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Department of Computer Science and Technology

Undergraduate

Course pages 2020–21

Interaction Design

Principal lecturer: Dr Hatice Gunes
Taken by: Part IA CST, Part IB CST 50%
Hours: 16 (8 hours lectures+ 8 hours practicals)
Suggested hours of supervisions: 2
This course is a prerequisite for: Further Human–Computer Interaction
Past exam questions

Aims

The aim of this course is to provide an introduction to interaction design, with an emphasis on understanding and experiencing the user interface design process from requirements and data gathering to implementation and evaluation, while gaining an understanding of the background to human factors. This course focuses equally on design and implementation.

Lectures

  • Course overview and requirements analysis. Introduction to the course and the practicals. Identifying potential users and understanding their tasks. Identifying and establishing non-functional and functional requirements.
  • Data gathering. Data collection and quantitative/qualitative analysis techniques.
  • Design and prototyping. Participatory design process. Conceptual versus physical design. Concept development. Prototyping and different kinds of prototypes. Personas and storyboards.
  • Case studies from the industry. Guest lecture (the schedule of this lecture is subject to change).
  • Cognitive aspects. Attention, perception/recognition, memory, context and grouping, and their implications for interaction design. Cognitive frameworks.
  • Evaluation. Introduction, evaluation techniques, and an evaluation case study.
  • Student (group) presentations

Objectives

By the end of the course students should

  • have a thorough understanding of the iterative design process and be able to apply it to interaction design;
  • be able to design new user interfaces that are informed by principles of human visual perception and cognition;
  • be able to construct user interfaces using Java with a strong emphasis on users, usability and appearance;
  • be able to evaluate existing or new user interfaces using multiple techniques;
  • be able to compare and contrast different design techniques and to critique their applicability to new domains.

Recommended reading

* Preece, J., Rogers, Y. and Sharp, H. (2015). Interaction design. Wiley (4th ed.).