Computer Science Department
User-centric Redeisgn of DePauw's Course Registration
Zachary Koch
This project involves the design, implementation, and testing of a new course registration system for DePauw University through the utilization of a user-centric paradigm. To achieve this goal, this project will make use of a number of modern web tools such as AJAX to implement a version of the course registration system that draws on a number of design principles and, in typical Web 2.0 style, acts and feels like a desktop application. To ensure optimal usability, three user tests will be performed throughout the course of the semester for the purpose of judging the effectiveness of the overall program as well as influencing its development through comments, suggestions, and interactions with the application. This project will also attempt to present a new paradigm of how students think about classes and availability by implementing a "tagging" model for courses. Instead of courses grouped simply by group or competency requirements, students will be able to sort by a number of different categories (e.g. A student could choose the tags, math-heavy analytical, and science to bring up a list of courses that at those specific criteria). The goal is that such a feature not only enhances a student's ability to and classes that are interesting, but also helps to speed up the course registration process. The end goal of this project is a functional course registration system that has evolved iteratively throughout the semester based of feedback from real users and a written justification of the system using design principles taught in the Human and Computer Interaction course.