Lectures and courses (summer semester 2008)
Visual User Interfaces
Jun.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Raimund Dachselt
courses every Monday, 15:00-17:00 hrs (starting on April 14)every Thursday 09:00-11:00 hrs (starting on April 3)
room G29-335
4 semester hours/week, ECTS credits: 6
Lecture in EnglishThe lecture with accompanying courses is intended as supplementation and builds up on basic HCI lectures, like e.g. "Interactive Systems". Concepts and techniques of visualization-related modern user interfaces are presented, which are partly based on classic information visualization metaphors. Visualization solutions and interaction techniques for ubiquitous computer environments (mobile UIs, mixed reality UIs, multi-display and tabletop UIs etc.) are central topics of this module.
Learning objectives and competences
- Understanding and basic knowledge in the field of interactive information visualizations
- Understanding for challenges and problems of novel and ubiquitous user interfaces
- Ability to choose appropriate visualization and interaction techniques depending on tasks and users
- Ability to design visual user interfaces as a creative and engineering process
- Ability to systematically evaluate user interfaces
- Ability to carry out a semester spanning project within the courses, in which methods of user interface engineering are trained from analysis to evaluation
Contents
The lecture covers the following topics: Basics of WIMP-UIs, historical development, basic design principles, usability guidelines; Basic tasks of user interface engineering; Spectrum of interactive information visualization techniques for structure, hierarchy, and time visualizations; Zoomable user interfaces, overview & detail user interfaces as well as detail and context techniques; As selected key issue the field of augmented & mixed reality 3DUIs. The lecture chapters in detail:
- Chapter 1: Introduction, Foundation, History
- Chapter 2: On UI Design & Engineering Processes
- Chapter 3: Structure Visualizations: On Trees, Stacks & Co.
- Chapter 4: Zoomable User Interfaces
- Chapter 5: Distortion-oriented Techniques, Focus + Context
- Chapter 6: Visualization of Time
- Chapter 7: Three-dimensional User Interfaces
- Additional lecture: Paper - Bridging the real & digital world
Examination
A written examination will be carried out at the end of the semester. Besides the grade for the written exam, the assessed courses are also proportionately included in the overall grade of this module. Thus, the participation at the courses (and >= 50% of the assignments) is a condition for the successful completion of this module. This also applies to students requesting a "Schein". Those people, please register with the ISG office (e-mail is sufficient).
The exam takes place at July 23, 10:30 am in building 26, lecture hall 1. Only pen and writing gadgets are allowed (no note pads or electronic devices). Paper with the exam questions and sufficient room for your answers will be provided. Questions are in English, however, you can answer either in English or German (even mixed). A catalogue of sample questions and the lecture and course material shall help you in preparing the examination.
Literature
The slides of the individual lectures can be downloaded here (restricted access). Further literature hints are given during the lecture and at the end of each slide set.
Courses
Besides a smaller task to deepen the learning material, the courses comprise a digital paper & pen assignment and a longer programming project with regard to visual user interfaces. It spans several weeks and shall be carried out in groups of 3-5 students. In doing so, the User Interface Engineering Process shall be applied starting from brainstorming until the final presentation of prototypes. Download assignments sheets here (restricted access).
Awards
At the end of May the following students received awards for their best presentations of assignment 2 "Paper: bridging the real & digital world":
- 1. Price "Anoto enabled password" by Zhi Guo and Lei Hu
- 2. Price: "Anoto enabled University" Christian Dürre, Martin Schemmer and Norman Siemer
- 3. Price: "Anoto TV Guide" by Juliane Neumann and Sophie Stellmach
- 3. Price: "CIRC - A Visual Circuit Editor" by Jens Henneberg, Stefanie Klum and Sebastian Thurm
On July 7, 2008 the best third assignment on developing novel User Interfaces was selected:
- 1. Price: "Item Browser using a mobile phone gesture interface" by Steven Birr, Markus Dreier, Evgeni Petrov and Georgi Petrov
- 2. Price: "MERLIX" by Gregor Aisch, Robert Koppsieker, Juliane Neumann and Sophie Stellmach
- 3. Price: "Paper-based Restaurant Orders" by Ricardo Langner, Sebastian Schmidt and Hannes Witt