User Experience and Design of User Interfaces and Services (in English)

• 16 hrs lectures
• 10 hrs exercises
• 26 hrs projects

• 30 pts mid-term test
• 70 pts projects

Theoretical knowledge about user experience and design of interfaces and services.
Knowledge of important literature in the field.
Basics of psychology and sociology of users.
Research of user sentiments and preferences, statistical evaluation, significance.
Practical experience from solving the project: definition, user research, prototyping, testing, design, presentation, evaluation.

Teamwork on the project.
Presentation of the project (written, oral).
Practical experience on graphical design of the project.
Autonomous study, exchange of information with peer students.

Provide necessary theoretical knowledge about user experience and design of interfaces and services.
Make familiar with important literature in the field.
Make familiar with relevant knowledge from psychology and sociology of users.
Get practical experience with key parts of the design and development of user interfaces and services.
Get insight in time and skill complexity of individual parts of the procedure of the design.

The goal of the course is to lead the student towards thinking about the user as a partner in the communication between the machine and the user, which is hard to grasp and non-numerical. The course leads the students towards extending their emapthy towards users, to overcoming stereotypes and common misconceptions in perceiveing users and their habits. On a large team project, students experience the process of designing a user interface – from extending and critical appreciation of the idea, through sketching, testing up to advanced stadia of the design leading towards implementation. This self-experience on the project aims at correcting frequent prejudice and mal-habits of a technically thiking member of a team that develops a user interface / service.

Moderate proficiency in at least two modern high-level programming languages, such as Java, C++, Python, PHP, ...
Moderate proficiency in JavaScript or similar.
Experience with design of user interfaces – either web, mobile or desktop.
Knowledge of principles of web development – client/server programming, REST API, HTML, CSS, databases.

• Steve Krug: Don't Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability (3rd Edition), New Riders; 3 edition (January 3, 2014), ISBN: 978-0321965516
• Steve Krug: Don't Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, New Riders; 3rd edition (December 24, 2013)
• Jeffrey Rubin, Dana Chisnell: Handbook of Usability Testing: How to Plan, Design, and Conduct Effective Tests, 2nd Edition, Wiley; 2 edition (May 12, 2008), ISBN: 978-0470185483
• Don Norman: The Design of Everyday Things: Revised and Expanded Edition, Basic Books; Revised, Expanded edition (November 5, 2013), ISBN: 978-0465050659

• Don Norman: The Design of Everyday Things: Revised and Expanded Edition, Basic Books; Revised, Expanded edition (November 5, 2013), ISBN: 978-0465050659

• Steve Krug: Don't Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, New Riders; 3rd edition (December 24, 2013)

1. Introduction to the course. Introduction to the problematic. Guidelines and discussion regarding the project assignments.
2. Identifiaction of the relevant problem and golas; analysis, estimates, opportunity and threat analysis, planning. (interactive lecture).
3. User research: history, methods, procedures, recommendations to the project assignments.
4. Early design and prototyping of UI: importance, methods, tools, validation with users, recommendations to the project assignments.
5. Case studies of UI designs - presentation, critical evaluation, analysis, summarization of outcomes, formulation of recommendations. (interactive lecture)
6. Psychology and human factors in the design of user interfaces.
7. Psychology and human factors in the design of user interfaces II.
8. Design of User Interfaces: overview, history, trends, tools, technologies, procedures, recommendations to the project assignments.
9. Case studies of UI prototypes - presentation, critical evaluation, analysis, summarization of outcomes, formulation of recommendations. (interactive lecture)
10. Design of services: history, differences, trends, tools, examples from practice.
11. User testing, statistical processing of user data, law and ethical limitations.
12. Case studies of designs - presentation, critical evaluation, analysis, summarization of outcomes, formulation of recommendations. (interactive lecture)
13. Case studies of designs - presentation, critical evaluation, analysis, summarization of outcomes, formulation of recommendations. (interactive lecture)

Team project (3–4 people).
Individual assignments – proposed by students, approved by the teacher. Components:

• Problem Formulation, team formation
• User Research: questioning, evaluation
• User Research: formulation or results, personnas, scenarios
• Early Design: drawings, wireframes, testing, iterative improvement
• UI Prototype: identification of key parts, utilization of resources
• Design of experiments, identification of key UI elements, questions
• Experiments, questioning, formulation of outcomes
• Report and Presentation of the project, substantiation of conclusions

Midterm exam / written essay.
Evaluation of project – solved during the semester, points awarded multiple times during the solutions, based on achieved milestones.

Acquiring at least 50 points.

Lectures in person.

Messages in MS Teams, e-mail.