SWEN303 (2024) - User Experience Engineering

Prescription

This course addresses the engineering of user experiences (UX). It presents principles and guidelines for design and covers a range of design and engineering processes. It presents techniques for user testing of applications, digital systems, and physical devices.

Course learning objectives

Students who pass this course should be able to:

1. Understand principles of usability engineering.
2. Develop user interfaces for both desktop and mobile environments.
3. Design a user interface following accepted principles and guidelines and in the context of wider software engineering processes.
4. Create user models that describe who a user experience is being designed for, and what those users want and need.
5. Evaluate the user experience of a prototype interface, interpret the results to improve the design and critically reflect on their own work.

Course content

We’ve designed this course for in-person study, and to get the most of out it we strongly recommend you attend lectures on campus. Most assessment items, as well as tutorials/seminars/labs/workshops will only be available in person. Any exceptions for in-person attendance for assessment will be looked at on a case-by-case basis in exceptional circumstances, e.g., through disability services or by approval by the course coordinator.
 
If you started your programme of study remotely and can only study remotely, please contact the School so we can help and confirm what courses are available.
 
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This course will cover the design and evaluation of user experience (UX), with a focus on interfaces for desktop, mobile, and web applications.

Withdrawal from Course

Withdrawal dates and process:
https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/students/study/course-additions-withdrawals

Lecturers

Teaching Format

This course will be offered in-person.  It will also be possible to take the course entirely online for those who cannot attend on campus due to living out of Wellington or who have other approved reasons, with all the components provided in-person also made available online.
 
During the trimester there will be two lectures per week. There are no regular helpdesk or tutorial for this course, however tutorials and drop-in helpdesks will be scheduled based on student need.

Dates (trimester, teaching & break dates)

• Teaching: 26 February 2024 - 31 May 2024
• Break: 01 April 2024 - 14 April 2024
• Study period: 03 June 2024 - 06 June 2024
• Exam period: 07 June 2024 - 22 June 2024

Set Texts and Recommended Readings

Required

There is no set text for SWEN 303.

Recommended

Recommended Reading are available via the Talis system: https://rl.talis.com/3/victoria/lists/DC565FA0-8C29-ACFE-FE13-5F435753AE5F.html

Mandatory Course Requirements

In addition to achieving an overall pass mark of at least 50%, students must:

• Contribute in good faith to the final group project, as evidenced by regular interaction with the whole project group (documented in project logs), and keeping the commitments agreed by the team.

If you believe that exceptional circumstances may prevent you from meeting the mandatory course requirements, contact the Course Coordinator for advice as soon as possible.

Assessment

This course will be assessed via two assignments and one project.

Assessment Item	Due Date or Test Date	CLO(s)	Percentage
Assignment 1 (25 hours)	End of Week 4	CLO: 1,3,4	25%
Assignment 2 (25 hours)	End of Week 6	CLO: 1,2,4	25%
Group Project Part 1 (25 hours)	End of Week 11	CLO: 1,2,3,4	25%
Group Project Part 2 (25 hours)	Assessment Period	CLO: 1,2,3,4,5	25%

Penalties

Work submitted late (after slip days, without an extension) will have a grade cap reduced by 10% per day.

Extensions

Students have three slip days across the course that will be granted automatically. 
 
Work submitted after slip days without an extension will be penalised 10% per day by a sinking cap on the maximum grade. e.g after 2 days the maximum is a A- but a C assignment will still get a C grade.
 
Extensions may be granted by the course coordinator.

Submission & Return

All work is submitted through the ECS submission system, accessible through the course web pages. Marks and comments will be returned through the ECS marking system, also available through the course web pages.
 
Student submitted work may be used during the formal Engineering NZ re-accreditation visit to VUW scheduled for 2024, as part of the evaluation process for the programme.

Marking Criteria

Marking criteria will vary for each assignment/project and will form part of the assignment/project descriptions.

Group Work

The group project will be undertaken in groups of 4-6 students.
10% out of the 25% for part 1 of the group project will be based on a group grade.
5% out of the 25% for part 2 of the group project will be based on a group grade. This will be equivalent to 15% of your overall course grade.

Peer Assessment

There is no peer assessment in this course.

Workload

In order to maintain satisfactory progress in SWEN 303, you should plan to spend an average of 10 hours per week on this paper, and 150 hours over the entire course. A plausible and approximate breakdown for these hours would be:

Lectures and Readings: 50 hours

• Assignments 1 & 2: 25 hours each
• Group Project: 50 hours

Teaching Plan

The lecture schedule is posted on the Nuku / Canvas page.

Communication of Additional Information

Addtional information will be communicated via the course's website on Nuku/Canvas. The ECS course wiki will be used for all assessment related issues. All other documentation and materials will be on Nuku/Canvas.

Links to General Course Information

• Academic Integrity and Plagiarism: https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/students/study/exams/academic-integrity
• Academic Progress: https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/students/study/progress/academic-progess (including restrictions and non-engagement)
• Dates and deadlines: https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/students/study/dates
• Grades: https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/students/study/progress/grades
• Special passes: Refer to the Assessment Handbook, at https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/documents/policy/staff-policy/assessment-handbook.pdf
• Statutes and policies, e.g. Student Conduct Statute: https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/about/governance/strategy
• Student support: https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/students/support
• Students with disabilities: https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/st_services/disability/
• Student Charter: https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/learning-teaching/learning-partnerships/student-charter
• Student Feedback on University courses may be found at: http://www.cad.vuw.ac.nz/feedback/feedback_display.php
• Terms and Conditions: https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/study/apply-enrol/terms-conditions/student-contract
• Turnitin: http://www.cad.vuw.ac.nz/wiki/index.php/Turnitin
• University structure: https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/about/governance/structure
• The Use of Te Reo Māori for Assessment Policy:
  Victoria University values te reo Māori. Students who wish to submit any of their assessments in te reo Māori must refer to The Use of Te Reo Māori for Assessment Policy
  He mea nui te reo Māori ki te Whare Wānanga o te Ūpoko o te Ika. Ki te pīrangi koe ki te tuhituhi i ō aro matawai i roto i te reo Māori, tēnā me mātua whakapā atu ki te kaupapa here, The Use of Te Reo Māori for Assessment Policy
• VUWSA: http://www.vuwsa.org.nz

Offering CRN: 17185

Points: 15
Prerequisites: COMP 261 or SWEN 221
Restrictions: INFO 307
Duration: 26 February 2024 - 23 June 2024
Starts: Trimester 1
Campus: Kelburn