Course syllabus
Course-PM
DAT356 / DIT046 DAT356 / DIT046 Requirements and user experience lp2 HT23 (7.5 hp)
Course is offered by the department of Computer Science and Engineering
Contact details
Examiner: Jennifer Horkoff
Course responsible: Jennifer Horkoff
Course Assistants:
| Michal | Spano | gusspanomi@student.gu.se |
| Tanya | Benu | gusbenuta@student.gu.se |
| Carlos | Campos Herrera | guscampca@student.gu.se |
| David Boram | Hong | davidhong521@gmail.com |
| Anna | Mäkinen | gusmakand@student.gu.se |
| Adam | Faundez Laurokari | gusfauad@student.gu.se |
| Tehreem | Asif | gusasite@student.gu.se |
| Labiba Karar | Eshaba | guseshka@student.gu.se |
| Sadhana | Anandan | gusanandsa@student.gu.se |
| Alexander | Säfström | alexander@orbitras.com |
| Sofia | Serbina | gusserbiso@student.gu.se |
| Erik | Lindstrand | guslinerbv@student.gu.se |
| Ali | Mousa Baqer Al-Muslim | gusalmual@student.gu.se |
| Khan Mohammad | Habibullah (PhD Student) | khanmo@chalmers.se |
Course Representatives:
Samuel Partain <guspartasa@student.gu.se>
Tim (Attila Matolcsy) <gusmatat@student.gu.se>
Manas Ahuja <gusahuma@student.gu.se>
Reihaneh Abbasi <gusabbre@student.gu.se>
Annelie Hansson <annelieh@chalmers.se>
Hanna Forsling <hanforsl@chalmers.se>
Course purpose
The course provides students with an introduction to the field of requirements engineering and user experience. It provides a solid foundation by defining foundational concepts like stakeholders, requirements, usability and specifications. It also presents the process of identifying, modeling and documenting the requirements of a software product. Emphasis is given to concepts and techniques such as quality requirements, creative requirements, scenarios, and personas. The second part of the course focuses on usability aspects.
The course will focus on implementing the requirements gathered in the first part as part of UX designs. Further, the course presents methods of prototyping (for example, digital mockups) and presents some techniques to evaluate the usability of a software product (for instance, via user studies). Finally, the course will provide students with hands-on experience in designing graphical user interfaces (GUI).
Course literature
See the course literature page: Course Literature
Course design
The teaching consists of lectures, group work, exercises, as well as supervision in connection to the exercises.
Course lectures and help sessions will be in person, on Campus, unless otherwise announced.
This course will use Canvas for all communication and assignment submission.
Communication Policy: whenever possible, questions should be asked in Discussions forum of Canvas. You can email the instructor directly (jenho@chalmers.se), but any question which is generally applicable to class will be directed to the Canvas discussion forum.
Language of instruction: English
Changes made since the last occasion
This is the last instance before the course is redesigned, so no major changes.
Learning objectives and syllabus
Learning objectives:
Knowledge and understanding
- Identify key RE and UX concepts such as functional and non-functional requirements, usability, and UX design patterns
- Describe important differences between a variety of requirements modeling techniques
- Describe the benefits and drawbacks between specific elicitation techniques
- Explain the role of verification and validation in RE and UX
- Identify key non-functional requirements for software, such as usability and sustainability.
Skills and abilities
- Apply concepts to write good-quality requirements
- Draw several types of requirements models
- Capture personas and scenarios
- Apply UX design patterns to create prototypes from requirements
- Conduct and report on user studies
Judgement and approach
- Evaluate and select between available elicitation techniques
- Evaluate benefits and drawbacks of different requirements representations
- Evaluate the appropriateness of specific UX patterns for a design
- Evaluate and improve upon a UX design
- Evaluate the impact of RE & UX projects on sustainability goals such as reduced inequalities or responsible production and consumption
Link to the syllabus on and Studieportalen (GU) and Study plan (Chalmers)
Examination form
Sub-courses
- Written Hall Examination (Tentamen), 4.5 credits
Grading scale: Pass with distinction (5), Pass with credit (4), Pass (3) and Fail (U) - Assignments (Inlämningsuppgifter), 3 credits
Grading scale: Pass with distinction (5), Pass with credit (4), Pass (3) and Fail (U)
Assessment
The course is examined by an individual written exam carried out in an examination hall at the end of course and written assignments normally carried out in groups of students.
The assignments part is examined on the basis of solutions to compulsory problems handed in during the course and on the basis of individual contribution to the group work.
Retake examinations of the assignments part consist of written group or individual assignments.
There will be three group written assignments. Each assignment is equally weighted. The average percentage grades of the three assignments are calculated, and this is used to calculate the final assignment grade. Specific requirements for the assignments will be provided on Canvas.
Students are required to complete written self- and peer-assessment forms during the course which will be part of the assessment of the student's individual contribution to the project. The instructor may adjust the individual grades of a student depending on this evaluation.
Grading Scale
The grading scale comprises: Pass with distinction (5), Pass with credit (4), Pass (3) and Fail (U).
Students receive grades on the assignments and the exam parts of the course. To pass the whole course, students must pass both the assignment and exam parts of the course.
If both parts have a passing grade, the final grade is determined by combining the scales for both the exam and the assignments, with the exam grade weighted slightly higher.
Examples:
U on exam, 3 on assignments: overall grade of U
3 on exam, 4 on assignments: overall grade of 3
3 on exam, 5 on assignments: overall grade of 4
Assignment and Exam Grade Calculations
The final grade for the assignment part of the course (3 credits) will be an average of the grade for each of the three assignments. In order to pass the assignments, you must get at least 40% on all three assignments. If each assignments has a grade of higher than 40% and If the average grade across the assignments is passing, the students will receive a passing grade for the assignment part of the course (either 3, 4 or 5). Failing one of three assignments does not necessarily mean there will be a failing grade for the assignments part of the course, as long as the grade for that assignment is 40% or more.
Passing grades for the assignment parts of the course starts at 60%. For the exam, passing is 50%.
The average grade for the assignments will be converted to Pass with distinction (5), Pass with credit (4), Pass (3) and Fail (U) as follows.
Grading Scale for Assignments
| Average % Grade | Final Grade |
| 0-59% | U |
| 60-69% | 3 |
| 70-79% | 4 |
| 80-100% | 5 |
Grading Scale for the Exam
| Average % Grade | Final Grade |
| 0-49% | U |
| 50-64% | 3 |
| 65-79% | 4 |
| 80-100% | 5 |
Failing Assignments
If the final grade of the assignments is a failing grade (one assignment <40% or average <60%), all three assignments must redone and resubmitted with a new case. The redone assignments are handed in again at a date after course completion. A new case will be provided. Information on the resubmission and new case will be provided after the course is complete. Redone assignments can be done in groups or individually.
Assignment Re-submission Dates
Note: if you and/or your group intend to resubmit the failed assignment part of the course, please notify the course responsible two weeks in advance.
Assignment re-submissions are due on the following dates.
- First Round: March 18th, 2024
- Second Round: May 13th, 2024
- Third Round: August 12th, 2024
Failing the Exam
Retake examinations of the assignments part consist of written individual assignments. If a student, who has failed the same examined component twice, wishes to change examiner before the next examination, a written application shall be sent to the department responsible for the course and shall be granted unless there are special reasons to the contrary (Chapter 6, Section 22 of Higher Education Ordinance).
In cases where a course has been discontinued or has undergone major changes, the student shall normally be guaranteed at least three examination occasions (including the ordinary examination) during a period of at least one year from the last time the course was given.
Examination Dates (Both DIT046 and DAT356)
The examination date will be during the examination period in January 2024. The exam is in person. See the exact date and time as posted by the examination office (link to the schedule on the top right): https://studentportal.gu.se/english/my-studies/cse/Examination
All re-examination dates are found on the same page, after the dates are announced. Don't forget to sign-up for the exams and re-exams before the deadlines! The sign-up deadlines are listed in the same link.
Authorized examination aids: Tidwell's “Designing Interfaces: Patterns for Effective Interaction Design. 3rd or 2nd Edition”
Note: if the exam is a hall exam, the book must be a bound book, not a printed copy.
Schedule
Study Period: Oct. 30, 2023 - Dec. 13th, 2023
Lecture session 1: Monday at 10:15-12
Lecture session 2: Wednesday at 10:15-12,
Example session: Roughly every other Wednesday 13:15-15
Assignment Help session: Roughly every other Wednesday at 13:15-15.
Location: The main lectures alternate between Babord and Styrbord. See schedule below and TimeEditLinks to an external site..
A preliminary schedule is available below in the course summary, topics and times may be changed during the course.
Legend: Lecture (L), Examples (E), Open Rooms (O), Guest Lecture (GL), Question Session (Q), Assignments (A)
| Week | Date | Time | Location | L/E/A# | Topics | Readings |
| 44 | Oct. 30, 2023 | 10:15-12:00 | Babord | L1 | Course Intro & Practicalities | |
| 44 | Nov 1, 2023 | 10:15-12:00 | Styrbord | L2 | Requirements Creativity, Scoping & Modeling (Context, Goals) |
(All optional) |
| 44 | Nov 1, 2023 | 13:15-15:00 | Styrbord | E | Examples from Lecture Material | |
| 45 | Nov. 6, 2023 | 10:15-12:00 | Babord | L3 | Requirements Modeling (Goals, Use Cases, Customer Journey Map) | |
| 45 | Nov. 8, 2023 | 10:15-12:00 | Styrbord | L4 | Requirements Concepts, Documenting & Quality (including sustainability) |
(All optional) ISO_IEC_IEEE_29148_2018_EN.pdf |
| 45 | Nov. 8, 2023 | 13:00-15:00 | Styrbord | E | Examples from Lecture Material | |
| 46 | Nov. 13, 2023 | 10:15-12:00 | Babord | L5 | Requirements Elicitation, Personas, Scenarios, Prioritization | RE unknownunknowns.pdf |
| 46 | Nov. 15, 2023 | 10:15-12:00 | Styrbord | L6 | Intro to UX & Prototyping | |
| 46 | Nov. 15, 2023 | 13:15-15:00 | Styrbord | Q | A1 Questions (Jennifer) | |
| 46 | Nov. 15, 2023 | 13:15-16:00 | Styrbord | Q | A1 Questions (TAs) | |
| 46 | Nov. 17, 2023 | 12:00 AM | A1 | Assignment 1 Due | ||
| 47 | Nov. 20, 2023 | 10:15-12:00 | Babord | GL | Guest Lecture RE (tentative) | |
| 47 | Nov. 22, 2023 | 10:15-12:00 | Styrbord | L7 | UX Design Patterns 1 | (Optional) Course Book |
| 47 | Nov. 22, 2023 | 13:15-15:00 | Styrbord | E | Examples from Lecture Material | |
| 48 | Nov. 27, 2023 | 10:15-12:00 | Babord | L8 | UX Design Patterns 2 & Mobile Patterns | (Optional) Course Book |
| 48 | Nov. 29, 2023 | 10:15-12:00 | Styrbord | L9 | UX Design Principles & Usability | |
| 48 | Nov. 29, 2023 | 13:15-15:00 | Styrbord | Q | A2 Questions (Jennifer) | |
| 48 | Nov. 29, 2023 | 13:15-16:00 | Styrbord | Q | A2 Questions (TAs) | |
| 48 | Dec. 1, 2023 | 12:00 AM | A2 | Assignment 2 Due | ||
| 49 | Dec. 4, 2023 | 10:15-12:00 | Babord | L10 | Usability Testing | |
| 49 | Dec. 6, 2023 | 10:15-12:00 | Styrbord | GL | Guest Lecture UX (tentative) | |
| 49 | Dec. 6, 2023 | 13:15-15:00 | Styrbord | E | Examples from Lecture Material | |
| 50 | Dec. 11, 2023 | 10:15-12:00 | Babord | L11 | Videos, Validation, & Verification | SE_Video.pdf |
| 50 | Dec. 13, 2023 | 10:15-12:00 | Styrbord | L12 | Course Review | |
| 50 | Dec. 13, 2023 | 13:15-15:00 | Styrbord | E | A3 Questions/User Studies (Jennifer) | |
| 50 | Dec. 13, 2023 | 13:15-16:00 | Styrbord | E | A3 Questions/User Studies (TAs) | |
| 51 | Dec. 15, 2023 | 12:00 AM | A3 | Assignment 3 Due | ||
| 3 | January --, 2024 | Exam | Double Check Exam Time and Date |
Additional information
Plagiarism or free-riding is not allowed; cases of such will lead to grade adjustments and potentially failing assignments or the exam.
See Gothenburg University Rules regarding plagiarism: https://studentportal.gu.se/english/my-studies/pol/cheating-and-plagiarism/
We follow the Generative AI policy as supported by the SEM program, see here. Students are responsible to be able to understand and explain the contents of their assignments. We reserve the right to hold an oral examination of assignment content and adjust grades.
Course evaluation
Course summary:
| Date | Details | Due |
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