the plan prepared during the previous assignment, analyzing usability data gathered throughout the tests, and writing a report that describes all interaction problems found during the study. A draft of the report is prepared by every team and presented on the 12th or 13th seminars, otherwise the team loses a portion of the grade for practice activities. During the seminars the professor discusses the draft with the team and gives tips on how to improve it.
  • non-blocking Homework 7 (HW7)
    This assignment implies writing a design specification that details the appearance and behavior of the app. A draft of the design spec is prepared by every team and presented on the 15th or 16th seminars, otherwise the team loses a portion of the grade for practice activities. During the seminars the professor discusses the draft with the team and gives tips on how to improve it.
  • non-blocking Peer-review 8 (PR8)
    Assessing the communication with another design and development teams (interim)
  • non-blocking Peer-review 9 (PR9)
    Assessing the communication with another design and development teams (resultant)
  • non-blocking Final Exam (FE)
    Оценка за дисциплину выставляется в соответствии с формулой оценивания элементов контроля данного семестра; отдельный экзамен не проводится
  • non-blocking Practice Activities1
  • non-blocking Practice Activities2
Interim Assessment

Interim Assessment

  • Interim assessment (4 module)
    0.25 * Final Exam (FE) + 0.04 * Homework 2 (HW2) + 0.08 * Homework 3 (HW3) + 0.04 * Homework 4 (HW4) + 0.04 * Homework 6 (HW6) + 0.04 * Homework 7 (HW7) + 0.1 * Peer-review 8 (PR8) + 0.1 * Peer-review 9 (PR9) + 0.09 * Practice Activities1 + 0.18 * Practice Activities2 + 0.02 * Quiz 1 (Q1) + 0.02 * Quiz 5 (Q5)
Bibliography

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

  • Cooper, A., Reimann, R., Cronin, D., & Noessel, C. (2014). About Face : The Essentials of Interaction Design (Vol. Fourth edition Alan Cooper, Robert Reimann, David Cronin, Christopher Noessel). Hoboken: Wiley. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=827342
  • Hartson, R., & Pyla, P. S. (2012). The UX Book : Process and Guidelines for Ensuring a Quality User Experience. Amsterdam: Elsevier Ltd. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=453819

Recommended Additional Bibliography

  • Kuniavsky, M., Goodman, E., & Moed, A. (2012). Observing the User Experience : A Practitioner’s Guide to User Research (Vol. 2nd ed). Burlington: Morgan Kaufmann. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=472263
  • Norman, D. A. (2013). The Design of Everyday Things : Revised and Expanded Edition (Vol. Revised and expanded edition). New York: Basic Books. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=658202
  • Rubin, J., & Chisnell, D. (2008). Handbook of Usability Testing : How to Plan, Design, and Conduct Effective Tests (Vol. 2nd ed). Indianapolis, IN: Wiley. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=233103
  • Schmalstieg, D., & Höllerer, T. (2016). Augmented Reality : Principles and Practice. Boston: Addison-Wesley Professional. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1601643