Syllabus

Lectures:

  • Introduction to Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
  • Historical developments and key concepts
  • Understanding Users
  • Introduction to user research
  • User needs assessment
  • Memory and mistakes
  • Design Thinking and User-Centered Design
  • Principles of design thinking
  • Stages of user-centered design process
  • Ideation and problem framing
  • Usability Principles
  • Introduction to usability and user experience
  • Heuristic evaluation and usability guidelines
  • Interaction Design
  • Principles of Interaction Design
  • Designing effective interaction flows
  • Case study analysis
  • Information Architecture
  • Organizing information effectively
  • Navigation design
  • Prototyping Techniques
  • Low-fidelity vs. high-fidelity prototyping
  • Tools and techniques for prototyping
  • Usability Testing
  • Planning and conducting usability tests
  • Analyzing usability data
  • Usability testing with prototypes
  • Accessibility and Inclusive Design
  • Principles of accessible design
  • Legal and ethical considerations
  • Accessibility audit of a website
  • Integration of Design Processes
  • Design Thinking and Heuristic Evaluation
  • Integrating Design Processes and Software Development
  • Data-Driven Design and Analytics
  • Using analytics in design
  • Introduction to A/B testing
  • Advanced and Unconventional Human-Computer Interfaces
  • AR/VR interfaces
  • Brain-Computer Interfaces
  • Tangible User Interfaces
  • Gestural Interfaces
  • Haptic Feedback Interfaces
  • Human-robot interaction
  • Natural language interaction
  • Emerging technologies
  • HCI in the Real World - Industry case study

Readings

  • D. N. et al., The Encyclopedia of Human-Computer Interaction, 2nd Ed. online. [Online]. Available: https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/book/the-encyclopedia-of-human-computer-interaction- 2nd-ed
  • Olson, J. S. & Kellogg, W. (2014). Ways of knowing in HCI.
  • Benyon, D. (2013). Designing Interactive Systems: A Comprehensive Guide to HCI, UX & Interaction Design.
  • Norman, D. (2013). The Design of Everyday Things.
  • Martin, B. & Hanington, B. (2012). Universal Methods of Design: 100 Ways to Research Complex Problems, Develop Innovative Ideas, and Design Effective Solutions.
  • Buchanan, R. (2010). D. P. Doordan, and V. Margolin, The designed world: images, objects, environments.
  • Moggridge, B. (2007). Designing interactions.
  • Kumar, A. N. & Raj, R. K. (2023). Computer Science Curricula 2023 (CS2023) – The Joint Task Force on Computing Curricula.
  • N. N. Group, UX & Usability Articles from Nielsen Norman Group. [Online]. Available: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/

Objectives and Competences

  • The main coure objectives are to present the following knowledge units:
  • Understanding the user
  • Accountability and responsibility in design
  • Accessibility and inclusive design
  • Evaluating a HCI design Within the course, the students should develop competences from the following key areas:
  • Research and analysis: Ability to conduct and analyze user research using a variety of methods such as surveys, interviews, and observational studies to gather insights into user needs and behaviors.
  • Design and prototyping: Skills in designing wireframes, mockups, and interactive prototypes using industry-standard tools and techniques.
  • Usability evaluation: Competence in employing both qualitative and quantitative methods to evaluate the usability of interfaces and articulate the findings to guide design improvements.
  • Technical implementation: Understanding of basic front-end development practices to translate designs into working interfaces.
  • Ethical and social implications: Awareness of the ethical, social, and cultural implications of interface design and technology use, inclusion of ethics in work activities.

Intended Learning Outcomes

  • Upon successful completion of this course, the students should be able to:
  • compare and contrast different user‐interface frameworks,
  • plan, document, and execute a usability study,
  • evaluate and provide recommendations to improve a user‐facing system’s usability, accessibility, and inclusivity,
  • prepare engineering specifications for a user interface, given the design requirements,
  • conduct a formative study to offer design strategy recommendations for a user‐facing system,
  • interpret and communicate feedback to support the iteration of a user‐facing system under development,
  • assess the ethical implications of deploying a user‐facing system in a particular population.