Brian Smith

3 Assignments over the whole semester 5 Project checkpoints that are iterative Checkpoints culminate in a final presentation & deliverable of some piece of technology solving a design problem. (Some examples are "Yelp for Columbia Water Fountains", "Collaborative Study Meetup App", etc.) Small Pre-class quizzes (very easy and 1 before each class) Attendance polls every class for participation grade No Exams (but this means you have to work hard on your project)

Reading other reviews of this class left me surprised, though I believe that Professor Smith took efforts to address student feedback in order to improve class. That being said, if you are taking this class because you have heard it is easy, Professor Smith is kind Professor, or it just hits a requirement, FIND ANOTHER CLASS. This class is at its best when you actually care about building something for real User Experiences. This also requires a significant effort to engage with the users you state you will serve in your project. Professor Smith IS kind and IS a great Professor who clearly cares about what he teaches. If you just want to have an easy coast class, please spare the seat for someone who actually wants to learn this material. There is so much you can learn from this class and a lot you can actually accomplish in the semester if you figure out something you have passionate for and want to design around. You will learn about the psychology around User-Centered Design as well as ways this is actually implemented in industry, while also learning about topics like accessibility, the design cycle, and the absolute importance of grounding your design work in human experience. Of course you will do some front-end work in React and learn about CSS but this is really all in service of learning what it means to design good human experiences with technology.

5 long-winded individual HW; 5 group project checkpoints; 4 mandatory TA meetings for the project; A bunch of pre-class quizzes, which showed up at random times, so you had to constantly check to avoid missing them. I’ve never had a class where a quiz was posted after midnight, asking for slides for a same-day debate.

I enrolled in this class based on the positive reviews I saw, but it turned out to be one of the worst decisions I've made. While the overall workload isn't significantly heavier than other CS classes, the disorganization and the behavior of the TAs stripped away my sanity. To be fair, the professor’s passion for the subject is undeniable, but the class itself feels like a chaotic experiment. It often seems like we’re being used as part of an iterative trial-and-error process. Unfortunately, the TAs only make things worse. They are unhelpful, disrespectful to students, and difficult to work with(at least for the ones I had contact with). Scheduling mandatory group meetings is a challenge, questions on Ed rarely get answered, and the grading process—despite having a rubric—feels subjective and unclear. The TA assigned to my group, in particular, made the experience far worse(one is the head TA). They seemed entitled, focused more on their own preferences than on supporting students. For instance, we were required to submit video explanations for coding assignments (because grading code directly was "too much trouble"), and the TAs insisted the video links be included in multiple places—like the README file, Gradescope, and sometimes even an answer PDF. If there were mistakes in the homework instructions, they wouldn’t clarify or answer questions, which only added to the confusi…

5 Assignment that were 10~15 pages long. 1 semester long project (starts early October) please make sure you know who u want to work with Grading is fine, at the end of the semester he said most ppl are getting As Honestly, I think my year was an odd year, he is trying to revise the syllabus by adding more code/application so it will prob be better next year. But I do not think this is a chill class compared to what other reviews stated

I had a conversation with a TA who had assisted for several years, and they mentioned that Prof. Smith changed the syllabus and assignments significantly this year. Unlike previous years, each of the five homework assignments now averaging 10–15 pages of instructions also included both coding and written work. As far as I know, previous years did not require coding in the homework. While this was manageable, the class also had group projects, each accompanied by a 10-page instruction sheet. This required weekly group meetings, which were manageable on their own. However, when combined with the homework, it became a lot of work. Honestly, it felt more like busy work I was particularly annoyed because the homework didn’t seem to translate into what we learned in class. The syllabus needs improvement, especially in terms of correcting assignment deadlines and balancing the workload. Prof. Smith is cramming too much into the class. While I understand his LOVE for the design process, he needs to keep in mind that this is a UI course, not a combination of UI and UX. had fun listening to him but it just felt like this was for a different class. On average, we had to go through 20–25 pages of instructions a week, considering both individual and group assignments.There was a lack of transparency in this class, for ex. on Edstem, some questions that had 6+ votes up would not be answered…

The workload for this class is very, very doable. We had short reflections that are due every week. We also split up into groups fairly early on in the semester; these are the groups that we worked in to develop our final product, a UI for an app/website with a distinct audience and purpose. We had group checkpoints due every few weeks to ensure that we would work through different prototypes and user studies for our projects throughout the semester. We're also encouraged to meet with our assigned TAs after each checkpoint to get verbal feedback on our projects; the TAs are incredibly helpful. They ensured that we were making good progress during each checkpoint. There is no midterm and no final. During our final exam slot, we watched final project presentations. Prof. Smith also has two AMAs each year. Instead of him asking us questions in an exam format, we're encouraged to anonymously ask Prof. Smith questions about academia, industry, adulthood, and even his personal life. He presents himself as a mentor figure during his classes. He has such a broad range of experiences; his AMAs were equal parts amusing and insightful—I'm truly grateful that I was able to get into this class! Grading is incredibly generous. You don't need to get a 100+ in order to get an A+ in the class.

I cannot recommend Prof. Smith's class enough. He's very approachable and his lecture content is really interesting; he does a wonderful job at keeping us engaged and at keeping the broader focus (human-centered design) in the picture during each lecture. Prof. Smith is truly one of the best professors I've had in college.