This course explores how the fields of psychology, digital design, and computing converge in the design, development, and evaluation of new technologies that people find effective and enjoyable to use. Students investigate the field of human-computer interaction (HCI), with a focus on key design principles and guidelines, and apply them to analyze existing designs and conduct a design process that is centered on human users of technology.
This course focuses on qualitative research approaches commonly used in the Human-Computer Interaction tradition. Topics include: themes in qualitative inquiry, approaches in qualitative research, such as grounded theory, case studies and participant observations; methods and strategies for data collection, including observation and interview; and methods for data analysis, such as inductive coding, abductive reasoning and using matrices. A research project is required.
In this course, students design a proposal for a capstone project to apply the theories and methodologies to a problem in the HCI domain. Topics include: investigating a problem space, performing a literature review, developing the problem statement, writing the proposal, and communicating with potential capstone committee members.
This course focuses on major user centered design methodologies used in the development of applications and environments. Topics include: evolution of software design methods, emergence of user-centered design, and key concepts, attributes and process of the major design methodologies.
This project-based course focuses on the formal evaluation of an interactive user interface. Topics include: usability test goal setting, recruitment of appropriate users, design of test tasks, design of the test environment, test metrics, test plan development and implementation, analysis and interpretation of the results, and documentation and presentation of results and recommendations.
This course provides the foundations for understanding HCI within the context of a software development lifecycle. It introduces key HCI concepts such as human cognitive processes (i.e., perception, attention, memory, etc.), user interface design, and user research methods.
This course introduces user-centered design concepts and techniques. Students learn the phases of the user-centered design process, including: assessing user needs, ideation and brainstorming, low and high-fidelity prototyping, and evaluating design usability. Students engage in a quarter-long group design project where each stage of the process is scaffolded. Design projects are typically focused on creating accessible designs and students regularly meet with users with disabilities to seek feedback and test their designs. By the
This course introduces students to historical and popular input and interaction techniques for desktop, mobile, and other computing environments. Students learn about motor and perceptual psychology, interaction design, and input devices and software in the study of human-computer systems. The course emphasizes using human-performance models in the design of new input and interaction techniques. Students combine and apply these concepts in a quarter-long project where they invent their own accessible interaction technique.
Past projects have included accessible game interactions.