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Regular version of the site
Master 2021/2022

Digital Interactive Products Development

Type: Compulsory course (System and Software Engineering)
Area of studies: Software Engineering
When: 2 year, 1, 2 module
Mode of studies: distance learning
Open to: students of one campus
Instructors: Pavel Manakhov
Master’s programme: Software and Systems Engineering
Language: English
ECTS credits: 4
Contact hours: 44

Course 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 success. This course is a continuation of the course started in the previous semester. Hence, the only prerequisite is to complete the previous one.
Learning Objectives

Learning Objectives

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

Expected Learning Outcomes

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

Course Contents

  • Essentials of Interaction Design
  • Building Efficient Design Teams
  • Introduction to UX Research
  • Design Systems
  • The Process of Design Creation
  • Agile & UX
  • Accumulated Design Knowledge
  • User Experience & Experience Design
  • Overview of Prototyping Tools & Techniques
  • Designing Non-traditional Interfaces
  • Essential Usability Evaluation Concepts
  • Building Efficient Design Teams (2 модуль)
  • Usability Testing: Preparation
  • Usability Testing: Moderation & Data Analysis
  • Usability Inspection Methods
  • The Process of Design Creation (4 модуль)
  • Usability Testing: Moderation & Data Analysis (4 модуль)
  • Usability Testing: Preparation (4 модуль)
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
  • 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)
    The oral exam consisting of 2 topics. The topics cover the theory of the whole 1-year long course.
  • non-blocking Practice Activities1
  • non-blocking Practice Activities2
  • non-blocking Homework 10 (HW10)
    This assignment implies implementation of an app designed by another team. Please note that all implementation decisions are up to you, not a design team. It means that you choose a tech stack, design a software architecture, etc. The requirement is that at the end of the semester the implemented app has to look and behave exactly as it should according to the spec
Interim Assessment

Interim Assessment

  • 2020/2021 4th module
    0.02 * Quiz 1 (Q1) + 0.08 * Homework 3 (HW3) + 0.04 * Homework 7 (HW7) + 0.1 * Peer-review 9 (PR9) + 0.04 * Homework 6 (HW6) + 0.09 * Practice Activities1 + 0.04 * Homework 4 (HW4) + 0.18 * Practice Activities2 + 0.1 * Peer-review 8 (PR8) + 0.04 * Homework 2 (HW2) + 0.02 * Quiz 5 (Q5) + 0.25 * Final Exam (FE)
  • 2021/2022 2nd module
    0.09 * Practice Activities2 + 0.04 * Homework 2 (HW2) + 0.02 * Quiz 5 (Q5) + 0.25 * Final Exam (FE) + 0.09 * Practice Activities1 + 0.09 * Homework 10 (HW10) + 0.04 * Homework 6 (HW6) + 0.1 * Peer-review 9 (PR9) + 0.04 * Homework 4 (HW4) + 0.04 * Homework 7 (HW7) + 0.08 * Homework 3 (HW3) + 0.1 * Peer-review 8 (PR8) + 0.02 * Quiz 1 (Q1)
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