6.813/6.831 — User Interface Design & Implementation6.813/6.831: User Interface Design & Implementation
Spring 2018

Old Announcements

Mon Feb 12: Web development Labs, NB, Safety reading

A few things:

  • We are trying to estimate attendance for the Web Development labs to make sure the room we booked is of suitable size. If you’re coming, please fill in the signup form, it’s only 3 quick questions. Hope to see you there!
  • For those that have already done the Safety reading for Wednesday, we added two new sections on User Control and Undo
  • The issues with NB should have been resolved by now. The course requirements include contributing one comment on each lecture’s reading assignment, due before 10pm the night before the lecture is given. You may comment in a new thread or in reply to another a comment.  Your comment should be substantive, going beyond a paraphrase of the text or generic “this is interesting” remark. Plausible contributions can include:
    • asking for clarification on a tricky point (specific clarification, not just “please explain better”)
    • pointing out a flaw or limitation or exception in an argument made
    • observing or asking about a particular in-practice application or violation of the ideas being discussed
    • querying apparent contradictions between different points made in the reading
    • giving a meaningful response to a previous comment
    • suggesting a better way of explaining something
    • providing additional relevant information on a point made by the reading or another commenter

You can also use emoticons to tag sections of the text that you find particularly interesting, confusing, etc.

See you today in class!

Thu Feb 8: Preparation for this Friday and PS1 released

This Friday we will have an all-class meeting at 1pm in 34-101, just like today. We’ll talk about learnability, and you’ll need to prepare by doing reading 2 and answering its reading questions. Reading questions should be submitted by 10pm the night before to get participation credit. There will be a nanoquiz at the start of Friday’s class.

Problem Set 1 (UI Hall of Fame and Shame) is also posted, and is due next Wednesday.

Undergrads and masters students (in 6.813U and 6.831M) will have no studio this Friday. Studios for those versions of the course will start once we’ve formed project groups.

PhD students (in 6.831D) do have a studio meeting this Friday, 2-3pm (right after class) in 36-155. More information about what to prepare for the 6.831D studio has already been emailed directly to the people who signed up for 6.831D on the signup form.

Mon Jan 29: Welcome

You are getting this message because you preregistered for 6.813/6.831 User Interface Design and Implementation for the spring semester. We’re looking forward to a fun class this semester, but there are a few things you need to know.

  1. Attendance is required at the first lecture on Wed Feb 7 (1-2 pm in 34-101). The course is oversubscribed, so if you’re not there, you won’t be able to take the course.
  2. Please sign up immediately on the course sign up form at https://goo.gl/forms/fxlLm3qHVYa7oCZ13 so we can reserve recitation rooms. For schedule information you do not have, provide your best guess
  3. The class meets MWF1. For about half the Fridays, we’ll skip the all-class meeting at 1 and break up into studio sections instead (at 1, 2, 3, or 4, depend on which section your group is in). But you should make sure your schedule has F1 free for the weeks when we do meet as a full class on Friday.
  4. Laptops will be required for lectures – including the first. If you don’t have a functioning laptop, IS&T has a loaner program (http://ist.mit.edu/services/hardware/lcp), but you should act now to get one.
  5. The course has a prerequisite: 6.031 or equivalent software engineering experience. In particular, we expect you to have all of the following: substantial programming experience in Java, C#, C++, or a similar language (i.e. not just Python or Javascript); experience building at least one graphical user interface experience working in a small software development team using version control
  6. Note that programming experience limited to HTML, Javascript, or Python does NOT satisfy the prerequisite for this course, and you will not be able to enroll or pass the course. When you fill out the signup form, you will have to explain how you satisfy the prerequisite. That’s it for now. See you in February!

— David Karger, Lea Verou, and Amy Zhang