SEMINAR PROGRAMME
Classes are held on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays. You will be assigned to one of these sessions each week.
The aim of these sessions is for you to learn about and apply various HCI/interaction design techniques, principles and methods. The aim of your presentations in weeks 9 and 10 is for you to research, analyze, organize and
synthesize material and then re-present it to an audience in a coherent, interesting and well structured form.
| Week |
Description |
| Week 1 |
No seminar. Read chapter 1.
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| Week 2 |
Course introduction/ What is Usability?
The class will be spent exploring issues relating to what makes some everyday
objects effortless to use whilst others extremely difficult. Examples of objects that
will come under scrutiny will include mobile phones, remote controllers, PDAs, drinks machines,
calculators, VCRs and organizers. Please bring either a mobile phone, PDA or personal stereo to the class. Design principles for interaction design will be covered. The assignment at the end of Chapter 1 of the Interaction Design textbook will be used as the basis of this exercise class and lead onto the first formally assessed assignment.
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| Week 3 |
Heuristic evaluation
This practical will build on last weeks class, showing how to carry out a heuristic evaluation, developed by Nielsen and Molich. Bring the same device as for the first class for analysis. Also look at http://www.useit.com/papers/heuristic_list.html and pages 408-420 in the Interaction Design book.
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| Week 4 |
Project 1 - Requirements gathering
This class will introduce the longitudinal project that you will doing throughout the term - designing a website for a reservation system, following a user-centered approach. This week will introduce how to gather requirements when developing a new system and will focus on the use of scenarios. The assignment set at the end of chapter seven in the textbook will be discussed. It provides the basis for the second formally assessed assignment.
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| Week 5 |
Project 2 - Low fidelity prototyping in design
The class will give you the opportunity to begin the design stage of your project, using various low-tech methods. These are outlined in chapter 8. The use of scenarios, storyboards and cardboard prototypes will be looked at. The assignment at the end of chapter 8 in the textbook will be discussed. It follows on from last week and provides further information about the second formally assessed assignment.
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| Week 6 |
Project 3 - Evaluation methods: Observation
This week will cover evaluation methods needed for your project. The focus is on observational techniques. The assignment at the end of chapter 12 in the textbook will be discussed. It follows on from last week and provides further information about the second formally assessed assignment.
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| Week 7 |
Project 4 - Evaluation methods : Surveys.
This week will cover more evaluation methods needed for your project. The focus is on the use of questionnaires and interviews. The assignment at the end of chapter 13 in the textbook will be discussed. It follows on from last week and provides further information about the second formally assessed assignment.
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| Week 8 |
Project 5 - Overview
Discussion and feedback on your project work. You will be expected to describe how you are progressing with your project, what problems you are coming up against and how to resolve them. |
| Week 9 |
Presentations
Weeks 9 and 10 are for presentations. You will be assigned to a group of 3 students at the beginning of the term. You will be given a topic to prepare a presentation on. The presentation counts as 10% of your final grade. It is important that you work together with the members of your group and prepare your talk in advance of your actual presentation. You should use OH slides for your talk. You will be graded based on eveidence of: carrying out collaborative research, reading and critiquing the literature, planning and structuring your talk and your ability to present interesting and clear content.
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| Week 10 |
Presentations (see above) |
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