Note: This unit is an archived version! See Overview tab for delivered versions.
INFO3315: Human-Computer Interaction (2018 - Semester 2)
| Unit: | INFO3315: Human-Computer Interaction (6 CP) |
| Mode: | Normal-Day |
| On Offer: | Yes |
| Level: | Senior |
| Faculty/School: | School of Computer Science |
| Unit Coordinator/s: |
Professor Kay, Judy
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| Session options: | Semester 2 |
| Versions for this Unit: | |
| Site(s) for this Unit: |
| Campus: | Camperdown/Darlington |
| Pre-Requisites: | None. |
| Brief Handbook Description: | This is a first subject in HCI, Human Computer Interaction. It is designed for students who want to be involved in one of the many roles required to create future technology. There are three main parts: the human foundations from psyschology and physiology; HCI methods for design and evaluation of interfaces; leading edge directions for technologies. This subject is highly multi-disciplinary. At the core, it is a mix of Computer Science Software Engineering combined with the design discipline, UX - User Experience. It draws on psychology, both for relevant theories and user study methods. The practical work is human-centred with project work that motivates the formal curriculum. This year the projects will be in area of health and wellness. |
| Assumed Knowledge: | None. |
| Lecturer/s: |
Professor Kay, Judy
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| Tutor/s: | TBC | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Timetable: | INFO3315 Timetable | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Time Commitment: |
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| T&L Activities: | Tutorial: The class is split into two groups for this large group tutorial. The lecturer and tutors take this tutorial. The weekly homework for both the tutorial and laboratory classes is due at the beginning of the tutorial where tutors will grade it and it will feed into the class activities. Laboratory: The weekly laboratory class will enable students to consolidate the key ideas for the week and work on the major projects. |
Attributes listed here represent the key course goals (see Course Map tab) designated for this unit. The list below describes how these attributes are developed through practice in the unit. See Learning Outcomes and Assessment tabs for details of how these attributes are assessed.
| Attribute Development Method | Attribute Developed |
| The essence of the course is to learn how to design effective and usable interactive systems. Design of these draws on the relevant theory, its application, based on various techniques. This is conducted in cycles, where each design is analysed to inform the next design cycle. | Design (Level 3) |
| The large group tutorial and the lab as well as all practical and project work will build discipline specific expertise in the area of designing, evaluating and building interactive computing systems. | Engineering/IT Specialisation (Level 3) |
| The projects culminate in a report, presentation and demonstration. These develop written and spoken communication skills. The practical class activities and the final examination will include short answers questions that will require good written communication skills. In all of these, the presentation of designs and their evaluation require appreciation of the complex nature of design, with trade-offs and compromises, many good solutions to a problem and many ways to assess the quality of a solution. | Communication (Level 3) |
| The projects involve working in a team, sharing work fairly, conducting user studies with members of the group taking complementary roles, designing interfaces and carefully critiquing these, with team-based approaches. | Project and Team Skills (Level 3) |
For explanation of attributes and levels see Engineering & IT Graduate Outcomes Table 2018.
Learning outcomes are the key abilities and knowledge that will be assessed in this unit. They are listed according to the course goal supported by each. See Assessment Tab for details how each outcome is assessed.
Design (Level 3)
1. Ability to select suitable techniques for establishing user groups and their requirements for an interface, including the usability requirements. Ability to make use of these techniques.
2. Ability to apply standard design approaches to creating a user interface.
3. Ability to evaluate interfaces, based upon both discount and user-based techniques. Ability to select the most appropriate technique for a particular situation and to justify this.
4. Ability to explain how human factors influence aspects of design of interfaces.
Engineering/IT Specialisation (Level 3)
5. Knowledge of the main methods of interface design and evaluation and the relative strengths and weaknesses of each and their most appropriate uses.
6. Ability to use a prototyping tool to create low fidelity prototypes.
7. Knowledge of the broad range of interfaces, such as social, NUI, emotion-aware interfaces, ubiquitous devices that are carried, work or embedded in the environment.
Communication (Level 3)
8. Present the design and evaluation of a prototype interface, defining the requirements, describing the design processes and evaluation. Use evidence gathered in established methods, to draw conclusions about its strengths and weaknesses of the interface.
| Assessment Methods: |
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| Assessment Description: |
The assignments, tute/lectures. mini-assignments and labs have the theme: Big personal data for lifelong and life-wide learning. The weekly quizzes will be held in the tutorial/lecture class. They cover the weekly mini-assignments as well as the content of that week`s class. They are designed to give formative feedback in each of these. The mini-assignments are due before the tutorial/lecture. They are critical preparation for the tutorial/lecture. They are also important foundations for the lab. They are submitted online. The activities in the tutorial/lecture and the lab classes will provide formative feedback on these. They are graded by the tutor in the lab. They have DIFFERENT WEIGHTS through the semester as in class materials. Some of them are for your individual contribution to the assignment and these have a higher weight. Assignments: Assignment 1: This is the design and first evaluation of an interface for people to gain insights from their own personal ``big`` data. Assignment 2: This is the result of the second iteration of the design for the interface along with its evaluation. Note that there will be important tutorial/lecture activities that are part of the group work for the assignment. When groups are formed, commitment to attend classes will be taken into account so that the group can make effective use of these classes. Final examination. This assesses the tutorial/lecture (including all core, theme and breadth lectures), lab, homework and assignments. |
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| Assessment Feedback: | Please see above. The tutorial/lecture provides formative feedback on the mini-assignments as well as the in-class activities. The lab activities provide formative feedback on the assignment and on practice examination questions. Feedback on the assignments will be at two levels. Whole class feedback will be in the tutorial/lecture. Detailed feedback to each group will be in the lab. |
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| Grading: |
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| Policies & Procedures: | IMPORTANT: School policy relating to Academic Dishonesty and Plagiarism. In assessing a piece of submitted work, the School of IT may reproduce it entirely, may provide a copy to another member of faculty, and/or to an external plagiarism checking service or in-house computer program and may also maintain a copy of the assignment for future checking purposes and/or allow an external service to do so. Other policies See the policies page of the faculty website at http://sydney.edu.au/engineering/student-policies/ for information regarding university policies and local provisions and procedures within the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technologies. |
| Prescribed Text/s: |
Note: Students are expected to have a personal copy of all books listed.
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| Online Course Content: | Resources will be provided on the online learning platform. |
Note that the "Weeks" referred to in this Schedule are those of the official university semester calendar https://web.timetable.usyd.edu.au/calendar.jsp
| Week | Description |
| Week 1 | Lecture/Tutorial: Introduction of team, learning objectives, What is HCI, UX, why is HCI hard, first think aloud |
| Week 2 | Lecture/Tutorial: Introduction to Semester and assignment theme - Big personal data, Assignment 1 intro, Analysis: academic and commercial research, terminology in HCI - affordances |
| Week 3 | Lecture/Tutorial: Analysis: user research, ethnography, task analysis, personas, user’s goals and tasks |
| Week 4 | Lecture/Tutorial: Design: ideation, prototyping for design |
| Week 5 | Lecture/Tutorial: Evaluation: Think-aloud, ethics of user studies |
| Week 6 | Lecture/Tutorial: The cycle integration, mental models, and guidelines |
| Week 7 | Lecture/Tutorial: User research based by asking users: Surveys, Focus groups, Interviews, Validating observation notes |
| Week 8 | Lecture/Tutorial: No class - time reserved for groups to polish Assignment 1 |
| Assessment Due: Assignment 1 report and demo | |
| Week 9 | Lecture/Tutorial: Assignment 2 introduction, Theme topic: personalisation and FAT* |
| Week 10 | Lecture/Tutorial: Breadth topic guest lecture |
| Week 11 | Lecture/Tutorial: Human factors: physiological, psychological, Theories, Fitts, GOMS, overview of expert evaluation methods, Breadth topic guest lecture |
| Week 12 | Lecture/Tutorial: Evaluation methods, A/B testing, field trials, Breadth topic guest lecture |
| Assessment Due: Assignment 2 - presentation + demo | |
| Week 13 | Lecture/Tutorial: Revision, Big picture of cycle and broader topics |
| Exam Period | Assessment Due: Final Exam |
Course Relations
The following is a list of courses which have added this Unit to their structure.
Course Goals
This unit contributes to the achievement of the following course goals:
| Attribute | Practiced | Assessed |
| Project and Team Skills (Level 3) | Yes | 0% |
| Design (Level 3) | Yes | 75.5% |
| Engineering/IT Specialisation (Level 3) | Yes | 19% |
| Communication (Level 3) | Yes | 5.5% |
| Professional Conduct (Level 3) | No | 0% |
These goals are selected from Engineering & IT Graduate Outcomes Table 2018 which defines overall goals for courses where this unit is primarily offered. See Engineering & IT Graduate Outcomes Table 2018 for details of the attributes and levels to be developed in the course as a whole. Percentage figures alongside each course goal provide a rough indication of their relative weighting in assessment for this unit. Note that not all goals are necessarily part of assessment. Some may be more about practice activity. See Learning outcomes for details of what is assessed in relation to each goal and Assessment for details of how the outcome is assessed. See Attributes for details of practice provided for each goal.
