Design of User-Friendly Systems

Team Members

• Joel Clawson (Joel.Clawson@colorado.edu)
  
• Genevieve Hudak (Genevieve.Hudak@colorado.edu)
• Brock LaMeres (brock_lameres@agilent.com)
• Kitty Turner (kittyturner@qwest.net)

• Email the Team

Research Area:

• Design

Research Proposal:

• This research project will focus on design. Specifically, it will reference the book 'The Design of Everyday Things' by Donald A. Norman (author of 'Things that Make us Smart') and apply its philosophy to the design of User Interface's (UI's). In the reference book, Norman tries to emphasis user-friendly design in everything from physical objects to computer programs. We will present the concepts of this strategy and show real world examples of poor design practices. In addition, examples of poor designs in computer interfaces will also be presented.

Project Documents

• Project Proposal (2/23/04)
  
• Project Update (3/29/04)
  
• Final Report (4/19/04): Final_Report.doc
  

Project Presentation (in progress)

• Final: Design_All.ppt
  
  
• 1) Joel: Design_Joel_DET.ppt
  
• 2) Brock: Design_Brock_DET.ppt
  
• 3) Gen: Design_Gen.ppt
  
• 4) Kitty: Design_Kitty.ppt
  
• 5) Joel: Design_Joel_TMS.ppt
  

Schedule

• Due Date:
• 2/23/04 : Initial Project Proposal Due
• 3/01/04 : Read 1st chapter, decide which chapters you want to present
• 3/08/04 : Assign owners of chapters for presentation
• 3/15/04 : Continue Reading
• 3/22/04 : Continue Reading
• 3/29/04 : Continue Reading
• 4/05/04 : Reading Complete, Begin putting together presentation
• 4/12/04 : Work on Presentation, Begin merging presentation
• 4/19/04 : Presentation in Class

Distribution of Tasks

• Read Book "Design of Everyday Things" by Norman
  
• Read/Browse Book "Things that Make us Smart", by Norman
  

• Introduction
  
• Chapter 1 : Pyschopathology of Everyday Things
  
• Highlights of "Things that Make us Smart" Book
  
• Conlusion
  

• Chapter 2 : Psychology of Everyday Actions
  
• Chapter 3 : Knowledge in the Head and in the World
  

• Chapter 4 : Knowing What to Do
  
• Chapter 5 : To Err Is Human
  

• Chapter 6 : The Design Challenge
  
• Chapter 7 : User-Centered Design
  

Meeting Notes

• Location: Online
• We have formed a team and agreed on the book "Design of Everyday Things" for our project.

• Location: Before DLC Class, ITTL, 4:45pm
• We all now have the book and are starting to read.

• Location: Bobas Tea place, Folsom and Canyon, 11:00am
• We agreed individuals owners of the chapters for the presentations. We are continuing to read.

• Location: Before DLC Class, ITTL, 4:30pm
• We are about 50% through the reading. The powerpoint slides have been posted to the swiki. These are works in progress with each team member updating his/her own slide file. We will merge the files when we are closer to 4/19/04.

• Location: Before DLC Class, ITTL, 4:30pm
• Now about 80% done with reading. About 20% done with initial powerpoint slides.

• Location: Before DLC Class, ITTL, 4:30pm
• The team has completed the reading and is now working on the slides. We are going to merge the slides on Wednesday and review the flow of the presentation at our Wednesday meeting. We will also meet on Sunday to go over presentation.

• Location: Before DLC Class, ITTL, 4:30pm
• Next Meeting...

• Location: Bobas Tea place (Now called Cafe Bravo), Folsom and Canyon, 1:00pm
• Next Meeting...