This course teaches an important area of CS that people often overlook – creating computational artifacts that are useful, usable, and meaningful for human users. This is a relatively new course but many post-secondary institutions, e.g., UToronto, UWaterloo, UBC, and StanfordU, are already having similar courses in their CS program.

It is a technical course but not on the programming side. Students are expected to have some programming experience but this course focuses on techniques and methodologies in creating user interfaces that better support human use. Students will go through the whole User-Centered Design process to design, implement, and evaluate computer user interfaces. My goal is to train students to have an eye on the design aspects of computer systems so they not only just work but also good in usability.

This is for reference only. For actual outline refer to the course webpage at Canvas (our LMS). Content is subject to change (plus I often update it). This is the schedule I used for Summer 2024 (2h-1h).

Course Description

Surveys contemporary Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) topics on designing, implementing, and evaluating interactive computer systems from a human-centered perspective. Students will learn important concepts including understanding users, incorporating accountability and responsibility in design, creating accessible and inclusive systems, and evaluating system interfaces with well-established methodologies.

Course Objectives

This course introduces students to the fundamental concepts of HCI and prepare them for the more advanced and specialized topics in other HCI courses. In particular, students will learn topics in a more technical aspect tailored to the needs of computer scientists, and have a more user-centered and ethical perspective in computing science which many positions in industry are now requiring.

By the end of this course students should be able to:

• Identify and describe representative users of any given interactive computer system
• Understand the physical and cognitive characteristics of human users and how these inform design
• Engage in intelligent discussion on impacts and ethical concerns of design
• Consider factors beyond system functionalities that impact design decisions (e.g., standards)
• Recognize diversity of users and best practices in design for accessibility and inclusivity
• Design and evaluate interactive computer systems using different techniques (e.g., prototyping)
• Articulate and perform all steps in the interaction design process (i.e., discover user needs, design solutions, create and evaluate prototypes)

Recommended Textbooks

• (ID-Book) Preece, J., Rogers, Y., Sharp, H., & EBSCOhost. (2019). Interaction design : Beyond human-computer interaction / Helen Sharp, Yvonne Rogers, Jennifer Preece. (Fifth ed.). Wiley. Online access (requires SFU login)
• (UX-Book) The UX Book: Process and Guidelines for Ensuring a Quality User Experience (available through SFU library): Hartson, R., & Pyla, P. S. (2012). UX Book, The. Elsevier Science & Technology. Online access (requires SFU login)
• (UMD-Book) Universal Methods of Design (available through SFU Library): Hanington, B., & Martin, B. (2022). The Pocket Universal Methods of Design, Revised and Expanded. Quarto Publishing Group USA. Online access (requires SFU login)

Course Schedule

Handy Online References

• Good resource on UX Design [LINK]
• Some good courses & articles in interaction design [LINK]