CS 3205

I took this course during Session 1 Summer Session 2021. To be completely honest, I liked the course. Even though it was a lot of work, I think it was more like a "learning experience" instead of stressing out about assignments. I am highly interested in UI/UX design and I feel that this course exceeded my expectations. Overall, it was a rewarding experience and I am glad that I took it. The professor is SUPER nice and his research experience with UX design is super interesting. This course was a nice balance from all of the coding I had to do last semester and if you are interested in business or marketing, you may enjoy this course. The only thing I did not like is the reading. There were 10 quizzes in total and the readings were over 100 pages.

This review is for summer 2021 (it wasn't an option to input). It was a compressed, 3 week, class.
Okay, I have a fair number of comments.
I loved the material in this class. Honestly, I think that this should be a required class if you want to get a computer science degree. All the other classes I've taken have taught me how to code. That's important. This class taught me how to make products that people will actually use. That is equally if not more important. To use a construction metaphor, all the rest of the classes I've taken have taught me how to use tools (hammers, chop saws, steamrollers). This class taught me how to actually build a house. If you know how to use all the tools to build a house you might think you can build a house. You can't. You need to actually learn how to build a house. This class teaches you how to build a house.
Because I like this class so much there are many things I see in it that need improving. If I cared less about it then I wouldn't be as critical. Here are some of those critiques:
This class was too hard. I took this class in a compressed summer class so that might have contributed to the difficulty. The professor, at one point, said that he had to balance the difficulty of this class with how much we learn. I understand that balance. I have learned so much from this class. But I think the professor's metaphor was that if you increase the difficulty of a class then the students will just learn more. This is not the case. This class was so difficult that it decreased the amount I could learn from it. It decreases the amount I learn if I grind myself into the dirt through studying. This is what happened. So I think decreasing the difficulty would, in fact, increase the amount students learn.
The professor speaks in a very blunt manner. This could make his words feel like a personal attack when I don't think they are. He seems like an actually pretty nice dude.
The collab site layout is fairly unintuitive. It would often be difficult to find the material we were looking for as it could be in places we wouldn't think to look. It is a little bit frustrating that a class on human-computer interfaces would have such a poor interface.
Despite all my problems with this class, as I said, I think it's an amazing class. I believe it is essential for any computer scientist who wants to be more than a code monkey. Um, no disrespect to code monkeys. If you want to keep your head down, just write code, and have no say over what you're writing and why then totally don't take this class. Anyone who has higher aspirations than that, absolutely should. This class teaches you how to build products people will use and will want to use. This is an amazing class.

Worst course ever! DO NOT TAKE. I REPEAT DO NOT TAAAAKKKKEEEE!!!!

It's been a few months since I've been in this class. I'm sitting in my bedroom laughing about how terrible this class was. Like it was so bad. I had a good group which saved a lot of the experience but seriously do not take this class. Take peepee poopoo 1010 instead, seriously you will probably learn more.

Probably the worst class I have ever taken. Apart from the TA's being unclear and not knowing the material themselves, QUIZZES WERE 20% OF THE GRADE

Although Professor Panagiotis is not the BEST professor in the CS department, this class was bearable and actually quite interesting for someone who has only taken CS classes about programming. First off - every other class, the professor will go through a long and boring powerpoint about a topic in HCI - and at the end, you get to take an open-note quiz. First off, these quizzes mostly suck. Sometimes the questions are really tricky, sometimes they're easy. If you pay attention, you'll be mostly fine. But yeah, don't do the readings - they're a waste of time and he goes over the important concepts from the readings in class. The other days of the week, you'll do an interactive activity with either your group members or a partner. These are sometimes completely not worth it (but you do get 3 skips) but some activities are easy and do help you understand the concepts. I have used the in-class activities to help with the actual project work a few times!
The groups. You are put into a group at the beginning of the semester, and you get to request up to 3 people! BUT, you probably won't get them all and you'll definitely end up with some randos in your group. In my case, I ended up with 2 friends and 2 randos and it went mostly okay... at times, it was extremely obvious who didn't care about the project. Some people think that their lives are more important than yours but that leads to the downfall of the project lol. The project is split into 4 phases throughout the semester, and they're all based on different parts of the UX process. At first you will have no idea what you are doing, so ask the TA if you can see his/her old website so you have some kind of an idea of what to do. Even if you bomb one phase, it's still possible to make up for the grade by doing better on the other phases.
Next up, exams. These exams can literally be the worst lol... even though you're given the opportunity to make a cheat sheet, a lot of the questions are extremely random and tricky. I didn't do well at all on the first exam, but I did amazing on the final exam. There is no standard with this class but if you actually try to understand the concepts by going through the powerpoints, you will be okay! I ended the class with an A somehow, despite getting consistent 80-90s on the quizzes and my group getting a C on Phase 1 of the project. My group was able to do well on the last two phases and we also did well on the presentation! The extra credit really gave me a boost (course review, taking videos of my notetaking, doing a small research paper) and I would really recommend doing it all. My tips are to go to office hours and be friendly with the professor - he is smart and has a lot to say, you just have to listen to him. Don't be disrespectful and try to argue for points back, because that will just make him mad. Also, go to the TA office hours and talk to the TAs. They've gone through the course and have the best idea of how to succeed in the class. Usability and UX Design are great fields to explore and I wish UVA offered more classes. Although this one is mediocre, you can still make the most out of it, despite what other reviews say.

Echo all the negative comments on this class. His extra credit policy is super unclear, the class adds no value to your life, and my biggest regret is not dropping the class when I had the chance to.

- Honestly the professor isn't that rude of a guy unless you're a sheltered snowflake lol. He means well, but this class is total horse ****. It is easy (no coding at all), but SUPER tedious.
- You work on a semester long group project, 4 phases: 4 long, tedious, typed reports. Lots of office hours so the TAs know you "tried", weekly quizzes that are basically free points -> makes lecture mandatory or else you miss a quiz grade or in class activity grade
- If you're unlucky like me, you'll be placed into a group with random strangers that are the most braindead, lazy, and apathetic people you will ever have to work with. I highly recommend to drop the course if you don't get a group with someone you know.
- This course did get me a pretty sweet internship in UX, helped me a lot with the interview. People seem to think that this course is "100% useless", but that's mainly because all SWE people take this course for an "easy A"... usability and UX is actually important, and a high paying field, but since no one respects the professor no one really respects the course either. The textbook sucks, but the information is valuable and helpful for job interviews
- SHOULD YOU TAKE THIS? If you're trying to do UX full-time post graduation, then yeah probably. Employers will want to see you took the one HCI class offered at this damn school. If you just want an "easy A", please drop and don't make your teammates suffer since you won't be putting 100% of your effort into the course. Go take databases or something lol. This class would've been so much more enjoyable if I just had a better group.

This course could have been fun, but instead was extremely tedious and not enjoyable. It's not that difficult of a class, but it just has a lot of work. Prepare to make endless sketches day in and day out.

This was probably the worst Computer Science class i took at UVA. Highly recommend you find another elective.