Course Description

Structural biases and social power dynamics underlie the design choices and algorithms powering the applications we use everyday. Similarly, these biases permeate the tech companies where such applications are designed and built. Tech workers, including engineers, designers, and product managers, often grapple with these issues, their own prejudices, and the goals of their organizations when they design and build technologies. 

Someday you will be making these decisions. To prepare you, HCI 220 will examine tech ethics, worker movements, and the role of UX practitioners in enacting change. We will also cover relevant topics in tech ethics such as bias in AI systems, surveillance and privacy issues, and technology policy. We will engage in discussions and design-oriented activities and projects that allow you to reflect on the role of UX practitioners in industry, and the values you want to apply in your future work. By the end of the course you will be able to critically think about the effects of technology and design and lead discussions on such issues with your peers. 

The complete syllabus for the course can be accessed here. 

 Meeting place and time

Location: UCSC Silicon Valley Campus, Room 3218

Time: Tuesdays and Thursdays 3:20-4:55pm

 Communication

We will be using Slack for class-wide messages. If you have a question that others can benefit from, please post it in our class Slack channel within the SVC workspace. 

If you need to contact the instructor or TA, please email them. Do not use Slack or the Canvas messaging system. Contact information is available on the Course Staff page. 

 Prerequisites

HCI 200: Introduction to HCI

HCI 201: Introduction to Design Methods in HCI

Above may be waived with instructor permission 

 Acknowledgements

Thank you to those who gave incredibly valuable feedback during the design and iteration of this course: Norman Su, Xiaowei Wang, Clarissa Redwine, Keith Winstein, and Alex Ozdemir. Thanks to the Stanford CS 355 course staff for inspiring the content of this website. 

This course borrows content from courses taught by Keith Winstein (Stanford CS 181), Sarita Schoenebeck (UMich SI 431), Rob Reich, Mehran Sahami & Jeremy M. Weinstein (Stanford CS 182), The Logic School, and Lynn Dombrowski (IUPUI I-590, which borrows from Jennifer Terrell).