Course syllabus
Course-PM
DAT355 / DIT045 Requirements and User Experience lp2 HT19 (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:
Chenyu Li
Joakim Déak
Bence Ludmány
Hartmut Fischer
Araz Farkosh
Hannah Maltkvist
Student representatives: Liv Mari Lervik Alterskjaer (gusalteli@student.gu.se), Rongzhen Chen (gusronch@student.gu.se), Bhavya Shukla (gusshubh@student.gu.se), Oscar Hjern (gushjeros@student.gu.se), Negin Hashmati (gushashne@student.gu.se ), Leith Hobson (leith@student.chalmers.se)
Course Evaluation
Course evaluation: https://chalmers.instructure.com/courses/7277/files?preview=441939
Final meeting protocol: https://chalmers.instructure.com/courses/7277/files?preview=441937
Thank you for your feedback!
Best regards,
CSE Student Office
Course Purpose
The course provides students with an introduction to the field of requirements engineering and user experience. It starts by providing a solid foundation by defining key concepts like goals, requirements and specifications. It also presents the process of identifying and documenting the requirements of a software product. Emphasis is also given to quality requirements.
The second part of the course focuses on usability aspects. The course will focus on integrating the requirements gathered in the first part with more design-oriented requirements gathered as part of a user-centric design process (for example, via interviews and the use of personas). The course also presents elements of visual design and information design, for instance, how to include aspects of user experience in the design of a software product. Further, the course touches upon 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 (GUIs).
Schedule
Course Literature
Course Book for UX Part
Designing Interfaces 2nd Edition, by Jenifer Tidwell
Note 1: Make sure to find the 2nd edition
Note 2: You can find a PDF of this book online, but the exam is open book, and you cannot bring the PDF to the exam. If you want to use the book in the exam, you need the real physical book.
Course Readings for RE Part
For the RE part of the course, the main source is the course slides. But we also have a few additional papers to supplement the material. These papers are available for free through Canvas. Some of these are copyright, so don't post them openly online. Some of the papers are to read, and some are for reference, in case more help is needed with course topics.
Papers to Read
Sutcliffe, Alistair, and Pete Sawyer. "Requirements elicitation: Towards the unknown unknowns." 2013 21st IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference (RE). IEEE, 2013. 10 pages. Canvas Link
Mavin, Alistair. "Listen, then use EARS." IEEE software 29.2 (2012): 17-18. 2 pages. Canvas Link
Karras, Oliver, and Kurt Schneider. "Software Professionals are Not Directors: What Constitutes a Good Video?." 2018 1st International Workshop on Learning from other Disciplines for Requirements Engineering (D4RE). IEEE, 2018. 4 pages. Canvas Link
Papers to Use as a Reference (look up material if needed)
Volere Requirements Specification Template, Edition 18—2016, by James Robertson & Suzanne Robertson
principals of the Atlantic Systems Guild. Canvas Link
Course Design
The teaching consists of lectures, group work (assignments), class exercises, as well as supervision in connection to the exercises and assignments.
Language of instruction: English
Changes Made Since the Last Occasion
Refinement to scoping topic, new assignment case with a local company and existing software, in-course quizzes from start, more in-class exercises, some slides and slide text pruned.
Learning Objectives and Syllabus
Learning objectives:
On successful completion of the course the student will be able to:
Knowledge and understanding
- describe the process of requirements elicitation, evaluation and prioritization,
- documentation, validation and development of software requirements,
- state techniques to acquire and model user demands,
Skills and abilities
- identify and specify requirements by means of, for instance, scenario-based techniques or goal-oriented techniques,
- apply techniques to identify personas, scenarios and user stories,
- design and implement graphical user interfaces according to usability principles,
Judgement and approach
- choose an appropriate technique to evaluate the usability of a software product,
- choose and motivate appropriate methods for involving users in the design process.
Link to the syllabus Chalmers.
Link to the syllabus GU.
Examination Form
Sub-courses
- Written exam (Tentamen), 5 higher education credits, Grading scale: Pass with Distinction (VG), Pass (G) and Fail (U)
- Assignments (Inlämningsuppgifter), 3 higher education credits Grading scale: Pass (G) 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 three 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.
There will be three group written assignments. Each assignment is equally weighted. 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 Scales
The grading scale differs for assignments vs. the exam. For the assignments, the GU grades Pass (G) and Fail (U) are used, for the exam, we use Pass with Distinction (VG), Pass (G) and Fail (U) for GU students and 5, 4, 3, and Fail for Chalmers students. To be awarded Pass (G) for a full course, the students must pass both the exam part and the assignments part with at least grade (G). To be awarded Pass with Distinction (VG) for a full course, the student must, in addition, receive a VG on the written exam part. Essentially, your final overall grade is the grade you get on the exam, as long as the assignment part of the course has been passed.
Written assignments and the final exam will be graded on a numeric scale, converted to percentages. The final percentage grade for the assignments and exams will be converted to the GU and Chalmers scales as follows:
GU and Chalmers Grading Scale for Assignments:
GU Grading Scale for Exams:
Chalmers Grading Scale for Exams:
Assignment 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. If the average grade across the assignments is passing, the students will receive a passing grade for the assignment part of the course. Failing one of three assignments does not necessarily mean there will be a failing grade for the assignments part of the course.
Group Grades
Note that although the grade is given for a group assignment, this grade is then assigned individually to students, and may be adjusted depending on the peer evaluation form. Thus not all students in the same group are guaranteed to get the same grade. Such situations are rare.
Late Assignments
Up to One day late: - 20% of final mark
Up to Two days late: - 40% of final mark
Two or more days late: 0%
Failing Assignments
If the final average grade of all assignments is a failing grade, 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. 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 20th, 2020
- Second Round: May 15th, 2020
- Third Round: August 14th, 2020
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
- First round: January 15th, 2020 morning
- Second round: April, date and time to be determined
- Third round: August, date and time to be determined
See the following for any updates:
https://studentportal.gu.se/english/my-studies/cse/Examination
Authorized examination aids: Jenny Tidwell's “Designing Interfaces: Patterns for Effective Interaction Design. 2nd Edition”
Note: must be bound book, not a printed copy
Course Evaluation
The course is evaluated via an informal meeting with course representatives mid-way through the course, and a meeting after the course between teachers and student representatives. Further, an anonymous questionnaire is used to ensure written information. The outcome of the evaluations serves to improve the course by indicating which parts could be added, improved, changed or removed.
Schedule
Study Period: 4 November 2019 - 18 December 2019
Lecture session 1: Monday at 10-12
Lecture session 2: Wednesday at 10-12
Supervision session: Wednesday at 13-17 (Jennifer attends 13-15, TAs attend 15-17)
Location: Please note that lecture sessions are held in room Alfons, Patricia building, Lindholmen and supervision sessions are held in room Mållgan and surrounding rooms, Patricia building, Lindholmen.
A preliminary schedule is available below in the course summary, topics and times may be changed during the course.
Additional information
Plagiarism or free-riding is not allowed; cases of such will lead to disciplinary action.
See Gothenburg University Rules regarding plagiarism: http://studentportal.gu.se/english/study-environment-and-rules/plagiarism-and-cheating/
Course summary:
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