Date: 2025-04-23
Spring 2025
Prof: Lee Tusman
Time: Wednesdays 3pm - 6:40pm
Place: Natural Sciences 1013
Instructor: Lee Tusman
Pronounts: he/him
Contact: Lee.Tusman@purchase.edu
Office Hours: Mondays 12:00pm - 2:00pm
Introduces concepts and skills used in analyzing and designing interfaces for computer applications. As students study techniques and “rules of thumb,” they discover that the design and implementation of each interface is a unique challenge, which requires creativity and consideration of technical, aesthetic, and psychological factors.
This course is a broad overview of creating user interfaces (abbreviated: UIs), approaching the subject from a variety of perspectives. We will both study its history as well as work on practical programming exercises. We will cover user interfaces in general and concentrate on a progression of subjects: 1. Text User Interfaces 2. Graphical User Interfaces 3. Voice User Interfaces 4. Speculative User Interfaces. We will also study issues of accessibility.
Learning will come from a range of sources and backgrounds including academic articles, blog posts, code, podcasts, and videos. We will take an academic and computer science approach to interface design, but we will also look at best practices from today's applications, web sites, conversational UIs and other areas of interface design.
The Purchase College academic integrity policy, purchase.edu/live/blurbs/840-academic-and-professional-integrity, explicitly forbids cheating, plagiarism, and other forms of academic dishonesty. Plagiarism is the appropriation or imitation of the language, ideas, and/or thoughts of another person and the representation of them as one’s own original work. Students are responsible for familiarizing themselves with the definition of plagiarism and the acceptable methods of attribution.
Violation of any of the above may lead to formal disciplinary action and the following sanctions: - Minimum Sanction: Failing grade on the assignment or examination. Maximum Sanction: Expulsion - Recommended Sanction (First Offense): Failing grade for the course - Recommended Sanction (Second Offense): Expulsion
Students who have any questions or doubts about whether any activity is academically permissible should check with the instructor.
Plagiarism and cheating are taken seriously. You will be held accountable for Purchase’s Student Code of Conduct for Academic Integrity.
I support collaborative learning with some important caveats.
Coding can be difficult, and struggling with the material is part of the learning process. Students are allowed to collaborate to learn from each other. Do not collaborate in order to simply find out a solution to a project. Each participant should contribute approximately equally, and what you turn in should be your own. Copying a solution from another student, even if you change a few minor things such as variable names, is not a collaboration. You may help someone learn something, but you can not tell them what to code. If you have questions about collaboration or academic integrity, get in touch with me via email, talk with me before or after class, or come to office hours.
All students at Purchase College can take advantage of our tutoring services in the Learning Center and the Einstein Corner. This semester these will be held online via Zoom. These are free, 45-minute, peer-to-peer tutoring sessions in a variety of subjects and in writing across the disciplines. I encourage you to take advantage of this service to help you excel in this class, as well as your other courses. Please visit the Learning Center and Einstein Corner websites for more information. Einstein Corner has tutors for CS1 classes.
All work is to be submitted on time by 11:59pm on the day before our class. I ask for work to be turned in before class so I have time to review it so I know how you are doing. For each day late, your grade will drop a part letter grade.
It is my goal that this class be an accessible and welcoming experience for all students, including those with disabilities. You are welcome to talk to me at any point in the semester about course design concerns, but it is always best if we can talk as soon as possible about the need for any modifications. The Office of Disability Resources collaborates directly with students who identify documented disabilities to create accommodation plans, including testing accommodations, in order for students to access course content and validly demonstrate learning. For those students who may require accommodations, please call or email the Office of Disability Resources, (914) 251-6035, odr@purchase.edu.
If needed, this syllabus and the course outline may be revised to better suit the class. Students are responbile for keeping up with any changes distributed via email or in class. The most up to date syllabus will always be linked from Moodle.
To ensure that each of us has a healthy and safe learning experience, all students are required to remain informed and follow Purchase College Policy and/or any departmental, local, state, or federal laws, rules, or regulations for attending classes on campus and in a remote learning environment.
Within courses that involve in-person contact, all students, faculty members, staff, and visitors are required to adhere to the expectations outlined on the College’s COVID-19 website. Failure to comply with requirements (e.g. wearing masks, maintaining social distancing where applicable) will result in the request to leave the classroom for that in-person class session. Students may also be referred to the Office of Community Standards.
Do not enter campus buildings if you test positive for or are experiencing any symptoms of COVID-19. Contact your faculty and Health Services if you need to miss class because of COVID-19 symptoms or a positive COVID-19 test result. The conservatory/school will address on a case by case basis student absences due to COVID-19, while awaiting test results, or during quarantine.
Please don’t miss our class. We only have one of these a week!
Learning programming is a cumulative effort. More than most other courses each of our classes will build on what you have learned in previous classes. Missing class sets you back in this process. It is important that you attend every class.
Here’s my policy: Three absences will lower your grade by one letter. (i.e. an A will became a B). With each additional unexcused absences, the grade will drop an additional unit for each absence. I will take attendance at the beginning of class, often with a brief check-in quiz. If you miss the quiz or are more than 15 minutes late, that is the equivalence of an absence. If there is an emergency or otherwise extenuating circumstance that prevents you from attending class, please email me.
We will be covering critical concepts and working on code and projects in-class and you are responsible for reviewing our class site and reaching out to your peers outside of class time to catch up on what you have missed.
Please see my separate handout on expectations for virtual participation.
We are all learners and educators. Your experience and participation is valid and necessary. I am not the sole source of information. You are responsible for and encouraged to be in charge of your own education. Leap forth into areas of interest. Teach with and learn from others.
Please hold me accountable and point out areas that need to be improved.
–with acknowldegement and thanks, adapted from Everest Pipkin
It is my intent to lead a course that serves students from diverse backgrounds and perspectives, and that our varied life experiences may enter the classroom as a resource, strength and benefit. I will address you by your name and pronouns and make arrangements to address disabilities or religious needs.
Free exchange of ideas and critique is encouraged and expected but I will not tolerate harassment, including threats of violence, deliberate intimidation, unwelcome sexual attention, and offensive comments related to gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, language, neuro-type, size, ability, class, religion, culture, subculture, political opinion, age, skill level, occupation, or background. During class discussion and critique we aim to speak and to listen, be mindful and generous in our interactions, and make everyone feel heard.
Participation includes asking or answering questions in class, participating in office hours or co-teaching others, assisting in group work and conversations, participating in online forum, and in other ways.
week 1 - jan 18 - Intro
week 2 - jan 25 - TUI, bad interface design
week 3 - feb 1 - Interface theory,
week 4 - feb 8 - Iterative design, fonts, flexbox, paper prototyping
week 5
week 6
week 7
week 8
week 9
week 10 - off
week 11
week 12
week 13
week 14
week 15
final