Interface Design

University of Sydney

A foundation unit (IDEA9105) in the Masters of Interaction Design and Electronic Art.
Use Blackboard to source course content,
Wordpress for online discussion,
or contact Nikash.

Week 01: Introduction to User Interfaces
Lecture: The Nature and Evolution of UI
The Design Brief
Workshop: Rapid ideation
Activity: A "Champion" UI
Week 02: The eye and mind
Lecture: Visual Perception
Demonstration: Patterns in Interface Design
Workshop: User Research questions
→ BG & User
Research Report 15%
Week 03: Understanding users
Lecture: User Behaviour
Workshop: Persona Development
Activity: Moodboard Design
Week 04: no class
AVCC break week
Voluntary Lecture: Branding
Voluntary Tutorial: Logo Design in Illustrator
Week 05: Navigability and flow
→ Pitch presentations 5%
Lecture: Structure and Information Architecture
Activity: Card-sorting
Demonstration: Site-map Design
Week 06: Visual Communication
Lecture: History and Theory of Graphic Design
Tutorial: Mockups in PhotoShop
Week 07: Visual ambiguity
Lecture: Design Themes
Discussion: Exemplars
Demonstration: Improv alignment
→ Static Prototypes 30%
Week 08: Interaction as a new dimension
Lecture: Heuristics and Prototyping
Activity: Peer evaluation
Tutorial: Translate mock-ups into interactive prototypes
Week 09: A meaningful web
Lecture: Mark-up and the Semantic Web
Tutorial: Semantic profile creation in raw HTML
Week 10: Presentation abstraction
Lecture: Styling extensibly
Tutorial: Profile skinning in CSS
Week 11: The web is alive and moving
Lecture: Scripting interaction
Tutorial: Image gallery in JS
Week 12: Project work
Implementation consultation
Guest critique: David MEIER
→ Interactive Prototypes 20%
Week 13: Conclusions
→ Final presentations 5%
Panel members:
Chris ANDERSON, Boomworks
Lian LOKE, Design Lab, USYD
Marcus ORSINI, Boomworks
Marvin CHUENG, Bienalto