Students are expected to do their own work at all times and to follow the university's codes of academic conduct and honor code. Cases of suspected unauthorized collaboration or cheating of any kind will be immediately forwarded to the Dean of Student Affairs, and will be pursued to resolution. This is an unpleasant process for all involved, so please do not put yourself (nor your instructors) in this situation.

Students are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner--this entails showing up for classes and exams at the appointed time. Late make-up exams will not be given. If some form of prior committment prevents a student from taking an exam at the given time, PRIOR arrangements (including documentation where appropriate) should be made with the instructor.

Extra work, after the semester, is not allowed to "bring up" a grade. A student's grade shall be earned from their performance solely on the semester's assignments.

Grading is determined by a semester-long accumulation of points, weighed in percentage as stated for each component as summarized below. Determinations of the individual category breakdowns will be determined by looking for gaps or clumps in the final averages.

Examinations

A mid-term and a final examination are planned for the course. Most exam questions will reflect the material covered in lecture and assigned reading. The exams will consist mostly of short answer questions, with a few multiple-choice, T-F, and longer essay questions thrown in as well.

Homework Assignments

There will be homeworks assigned for individual completion (not a group effort). The goal of the homeworks is to give you practical experience in the processes and methods used in this field and to better prepare you for the examinations. Assignments may vary in length and importance (weight).

Project

One semester-long, team-based interface design project will be given in this course. The project will be broken down into four parts, each around three weeks in duration. The overall grade for the project will be 48% of your grade. The project will have your team develop an alternative interface for some computer-based application. The assignments will have you evaluate users, needs, and tasks in the domain, design a mock-up for a new interface, develop a prototype of that interface, and evaluate your design. The material which you turn in should be presented professionally, and should stress grammatical correctness and clarity. You will be judged on your originality, innovativeness, quality of writing, and correctness. More details ave available on the project page.

Participation

Reading assignments will be specified for each week. You are expected to come to class, and be prepared, having read and having made an attempt to understand the material. You should be ready to discuss the material covered in the lectures and reading. Much of the material in this course is subjective. Feel free to describe your views. A total of 7% of your grade will be determined by a subjective participation rating. If you come to class prepared and participate in discussions, you can anticipate receiving all of this credit. Participation also includes the team project. Each student will be asked to assess the individual contributions of team members throughout the semester-long project and the results of these peer evaluations will affect the participation grade.

Component Weights

Some other comments