Welcome to the Interface Design class!

Interactive computing devices increasingly mediate information seeking activities. Even if a library patron deals directly with a librarian, the librarian will most certainly use a computing device to query digital resources. Directly or not, human information seeking is supported by and relies on the computing technology. I am sure you are well aware of this trend. A crucial element of computing devices that mediate information tasks is user interface (UI). All interactions take place through the UI. No matter what great content is in a digital library, no matter how efficient search algorithms are, it is the quality of user interface that determines user experience. Appropriate user interface can improve user's success in finding information and make the experience an enjoyable one. But, what is an "appropriate" UI? How does one know whether a user interface is "good" or "bad?" How does one design a "good" user interface? These are some of the questions that we will examine in this course. We will cover the concepts and methods for designing and evaluating user interfaces for interactive information systems with a focus on digital libraries.

I hope that you will learn quite a bit and that you will enjoy the class!



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