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ECS 163 INFORMATION INTERFACES (4) III

Lecture: 3 hours

Discussion: 1 hour

Prerequisites: Course 60; 175 recommended

Grading: Letter; homework (20%), projects (50%), final (30%)

Catalog Description:
Art and science of information visualization and interfaces for information systems. Design principles of human-computer interaction. Visual display, navigation of nonspatial and higher dimensional data. Implementations, performance issues, tradeoffs, and evaluation of interactive information systems.

Expanded Course Description:

  1. Introduction
    1. Taxonomies
    2. Principles of Human-Computer Interaction
    3. Multidimensional and Multivariate Data
    4. Visual Interpretation of Quantitative Data
    5. The Process of Visualization
  2. Perception
    1. Space, Depth
    2. Color, Texture
    3. Pattern, Shape and Motion
  3. Visual Navigation Techniques
    1. Direct Manipulation
    2. Multiple Views
    3. Lens and Distortion
    4. Focus+Context
    5. Data Flow
  4. Visual Interface Design
    1. Cognition, Mental Models, Memory, and Attention
    2. Styles and Layout
    3. User-Centered Designs and Tasking Analysis
    4. Evaluation and Usability
  5. Graph Visualization
    1. Graph Drawing Algorithms
    2. Networks and Trees
    3. Semantic Graphs
    4. 3D Visualization
  6. Web Data, Text and Document Visualization
    1. Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery
    2. Visualization
    3. Web-based Interfaces for Information Retrieval

Textbook:
Krug, Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach To Web Usability, New Riders Press, 2000
Ware, Information Visualization: Perception For Design, Morgan Kaufman, 2000

Computer Usage:
Students will work individually or in small groups on the design and implementation of user interfaces and information visualization techniques based upon the principles presented in the classroom. These projects are designed to reinforce and complement the lecture material. The students will design, implement and test their solutions mainly in a PC environment.

Engineering Design Statement:
The projects involve the design, implementation, and evaluation of programs that focus on various concepts in visual-based, human-computer interaction. The facilities used for these programming projects resemble those that would be found in industry to the extent possible, given the academic constraints. The project assignments define performance specifications and constraints, and outline a general approach to the problem. However, design and mplementation details are left to the students. Lectures discuss general concepts of information visualization and visual interfaces and design choices available to programmers, in terms of the model used, the design of the algorithms to implement the model, the appropriate tools to generate for particular interface needs, and performance issues and tradeoffs. Discussion sections fill in the details of the different models used by the student and describe system tools that can be used with the projects. Projects are graded based on design, performance, and documentation. Examination questions are based on design methods discussed in lecture and from the projects.

ABET Category Content:
Engineering Science: 2 units
Engineering Design: 2 units

Goals:
Students will:

Student Outcomes:

Instructor: K. Ma, N. Amenta

Prepared By: K. Ma (October 2006)

Overlap Statement:

This course does not have a significant overlap with any other course.

2/07

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