Syllabus
Vitals
- Course Number and Title: CSS 478: Usability and User-Centered Design
- Description: Applies models of human information processing and principles of human-computer interaction to the design of interactive systems, with usability methods built into the system design lifecycle: user surveys, task analysis, heuristic evaluation, and experimental testing.
- Prerequisite: CSS 360 or B IMD 351.
- Meeting Time/Place: TBD (planned as two 2-hour sessions per week).
- Credit: 5 units. This translates into 10 hours of work per week outside of class.
- Notice: Contents of this Syllabus and the course web site can change at any time in the term.
- Class Culture:
- Excellence: I have high standards. You are expected to meet them.
- Initiative: Ask questions! Engage and wrestle with the material, your colleagues, and myself.
- Grace: Freedom to learn and grow. Extend courtesy to each other.
Instructor
- Name: Dr. Marcel Gavriliu
- Email: Canvas Messages (preferred) or mgav@uw.edu
- Office Location: TBD
- Office Hours: TBD; posted on Canvas in Week 1, and by appointment.
Texts & Supplies
Required text:
| Code | Text |
|---|---|
| ID | Rogers, Sharp & Preece, Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interaction, 6th ed. (Wiley, 2023) |
Course text (CT): chapters written for this course, on the course web site, shared with CSS 553 and CSS 555. Each carries worked examples, a hands-on task, and exercises with solutions.
Additional resources:
- MacKenzie, Human-Computer Interaction: An Empirical Research Perspective, 2nd ed. (Morgan Kaufmann, 2024): models and experiments
- Albert & Tullis, Measuring the User Experience, 3rd ed. (Morgan Kaufmann, 2022): usability metrics
- Krug, Rocket Surgery Made Easy (New Riders, 2010): running small tests
- Norman, The Design of Everyday Things, revised ed. (Basic Books, 2013)
- Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2
- Papers: listed in the schedule, PDFs on Canvas
Access links (UW Library or O'Reilly via UW sign-on) will be posted on Canvas. If you need a text in an alternative format, contact DRS Accessible Instructional Materials at printdrs@uw.edu; conversion can take 4–6 weeks, so request early.
Computer requirements:
- A laptop with a current browser and a mouse (the Fitts' law lab needs one)
- A prototyping tool (Figma with an education account, or HTML and CSS)
- A spreadsheet or Python for analysis
- Enable Canvas Notifications for this course
Topics and Learning Objectives
Topics: usability and user-centered design; human information processing; predictive models (Fitts' law, Hick–Hyman law, KLM); surveys and interviews; task analysis; personas and scenarios; usability requirements for engineers; design principles; prototyping; accessibility; heuristic evaluation and cognitive walkthrough; usability testing; controlled experiments and A/B tests; usability in agile delivery.
Learning Objectives: By the end of this course, students will:
- Explain human perception, attention, and memory, and apply Fitts' law, the Hick–Hyman law, and KLM to compare designs before building them.
- Plan and conduct user research with surveys and interviews, and analyze the results.
- Perform task analysis (HTA, GOMS) and translate findings into personas, scenarios, and measurable usability requirements an engineering team can design against.
- Apply design principles, patterns, and WCAG 2.2 to design and prototype an interface.
- Conduct heuristic evaluations and cognitive walkthroughs and rate problem severity.
- Plan, run, and analyze usability tests with task success, time on task, and SUS.
- Design and analyze controlled experiments and A/B tests, including threats to validity.
- Integrate usability work into an engineering team's lifecycle by delivering requirements and findings it can act on.
Course Structure
| Part | Weeks | Theme | Core Question |
|---|---|---|---|
| I | 1–2 | The Human | How do people perceive, remember, and act, and what can we predict? |
| II | 3–4 | Understanding Users | Who are the users, and what are they trying to do? |
| III | 5–6 | Designing | What should the interface be? |
| IV | 7–9 | Evaluating | Does it work for people, and how sure are we? |
| V | 10 | Delivering | How do findings change what engineers build? |
Session format (with some variation): lecture (~60 min), ICA or lab (~50 min).
The course system. Projects work on the UWB social network that CSS 553 (Software Architecture) graduate teams are evolving this quarter. Each team is paired with one CSS 553 team that owns a user-facing service. You are that team's UX partner: your research and findings become its requirements. See the schedule for handoff dates.
Requirements
Pre-Class Activities (PCA): Readings listed in the schedule are due before the session they are listed under. Sessions with assigned reading have a short Canvas reading quiz, due at the start of class.
In-Class Activities (ICA): Short exercises (fix a bad survey, an affinity diagram, a design critique, a pilot test). Submitted on Canvas by the end of class; graded on completion and good-faith effort.
Labs (individual): four, each due before the next week's first session.
| Lab | Week | Task |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | Fitts' law: run the trial page, fit a and b, predict a new target, compare with measurement |
| 2 | 4 | Task analysis: HTA and KLM of one social-network task in two existing apps; predict, then time yourself |
| 3 | 7 | Heuristic evaluation of a given interface; class aggregation shows how many problems each evaluator finds |
| 4 | 9 | Experiment analysis: the class Fitts data or an A/B dataset; confidence interval, test, effect size, the cost of peeking |
UCD Project: See UCD Project.
Midterm: In class, Week 5, 75 minutes, closed book, one one-sided handwritten reference sheet. Covers Weeks 1–4.
Final Exam: Finals week, 120 minutes, cumulative, closed book, one double-sided handwritten reference sheet. Includes a design to inspect, a task to analyze, and a dataset to interpret.
Grading
| Component | Weight | Description |
|---|---|---|
| UCD Project (P0–P4) | 40% | Team research, design, and evaluation for one service (200 pts) |
| Labs | 20% | Four individual labs |
| Midterm Exam | 15% | Weeks 1–4, 75 min |
| Final Exam | 15% | Cumulative, 120 min |
| ICAs and Reading Quizzes | 5% | Completion-based |
| Participation | 5% | Attendance, critiques, presentations |
| Letter | Min Decimal | Min 100-pt |
|---|---|---|
| A | 3.9 | 95 |
| A- | 3.5 | 90 |
| B+ | 3.2 | 86 |
| B | 2.9 | 82 |
| B- | 2.5 | 77 |
| C+ | 2.2 | 74 |
| C | 1.9 | 70 |
| C- | 1.5 | 65 |
| D+ | 1.2 | 61 |
| D | 0.9 | 57 |
| D- | 0.7 | 55 |
UW Bothell grading policies, including Incompletes: UW Bothell academic policies.
UCD Project
Teams of 4 take one service of the course system through a full user-centered design cycle, as UX partner to the CSS 553 team that builds it.
| Milestone | Deliverable | Due | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| P0 | Research plan: service and partner, research questions, survey draft, interview guide, recruitment and consent script | Sun Apr 11 | 15 |
| P1 | User research: survey (at least 30 responses), at least 3 interviews or contextual inquiries, affinity diagram, HTA of 3 key tasks with KLM estimates, 2–3 personas, 3–5 usability scenarios in six-part form (scenarios to the partner by Wed Apr 21) | Sun Apr 25 | 45 |
| P2 | Design: sketches to an interactive prototype of the key tasks, rationale tied to principles, cognitive walkthrough, WCAG 2.2 AA checklist (prototype to the partner by Wed May 5) | Sun May 9 | 40 |
| P3 | Evaluation: heuristic evaluation (3+ evaluators, aggregated, rated by severity) and a 5-user think-aloud test of the partner's running increment with task success, time, and SUS; findings ranked by severity with recommendations, delivered to the partner | Sun May 23 | 50 |
| P4 | Experiment and report: controlled comparison of two design variants (within-subjects study on prototypes, or an A/B test through the partner's feature flag) with hypothesis, analysis, effect size, and validity threats; final report and presentation | Presentations Week 10; report Sun Jun 6 | 50 |
| Total | 200 |
Milestones are due at 11:59 PM PT. Each milestone includes a short statement of who contributed what.
If the partner's increment is not ready by Sun May 16, P3 tests the deployed Spring 2026 version of the service, your own prototype, or a public UWB web service. Your grade never depends on your partner's work.
Working with people:
- Surveys, interviews, and tests are classroom exercises, not research: results are not published or generalized beyond the course.
- Participation is voluntary; read the consent script to every participant; participants are adults and may stop at any time.
- Collect no names or identifying data in surveys; recordings stay on UW storage and are deleted at the end of the quarter.
- No sensitive topics (health, finances, immigration status, and similar).
Make-Up and Late Policy
Deliverables are due at the stated date and time. Late work loses 10% per day; the maximum grade for any late submission is 90%.
Lowest score drops: 2 reading quizzes, 2 ICAs. Labs and milestones are not dropped.
Exams: no make-up exams except in documented exceptional situations.
Exceptions: Extensions are granted for documented health issues, bereavement, university business, and legal obligations. Request an extension before the deadline whenever possible; requests made after the fact require documentation of why advance notice was impossible.
Extra Credit
None.
AI Policy
AI tools are permitted for prototype code, analysis scripts, plots, and critiquing your own survey wording. AI never stands in for users.
- Not permitted: synthetic participants, AI-generated survey responses, interview transcripts, or test sessions presented as data. Fabricated data is academic misconduct.
- Permitted with a label: an LLM role-playing a persona to pilot an interview guide before real interviews. Pilot output is never data.
- Disclosure: each milestone lists the AI tools used, what for, and where they were wrong.
Collaboration & Academic Integrity
- Project: teams share work freely internally. Do not share data or write-ups between teams.
- Partner teams: CSS 553 artifacts (services, ADRs, increments) are inputs you cite.
- Labs, quizzes, and exams: individual work.
- Sources: cite any instrument, heuristic set, or dataset you use (SUS, Nielsen's heuristics, WCAG).
Suspected violations are referred under the UW Student Conduct Code, which describes your rights and the appeal process.
Access and Accommodations
Your experience in this class is important to me. It is the policy and practice of the University of Washington to create inclusive and accessible learning environments consistent with federal and state law. If you have already established accommodations with Disability Resources for Students (DRS), please activate your accommodations via myDRS so we can discuss how they will be implemented in this course.
If you have not yet established services through DRS, but have a temporary health condition or permanent disability that requires accommodations (conditions include but not limited to: mental health, attention-related, learning, vision, hearing, physical or health impacts), contact DRS directly to set up an Access Plan. disability.uw.edu
- UW Bothell DRS: uwbdrs@uw.edu · 425-352-5307
For Our Veterans: Welcome! We at UW understand that the transition into civilian life can be challenging for our veteran students and we have many resources for any who may want to reach out for guidance or assistance. At UW Bothell, this includes our Vet Corps Navigator through the WDVA and our Student Veterans Association (SVA); contact Veteran Services at 425-352-5307.
Religious Accommodations: Washington state law requires that UW develop a policy for accommodation of student absences or significant hardship due to reasons of faith or conscience, or for organized religious activities. The UW's policy, including more information about how to request an accommodation, is available at Religious Accommodations Policy. Accommodations must be requested within the first two weeks of this course using the Religious Accommodations Request form.
Urgent support: For any student encountering urgent and overwhelming difficulties, please contact the Suicide Prevention Hotline (988) or the UW Bothell CARE Team.
Class Cancellation Policy
If classes are cancelled or the mode of instruction is changed because of weather or other situations that impact the entire campus, please see the UW Bothell main page. You may also want to sign up for UW Alert. For instructor-related cancellations, an announcement will be posted on Canvas.