course introduction

SENG 411 / CSC 578A: Advanced Methods in

Human Computer Interaction

May 3, 2011

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Instructor

Melanie Tory E-mail: mtory@cs.uvic.ca Office hrs: Tuesdays 12:30-1:30 or during the lab,

starting May 17 Otherwise: book appointment by email or find me on

Tues / Thurs Office: ECS 568

Acknowledgment

Special thanks to Joanna McGrenere (UBC), whose course materials I will use, adapt, and change for this course.

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learning goals for today

-  familiarity with the course, so you know what to expect

-  understanding of similarity/differences with SENG 310

-  preliminary glimpse at some of the course content

-  brief introduction to the course project

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first day survey

not graded but will be collected

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COURSE OVERVIEW

See course outline for details: http://courses.seng.engr.uvic.ca/courses/2011/summer/seng/411

http://courses.seng.engr.uvic.ca/courses/2011/summer/csc/578a

•  give it a thorough read!

Course Website: (connex – still to be set up)

Course email: seng411@connex.csc.uvic.ca (also to be set up)

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topics covered

Field Studies, Observation, and Qualitative analysis

Participatory Design

Using Video

Laboratory Experiments & Statistical Analysis

Possibly: Prototyping methods, eyetracking, log analysis, …

Course Objectives (1) Students who learn successfully in this course should be

able to… •  Design and evaluate interfaces through an iterative

process. •  Explain the philosophy underlying research methods. •  Choose appropriate data collection and analysis

methods for evaluating interface designs. •  Plan and run an observational study and perform data

analysis. •  Plan and run a controlled experiment and perform data

analysis.

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Course Objectives (2)

Students who learn successfully in this course should be able to…

•  Assess the effectiveness of a user study design. •  Explain how a study design may differ if it is

conducted in a lab as compared to in the field. •  Prototype interfaces using video and Wizard-of-Oz

methods. •  Demonstrate skilled performance at data collection

activities involving users, including participatory design, interviews, focus groups, and observations.

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HCI Overview

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How is this course similar to SENG 310?

•  project based: hands-on user centered design

•  team-oriented (at least in ugrad section)

•  strong lab components

•  follows the same iterative interface design cycle

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How does this course differ from SENG 310?

•  builds on 310, methods are more advanced

•  somewhat less total material covered

•  project – higher expectations for depth/quality of work

– use of advanced methods

– done primarily outside of class time

•  greater emphasis on research methods and on reading from the research literature

Some specific topics we may cover…

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main course components (SENG 411)

Lectures

Labs (weekly assignments, 2 lab exams)

PROJECT •  2-3 person teams, self-formed •  design and evaluate some interface •  will include field study, participatory design,

prototype and a formal experiment (specific assignment instructions will be given for each)

•  peer evaluation

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main course components (CSC 578A)

Lectures

Labs (weekly assignments)

Class presentation on some topic in HCI

PROJECT •  Individual or 2-person teams, self-formed •  More open-ended than 411 project

– Fewer milestones -- Proposal & Final Report only •  Should involve running some sort of HCI research

study (write-up like a research paper)

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expectations 1.  Attend all classes. Exams will cover all

material discussed in lecture / lab, not just posted notes.

2.  Do assigned prep before class/tutorial.

3.  Be a considerate team member and do your share of the work, well and on time.

4.  Abide by the university academic honesty guidelines.

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text & readings course text:

none

supplementary readings: online & handouts

Coming Up

First lab takes place this Thursday in ELW B203.

No lab next week (May 12).

Reading (before Thursday’s lab): 1) Intro to ethnography:

http://otal.umd.edu/hci-rm/ethno.html 2) How do people organize their desks?

http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/357423.357430

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extra slides

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what is user interface design?

methods and theories for iteratively

designing implementing evaluating

human interaction with a computer

Humans

Technology Tasks

Design

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one definition

human-computer interaction

is a discipline concerned with

the design, evaluation and implementation

of interactive computing systems

for human use

and with the study of major phenomena

surrounding them.

ACM SIGCHI Curricula for Human-Computer Interaction, 1996