FMX 311 UX/UI User Experience & User Interaction
SP 24 | SECTION 1
T/R 10:00 – 11:50AM
CCB 134
Course Description
FMX 311 UI/UX is a studio/production course that studies the nature of interactive media development from the perspective of User Experience (UX) and User Interface and Interaction (UI) development, analyzing the differences and applications of such concepts. The class is divided into two main areas: the first part explores the nature of UI/UX using widely available production and prototyping tools, and the second part studies the nature of Interactivity through the creation of engaging, communicative, and efficient interfaces, fulfilling the Interaction Cycle requirements. Laboratory fee required.
Course Objectives
1) Define the nature of Interactivity
2) Understand the Interaction Cycle: Motivation, Action, Reaction, Satisfaction
3) Learn interaction tools for professional development
4) Learn pre-production tools for pre-visualization
5) Understand the differences between User Experience Vs. User Interaction
6) Define communication elements between developer and user
7) Understand the importance of visual development, including color palettes and fonts
8) Define navigation structures
9) Comprehend the importance of multimedia compression
10) Define the nature of Hypermedia
11) Define the notions of Prototyping for Interactive Media
Process and Strategy
The goal of this class is to use available production tools to understand interactive production processes in professional settings.
It is ideal for you to own the Adobe Creative Cloud • in Particular Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, XD, InDesign, Premiere and After Effects • in case you are a commuter or you prefer working at home.
All your assignments will be presented in public during our critiques: they should be uploaded to Canvas / Dropbox / student server BEFORE class starts, otherwise I will remove points off of the project grade. These will be backed up in the server space provided by your professor.
Make sure you check your UT webmail account regularly. We will use Canvas / Outlook permanently to post the grades and communicate.
Short readings will be distributed throughout the semester. Most of the information will be provided by the professor or will be found freely online. Critiques will frequently be initiated from various topics covered in the readings. In order to participate effectively you will need to have read the required texts and be able to articulate your responses to them within the context of class discussion and critique.
Use your own portable hard-drives, and JumpDrives such as Sandisk or others in case you have any, to store your work. Do not rely on the CASS LAb student server, it is not secure and you might lose your data. the most secure storage is your own remote web server. It is your responsibility to have a full complete backup of your work.
The computer labs are refrigerated… BRING a sweater or a jacket.
You MUST wash your hands with warm water and soap BEFORE and AFTER using any public computer!
Bring TONS of hand sanitizer and disinfecting wipes to make sure you do not catch any germs from the public computers.
If you are sick: YOU MUST WEAR A MASK in class to avoid infecting other students in a closed poorly ventilated lab, and you must use cleaning wipes and hand sanitizer constantly.
We care about the health and integrity of everyone participating in the class
Grading
There will be several projects throughout the course, including papers, assignments, quizzes and others. Each one of them will be a part of the final 80% of the grade. If necessary I will do some pop quizzes, depending on the students’ participation and motivation, and depending on how certain classes work, I might add an extra work not listed in the syllabus. The final project will count for 20% of the final grade.
The grades posted on Workday may not reflect the final grade on Canvas
| 01 PAIN POINT | 7% |
| 02 INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE | 8% |
| 03 PROTOTYPING | 10% |
| 04 UX DESIGN | 15% |
| 05 INTERACTIVE TYPOGRAPHY | 10% |
| 06 CSS3 ANIMATION | 15% |
| 07 INTERACTIVE RESUME | 15% |
| 08 FINAL | 20% |
ESSENTIAL READINGS
“Don’t Make Me Think: A Common-Sense Approach to Web Usability”
ISBN: 0321965515
https://www.amazon.com/Dont-Make-Think-Revisited-Usability/dp/0321965515
“The Design of Everyday Things” Donald A. Norman
ISBN: 9780262525671
https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/design-everyday-things-revised-and-expanded-edition
“The Design of Future Things” Donald A. Norman
ISBN: 0465002285
https://amazon.com/Design-Future-Things-Don-Norman/dp/0465002285
“Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art” Scott McCloud
ISBN: 9780060976255
https://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Comics-Invisible-Scott-McCloud/dp/006097625X
Resources
• https://developer.mozilla.org
• JAVASCRIPT: blog.udemy.com/javascript-tutorial-learn-the-basics
- Opera Web Standards Curriculum covers the basics of web standards-based design in HTML and CSS.
- Google’s HTML, CSS, and Javascript from the Ground Up presents the basics of web development with video tutorials presented by Google’s expert web developers.
- SitePoint is a pretty good reference for HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Their documentation always mentions feature support across different browsers, and describes known browser bugs.
- The W3C, itself, has a wiki-based general Learn page as well as an HTML element reference.
- The MDN (Mozilla’s Developer Network) takes over at intermediate CSS and covers JavaScript better than anyone.
• www.w3schools.com -> CSS3 / HTML 5 / Javascript / jQuery / DOM + REF
• HTML5 and CSS3, 8th Edition, Elizabeth Castro, PeachPit // http://www.elizabethcastro.com/ ( OPTIONAL )
FTP
Forklift | FUGU free | Filezilla
TEXT EDITOR
Visual Studio Code (free)
Final Exam Schedule
FALL
http://www.ut.edu/schedule/fallfinalexam/
SPRING
http://www.ut.edu/schedule/springfinalexam/
Possible last-minute changes
Although unlikely, it is possible that last-minute changes might be made to the dates for all assignments or class meetings, excepting only the final exam. In this unlikely event, I’ll make all possible efforts to inform students with sufficient lead-time.
I reserve the right to modify this syllabus for any reason at any time.