Schedule

CSCI376: Human-Computer Interaction

Overview

Please see the appropriate sub-pages under Assignments for additional direction about Readings, Projects, and Assignments.

All course readings can also be found on Google Drive, accessible to Williams College accounts

Schedule (Readings, Assignments, Projects)

Papers not available in your Course Reading Packets are marked with an *asterisk. More instruction on what should be included in reading responses is on the Readings page. All readings, assignments, and projects are generally due the night before the class under which they are listed.

Week 1

Th 9/5 | Welcome! [slides]

Week 2

Mo 9/9 | User-Centered Design + HCI History [slides]

Th 9/12| Brainstorming & Teamwork [slides]

Week 3

Mo 9/16 | Affordances, Controls, Interface Metaphors

Th 9/19 | Contextual Inquiry + Pitches [slides]

    • READ "Ch. 3 Principles of Contextual Inquiry", pp.41-66 in Contextual Design by Beyer and Holtzblatt.

      • POST to the appropriate Slack channel by the night before class: After completing the readings, consider how you might apply this approach to the project you've proposed.

        • Briefly, what is your proposal (e.g., two sentences).

        • Who and what might you propose to observe in a contextual inquiry (e.g., two sentences).

        • What focus might you bring to your CI observation, and why? (e.g., two or three sentences).

        • Identify a pitfall that seems likely during a CI (e.g., getting caught in abstractions) (e.g., two or three sentences).

        • Describe how you might avoid or attempt to correct for this pitfall in your contextual inquiry (e.g., two or three sentences).

    • DUE: Individual Project Proposal

Week 4

Mo 9/23| How To Critique [slides]

Th 9/26|Interviews [slides]

Week 5

Mo 9/30| Affinity Diagramming [slides]

    • BRING post-it notes to class!

    • HANDOUT: Name That Design Research Method

    • READ Affinity Diagram content from Contextual Design, by Beyer & Holtzblatt:

      • READ “The Affinity Diagram”, Ch.09, pp.154-163, in Contextual Design, by Beyer & Holtzblatt

      • READ “Walking the Affinity”, Ch.10, pp.201-202, in Contextual Design, by Beyer & Holtzblatt

      • READ “Walking the Data”, Ch.13, pp.275-276, in Contextual Design, by Beyer & Holtzblatt

    • POST your response to the above readings on affinity diagramming to the appropriate Slack channel by 10am day of class. How might this method be useful in your project? What can this method reveal for your project, what can it not help with?

    • DUE: Contextual Inquiry Check-In (i.e., one CI + reflection)

Th 10/3 | User Personas & Scenarios [slides]

Week 6

Mo 10/7 | Storyboarding & Video Sketches [slides]

    • POST After viewing and considering these video examples, think about what approaches were more or less effective.

      • In one paragraph, describe a technique you saw in these examples that was highly effective (i.e., in either storyboarding or video prototyping, in the readings or the videos), which you might therefore want to apply in your storyboarding or video prototyping. Be specific, such that it is clear you considered the examples. Discuss why it was effective.

      • In another paragraph, describe a technique you saw that was ineffective (i.e., in either storyboarding or video prototyping, in the readings or the videos), which you might therefore want to be mindful of in your storyboarding or video prototyping. Be specific, such that it is clear you considered the examples. Discuss why it was ineffective.

      • These examples thus support your reflection on how to effectively convey a design. Techniques in these and other examples will also directly apply as you prepare your storyboards and video prototypes. How do storyboards and video sketches provide different insights?

    • DUE: Project Task Review

Th 10/10 | Information Architecture, Wireframing: Techniques and Tools [slides]

Week 7

Mo 10/14 | Reading Period - No Class!

Th 10/17 | Low-Fidelity Prototyping, Paper Prototyping [slides]

Week 8

Mo 10/21 | Graphic Design | Iris is at the IEEE INFO VIS Conference - No class! [slides]

Th 10/24 | HCI Research | Iris is at the IEEE INFO VIS Conference - No class!

Week 9

Mo 10/28 | UX Research Presentations [slides][presentations]

Th 10/31 | Heuristic Evaluation [slides]

    • BRING your paper prototypes to class!

    • HANDOUT: Heuristic Evaluation Forms

    • READING: There are 10 Usability Heuristics. Assign each member of your team to read (and be experts in) 2-4 of the heuristics. Assign one group member to be an expert in heuristics from sections 5.1 & 5.2 (14 pages); another team member to sections 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 5.6, & 5.7 (15 pages); and the last teammate to sections 5.8, 5.9, 5.10 (14 pages). The Heuristics are split by sub-section in Chapter 5 of: Jakob Nielsen "Usability Heuristics" Ch. 5, pp. 115-164, in Usability Engineering

    • READING: Everyone should read 5.11 "Heuristic Evaluation" from the above usability heuristics reading.

      • POST to the appropriate Slack channel by 10am day of class: Name each of your assigned heuristics, and provide a one line summary of each. For 2 of your heuristics provide a link to a website that does this heuristic well or poorly, and explain.

    • DUE: Project Paper Prototype

Week 10

Mo 11/4 | Usability Testing [slides]

Th 11/7 | Accessibility [slides]

Week 11

Mo 11/11 | High-Fidelity Prototyping, Techniques, and Tools [slides]

Th 11/14 | UX Research Methods [slides]

Week 12

Mo 11/18 | Design Patterns & UXD Project Presentations [slides] [presentations]

      • READ *Vlahovic. 2018. "Becoming a UX researcher: my experience and things I’ve learned along the way." Medium.

      • SKIM these design patterns, starting with *Chapter 2: Jenifer Tidwell. 2011. "Designing Interfaces."

      • POST to the appropriate Slack channel by 10am day of class about how one of these patterns, or a pattern you find elsewhere, may be relevant in your project design, by the night before class. Specifically:

        • Briefly, what pattern did you identify as relevant (e.g., by name and page number from Designing Interfaces, by URL).

        • Describe why this pattern is relevant in your design.

        • Describe how you might modify your design or your design process based on insights on perspective surfaced by the pattern. (e.g., describes changes in text, before / after images).

Th 11/21 | Computer Ethics [slides]


Week 13

Mo 11/25 | HCI Ethics [slides]

* None of the HCI Ethics Readings are included in your Reading Packets! *

If you cannot gain access to any of the following articles, PDFs are posted to GLOW and Google Drive (readings > ethics > ethics-....pdf).


Thanksgiving Break

Week 14: Project Week

Mo 12/2 | Design Manifestos / Project Critiques [slides]

Th 12/5| Final Project Pitches [slides]

Disclaimer

This schedule is subject to change at the discretion of the faculty. Students will be notified of such changes ahead of time via email.