DECO2200 profile - Martin Tomitsch - The University of Sydney

Faculty of Architecture, Design & Planning
DECO2200
INTERACTION DESIGN STUDIO
GENERAL UNIT INFORMATION
UNIT INTRODUCTION
UNIT PROFILE
The unit of study runs for 13 weeks. Each student will spend two hours each week in
lectures and six hours in studio/lab tutorials. In addition, students are expected to
spend four hours each week in self‐directed lab work. This is designed to be a practical
unit of study and students will be expected to experiment in the labs with the
techniques that are taught in the lectures and the tutorials.
ASSUMED BACKGROUND
Fundamental programming skills (DECO1012 Design Programming) and understanding
of how to conceptualise and communicate design concepts (DECO1100 Digital Design
Studio).
UNIT STAFF
Coordinator:
Dr Martin Tomitsch, room 277, tel: 02 9351 3030,
e‐mail: martin.tomitsch@arch.usyd.edu.au
Lecturers:
Dr Martin Tomitsch
Dr Jurgen Spangl
Neil McCann
Tutors:
James Hiscock, e‐mail: jhis8780@mail.usyd.edu.au
Nikash Singh, e‐mail: n.singh@usyd.edu.au
Philip Staud, e‐mail: philip.staud@arch.usyd.edu.au
TIME TABLE
Lectures:
Thursday 10‐11 (ALT2)
Friday 10‐11 (ALT3)
Tutorials:
Thursday 11‐1pm and 2‐5pm (Lab 313)
Friday 11‐1pm and 2‐5pm (Lab 313)
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Faculty of Architecture, Design & Planning
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
UNIT AIMS
The aim of this unit of study is to introduce students to the issues involved in the design
of interactive systems. This unit of study will focus on best practice in interaction design
including the use of requirement analysis, prototype development, and user evaluation.
In addition, students will learn practical skills in web design including how to use core
technologies (e.g. HTML, CSS and JavaScript) and how to use common web development
tools (e.g. Dreamweaver).
UNIT OBJECTIVES
On completion of this unit of study, students should be able to:
• assess the requirements of an interaction design problem.
• assess the structural and navigational requirements of web sites.
• prototype, develop and document designs that require interaction.
• design and develop web sites using modern web design techniques.
• evaluate the performance of a design against usability goals.
LEARNING RESOURCES
RECOMMENDED BOOKS
Rogers, Y., Sharp, H. & Preece, J. (2007) Interaction design: Beyond human‐computer
interaction, 2nd edition, New York: Wiley.
Saffer, D. (2009) Designing for Interaction: Creating Smart Applications and Clever
Devices, 2nd edition, New Riders Press.
Buxton, B. (2007) Sketching User Experiences: Getting the Design Right and the Right
Design, Morgan Kaufmann.
Cooper, A. (2007) About Face 3: The Essentials of Interaction Design, 3rd edition, Wiley.
Krug, S. (2005) Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd
edition, New Riders Press.
Kuniavsky, M. (2003) Observing the User Experience: A Practitioner's Guide to User
Research, Morgan Kaufmann.
Selected chapters are available through the Library UoS reserve.
ONLINE RESOURCES
Interaction Design Association (IxDA) http://www.ixda.org/
Mozilla Labs Blog http://labs.mozilla.com/blog/
ACM portal http://portal.acm.org/
See Unit website for further resources.
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Faculty of Architecture, Design & Planning
ASSESSMENT
ASSESSMENT SUMMARY & GRADING
• Participation (10%)
This portion reflects the involvement of students in the unit, which includes: class
attendance, engagement and questions asked during the classes and tutorials, active
participation on the unit network (blog posts and comments).
• Tutorial activities (20%)
Small activities will be carried out during tutorials (1% each). They are designed to
help students understand the key issues of this unit and to support the assignment
tasks.
• Assignment 1: individual project (10%)
The first assignment is organised as an individual assignment, i.e. each student has
to develop and submit a solution for a specific domain. This includes implementing a
low‐fidelity prototype using HTML and CSS.
The assignment will be assessed according to methodological approach, design
(navigation, interaction, etc.), and execution (implementation).
• Assignment 2: group project (60%)
This assignment is divided into the following subtasks: collecting user requirements
and developing a concept (assignment 2a, 10%, individual), creating a paper
prototype and user testing (assignment 2b, 10%, group), implementing the interface
(client‐side) and the backend (server‐side) for the application (assignment 2c, 20%,
group). The final concept has to be documented through a blog post and video
submission (assignment 2d, 10%, group) and presented in class (final presentation,
10%, group).
For the group parts of this assignment students have to form groups of two.
The assignment will be assessed according to methodological approach,
interpretation of results, design (navigation, interaction, etc.), innovation, and
execution. The final presentation will be assessed according to presentation quality
(slide design, style, clarity, engagement, etc.) and presentation content (material,
background, originality, sophistication, etc.).
Further details about the design briefs and assessment will be handed out in class.
LATE SUBMISSIONS
According to the faculty policies work submitted after the deadline but up to 3 days (72
hours) late can achieve a maximum of 65% of marks allocated for the assessment task
(low Credit).
Work submitted after 3 days (72 hours+) but up to 1 week late (same deadline time and
day one week later) can achieve a maximum of 50% of marks allocated for the
assessment task (minimum Pass).
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Faculty of Architecture, Design & Planning
Work submitted more than 1 week late (after deadline time and day one week later) but
less than 2 weeks late can achieve a maximum of 45% of marks allocated for the
assessment task (Fail).
Work submitted more than 2 weeks late (after deadline time and day two weeks later)
will not be assessed (Absent Fail).
See the faculty website for more information:
http://www.arch.usyd.edu.au/CS/undergrad/late_submit.shtml
ASSESSMENT DETAILS
Lodgement
All assignments have to be submitted either as report (PDF document) or blog post on
the unit website and sent by e‐mail to the unit e‐mail address.
Outcomes of assessment exercises
The following standards will be applied to the grading of work. Each passing grade
subsumes and goes beyond the grads lower than it.
High Distinction: Outstanding understanding of unit material, original thinking, high
level of contribution to critical discussion, complete resolution of tasks,
excellent quality of deliverables. Mark 85‐100%
Distinction: Thorough understanding of unit material, medium level of contribution to
critical discussion, complete resolution of tasks, accomplished quality of
deliverables. Mark 75‐84%
Credit: Thorough understanding of unit material, adequate level of contribution to
critical discussion, complete resolution of tasks, average quality of deliverables.
Mark 65‐74%
Pass: Satisfies some of the basic learning requirements of the unit. Assignment
resolution satisfies all fundamental requirements and demonstrates
competence against all assessment criteria. Mark 50‐64%
Fail: Falls short of satisfying all basic requirements for a pass. Mark 45‐49%
Fail: Fails to satisfy some of the basic requirements of the unit. Incomplete or
inadequate resolution of assignments. Mark 25‐44%.
Fail: Fails most or all of the basic requirements of the unit. Incomplete or inadequate
resolution of assignments. Mark 0‐24%
POLICY
You are advised to carefully read and follow the faculty policies available from here:
http://www.usyd.edu.au/handbooks/architecture/03_FacultyPolicies.shtml
Specifically the following policies apply for this unit of study:
ATTENDANCE
Faculty policies apply in regards to lecture and tutorial attendance. This means that
students must attend all lectures and tutorials required for this unit of study. Missing
more than one class (ie lecture and tutorial), without certification for illness or
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Faculty of Architecture, Design & Planning
misadventure, will affect the student’s final mark. Students missing more than three
classes might fail the unit.
ASSESSMENT RELATED POLICIES AND GUIDELINES
An overview of the University’s assessment‐related policies can be found in the Faculty
Handbook.
Academic Integrity & Plagiarism
It is the University’s task to encourage ethical scholarship and to inform students and
staff about the institutional standards of academic behaviour expected of them in
learning, teaching and research. Students have a responsibility to maintain the highest
standards of academic integrity in their work. Students must not cheat in examinations
or other forms of assessment and must ensure they do not plagiarize. The University has
adopted the following definition of plagiarism:
Plagiarism is the act of misrepresenting as one’s own original work, the ideas,
interpretations, words or creative works of another. These include published and
unpublished documents, designs, music, sounds, images, photographs, computer codes
and ideas gained through working in a group. These ideas, interpretations, words or
works may be found in print and/or electronic media. The following are examples of
plagiarism where appropriate acknowledgement or referencing of the author or source
does not occur:
• Direct copying of paragraphs, sentences, a single sentence or significant parts of a
sentence without quotation marks around the copied text and not referencing the
source;
• Copying ideas, concepts, research results, computer codes, statistical tables, designs,
images, sounds or text or any combination of these;
• Paraphrasing, summarising or simply rearranging another person's words, ideas, etc
without changing the basic structure and/or meaning of the text;
• Offering an idea or interpretation that is not one's own without identifying whose
idea or interpretation it is;
• A ‘cut and paste' of statements from multiple sources;
• Presenting as independent, work done in collaboration with others;
• Copying or adapting another student's original work into a submitted assessment
item.
Academic honesty is a core value of the University of Sydney. The University is
committed to the basic academic right that students receive due credit for work
submitted for assessment. Integral to this is the notion that is clearly unfair for students
to submit work for assessment that is not their own and that is not attributed to the
original authors. This is known as plagiarism. Such activity represents a form of fraud.
The academic Board Resolution on ‘Academic Honesty in Coursework’ sets out
principles, procedures and a code of practice for academic honesty in submitted work in
the University.
The University policy for plagiarism is available online:
http://www.usyd.edu.au/senate/policies/Plagiarism.pdf
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Faculty of Architecture, Design & Planning
Students who are found to have plagiarised face a range of penalties from warning,
failure of the unit of study of disciplinary action under the University by‐laws. The
Faculty of Architecture, design and Planning takes plagiarism very seriously.
Feedback on Assessment
For a detailed explanation of the feedback you are entitled to, you should consult the
policy on Student Access to Feedback on Assessment. As a student you have a
responsibility to incorporate feedback into your learning; make use of the assessment
criteria that you are given; be aware of the rules, policies and other documents related
to assessment; and provide teachers with feedback on their assessment practices. There
are certain steps you can take if you feel your result does not reflect your performance.
Please refer to the Faculty Handbook.
OTHER POLICIES AND GUIDELINES
Students with Disability
Any student with a disability who may require alternative academic arrangements,
including assessment, in course/program is encouraged to seek advice at the
commencement of the semester from the Faculty. Where an adjustment is made to an
accredited program, it is the responsibility of the relevant Faculty to liaise with
professional and registration bodies regarding the acceptability of the change/s.
Occupational Health and Safety
Undergraduate Students and Postgraduate Students should be familiar with the
University policies on occupational health and safety in the laboratory.
Other Faculty Guidelines
For safety reasons, full access to all construction sites may not be possible for students
with disabilities, and alternative arrangements may need to be made for the associated
assessment tasks. Any student with a disability who may require alternative
arrangements is encouraged to seek advice at the commencement of the semester from
a Disability Adviser at Student Support Services and to consult the course coordinator.
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