1. Homework grades will be strongly influenced by your ability to use the concepts that you are (we hope!) learning from the readings and lectures. Homework must be provided in hardcopy form. Be sure to include your name, the assignment number, and the due date.

2. Do not place answers in a public place (such as your website) until after 7pm on the Wednesday after the Wednesday that they are due.

3. These assignments should be considered tentative until Friday of the week before they are due, and sometimes they might even be changed slightly on Saturday; clarifications could be added at any time.

4. By now you should be hard at work on your project!

1. Due 15 March:
   1. Pick 3 cartoons from the set handed out in class on 8 March and explain for each how some conceptual space has been recontextualized by adding new information, and show how the resulting new meaning is a blend (give and fill in the most pertinent parts of the blend diagram).
   2. Explain 4 things that you found to be most interesting in this class; carefully organize this material as a webpage (or pages), and explain why you chose the organization you did; use concepts from the class to justify your design. Provide hardcopy printout of the webpage(s). (Good luck on your projects!)
    
2. Due 8 March:
   1. Write one paragraph discussing how an XSL file defines a semiotic morphism for XML code written in its style. You may use your XML homework as an example.
   2. Explain how the display in Plate B4a of Shneiderman (after page 514) could be justified by an argument using semiotic morphisms. Do the same for Plate B5, and then explain why it is better than B4a (if it is).
   3. Use quality criteria to determine a strict naturalness ordering of the four blends of the two words "house" and "boat" that are given in the paper An Introduction to Algebraic Semiotics, with Applications to User Interface Design, and explain how this ordering corresponds to our intuition about how "far out" each meaning is.
   4. Pick 3 "oxymorons" from the list of 50 and explain their oxymoronic meaning as a blend of semiotic morphisms for their two parts. Because these are jokes, they are also supposed to have at least one non-oxymoronic blend; both blends should be explained (if they exist).
   5. Write a short description of some major actants involved with XML (including potential users and actants in the standards process) and some of the most important relations among them. Draw a graph summarizing your description.
    
3. Due 1 March:
   1. Choose a question that can be discussed by the class, and be prepared to give a 1 minute exposition of the question, to be followed by 2 minutes of discussion by the class. You should hand in a written version of your exposition, but you will be graded in part by how well the discussion brings out points that are important to the course. (The oral presentation may be delayed one week if the rest of this class takes too long.)
   2. Write approximately one page on dates and times and how they are represented; use semiotic morphisms in your discussion.
   3. Write a paragraph or so explaining how Andersen's notion of manifestation can be seen as a semiotic morphism; give a simple example, and describe what should be preserved.
   4. Modify the code in this link as described there; hand in printed copies of your XML source, your XSL source, your DDT source, and the output that is produced. Note: you must use Internet Explorer version 5 for this assignment; Netscape Navigator does not yet support XML. This problem counts double.
    
4. Due 23 February:
   1. Give a careful discussion of the list of problems with video on p.491 of Shneiderman, paying careful attention to the fact that the list contains items of completely different character, for example, that some items have a social origin, whole others merely reflect short term limits of current technology. Explain why each item might be a problem.
   2. Write about 1 page applying Shneiderman's ideas on user interfaces for search capabilities in chapter 15 to the yahoo websearch engine.
   3. Early versions of the class webpages used "<hr>" to separate the links at the bottom of each page, but now "<br>" is used instead (but not before the first link or after the last). Use semiotic morphisms to explain why that is a good idea - or why it isn't, if you think it isn't.
   4. The first version of the popup explanation windows for the semiotic zoo included all the same links as the exhibit pages themselves; however, I soon deleted them. Explain why that was a good idea - or why it wasn't, if you think it wasn't.
   5. Use semiotic morphisms to explain why it is usually better to present a set of weblinks as a broad list rather than as tree with non-trivial layering of indices (see p.575 of Shneiderman).
    
5. Due 16 February:
   1. Pick a topic that was emphasized in this course, explain why it is important (or why it isn't), and then explain it carefully to the class. You should hand in a written outline of your talk, but your grade will depend mainly on the oral version in class, including how you respond to questions from classmates. The presentation should not take more than 5 minutes.
   2. Explain why Shneiderman's point 5 on p.209 doesn't really belong on the same list as the previous 4.
   3. Explain why exactly repeating the movements of an instrument in surgery would be undesirable (p.210 of Shneiderman).
   4. Use CSCW ideas to explain the phenomenon (described p.197 of Shneiderman) that users of computer games generally prefer a display of highest scores over computer generated feedback during play.
   5. Write approximately one page comparing chapter 14 of Shneiderman with Communication and Collaboration from a CSCW Perspective by Mark Ackerman.
    
6. Due 9 February:
   1. Give two examples of adjacency pairs (in the technical sense!) that might occur in ordinary conversation, explain why they are examples, and give a context in which they might occur. (Note: this can be brief.)
   2. Apply the notion of adjacency pair to the Windows 98 logout procedure.
   3. Give an example of a noticeable absence (in its technical sense!) in natural social interaction, explain why it is an example, and give a context in which it might appear.
   4. Find two new items that could have been used as exhibits in the UC San Diego Semiotic Zoo; put them on your class website with appropriate explanations, and give their URLs.
   5. Write a proposal for your class project. You should start writing the paper as soon as your topic is confirmed. The proposal should be on a separate piece of paper from other homework, and should include your email address, so that if necessary, we can discuss it quickly and easily.
    
7. Due 2 February:
   1. Do a heuristic evaluation (p.126 of Shneiderman) using the "Eight Golden Rules" (p.74-76) and the 5 display organization guidelines (p.80) for the DTUI website; note that this will include a consistency inspection (p.126).
   2. Pick one other (non-trivial) website and do the same thing.
   3. Recently I changed the ordering of items on this homework page from chronological to reverse chronological. Explain why that was a good idea - or why it wasn't, if you think it wasn't.
   4. Describe in some detail (e.g., who, when, where, why) two examples of recipient design that you actually observed in your own experience; do not use a variant of the examples given in the class notes.
    
8. Due 26 January. These questions concern the UC San Diego Semiotic Zoo:
   1. Write a one paragraph statement of its goal;
   2. Write an interface guideline (capturing its current style); and
   3. Write a brief social impact statement for the zoo, following the checklist on pages 113-114 of Shneiderman.
   4. Write about a page on the importance of a website designer (or critic) knowing the goals of a site.
   5. Give an example of a single signifier in English that has two different signifieds (or in Peircian terminology, a representamen that has two different objects). Give an example showing how the signified can be changed by context. Explain why the definition of sign really should include both the signifier and signified.
    
9. Due 19 January:
   1. Select two interesting but quite different websites and criticize their design with respect to meeting their goals. (You can find some interesting websites linked from my "What's Cool" page, e.g., that of Victoria Vesner, or items available by clicking on the walls of Timothy Leary's house-like homepage.)
   2. Discuss Robert Morey's interactive applet proof of the Pythagorean Theorem. In particular, explain why letting the user size the triangle is a good idea.
   3. Set up a webpage for your work on this course; write its URL on the homework sheet, and say what you want to achieve with its design. You will then be graded on the quality of the design, and to some extent the appropriateness of the goals that you give. Do not include information about solutions to homework problems!
   4. Find at least three inconsistencies in the CSE 271 class website, at the design level (not spelling, syntax, etc.).