CMPE 131/231, DANM 231:
Human-Computer Interaction
Jump to: Syllabus ¦ Past projects ¦ Suggested readings
What is the course about?
This course presents theories and practices in Human-Computer Interaction that allow development of user interfaces that are fit for the purposes of their diverse users in a variety of contexts. It informs students how to gather user requirements, create prototypes, and conduct evaluations to verify the design.Logistics
When and where?
Cowell classroom 131, Tuesdays and Thursdays 4:00-5:45 PMWho to ask questions to?
Instuctor: Sri KurniawanTA: Alexandra Holloway.
Assessment
CMPE131 takers:
- Homework (possibly 2): 20%
- Exam: 20%
- Group project report and presentation (3-4 people): 60%
CMPE/DANM231 takers:
- Homework + paper reviewing work: 20%
- Exam: 20%
- Group project report and presentation (3-4 people): 60%
Group project
The group project is organized through a moodle site in which only the students registered to this course can access.Sample student projects from last HCI
- Robotic ring bearer
- A social game in Facebook
- Redesigning myUCSC website and TAP (transport and bus passes) website
- Interactive system to help children with autism communicate
- A friendly interface to author-goal based story generation
- Rock Vibe: Rock Band for people with no or limited vision
- Controlling first person shooter game using face tracking
Syllabus
Syllabus will be slowly filled as we go along.- Lecture 1: Human-centered design. Also covers: Requirements analysis and techniques (scenarios, personas, storyboards, brainstorming, use cases). Prototyping (low and high fidelity).
Readings:- Personas: Practice and Theory
- Five Reasons for Scenario-Based Design, an article by John Carroll, one of the pioneering thought leaders in scenario-based design
- Protoyping for Tiny Fingers, the still often discussed paper on prototyping
- Preece et al. - second edition, Chapters 9, 10.1-10.6, 11
- Lecture 2: Conceptual and physical designs. Also covers Human: Model Human Processor, Keystroke Level Model, five senses and their design implications (color design, Gestalt principles, earcons, auditory icons, Fitts’ Law, Hicks’ Law), memory (types of memory, reasoning, problem solving), attention, mental model – and their design implications (metaphor, affordance, mapping).
Readings:- Seeing, Hearing and Smelling the World
- Preece et al. - second edition, Chapter 3
- Lecture 3: Evaluation. Covers quality assurance concepts (formative and summative). Evaluation methods: inspection (cognitive walkthrough, heuristics evaluation – Nielsen’s heuristics) and testing (thinking aloud protocol, retrospective testing, co-discovery learning).
Readings: - Lecture 4: Persuasion design. Covers affective computing and design, emotional design.
- Lecture 5: GUI Bloopers. Based on Jeff Johnson's book GUI Bloopers 2.0.
- Lecture 6: Helping users.
- Lecture 7: Running user evaluation.