The course is mainly composed of lectures, practical activities in class, project assignments, a mid-term exam, and a literature review (for CPSC 584 only). Lecture slides will be posted in Canvas right before their corresponding class (see the Files folder).

Note that some assignments are due right before class, others are due later or on non-regular meeting days. There are no late days for the group assignments.

There are 11 class-activities planned in total for the semester. Each activity is 3pts, so students need to participate in at least 8 activities to obtain full points on this component of their course evaluation (assuming they get the full points on all 8 activities). Students may very well do more activities than they need to reach the 24pts corresponding to in-class activities. No matter how many activities they complete, the 8 in-class activities with the top grade will be considered for their final course grade.

The books referenced in the schedule as complementary readings (see the “Comp. Reading” column in the table) are available through the Yale University Library. In particular, the two books below are available online:

This other one can be borrowed from the library:

Calendar

Date Day Topic Class Activity Assignment Comp. Reading
Jan 17 Tu Introduction. Why care about design?
January 19 Th History of HCI. Design thinking.
January 24 Tu Improvisation and Brainstorming. Qualitative data analysis. Brainstorming problems and goals that may be supported by their interactive installation. (submit to gradescope) Survey for semester-long project RMiHCI, Ch. 11
January 26 Th Strategies for Collaboration. Ethnography.
January 31 Tu More on Contextual Inquiry and Research Methods RMiHCI, Ch. 9
February 1 Wed Not a regular class day. A1. Problem ideation (due at 12pm)
February 2 Th Contextual Inquiry (continued) and Interviews. Task, Personas & Scenarios. Begin planning contextual inquiry / interview for A2 (submit to gradescope) CD, Ch. 3: Principles of Contextual Inquiry
February 7 Tu Sketching. Storyboarding Sketching activity (submit to gradescope)
February 9 Th Applications: Group Interactions (Houston Claure, Yale) Fairness in HCI (submit to gradescope)
February 14 Tu Low fidelity prototyping A2. Design research (due at 8pm, submit through gradescope)
February 16 Th Wireframes & Figma Quick Intro Wireframe (submit to gradescope)
February 21 Tu More on software infrastructure for interactive display and heuristic evaluation
February 23 Th Applications: "Actuated Experience: Inventing, Designing, and Speculating Future Interfaces and Environments with Actuation" (Ken Nakagaki, UChicago) Invited talk via zoom. Come to class, ask questions, and complete the in-class activity (via gradescope) 584: Milestone for small lit. review (due at 8pm; submit through gradescope).
February 27 Mon Not a regular class day. A3. Low-fi Prototype (due at 8pm, submit thourgh gradescope)
February 28 Tu More on heuristic evaluation & usability testing Practice heuristic evaluation (submit to gradescope) RMiHCI, Ch. 10
March 2 Th Usability testing & experiment design
March 7 Tu Modeling users RMiHCI, Ch. 13
March 9 Th Midterm
March 14 Tu Spring Recess
March 16 Th Spring Recess
March 21 Tu Spring Recess
March 23 Th Spring Recess
March 28 Tu More on modeling users: spatial behavior
March 30 Th Programming tips for the interactive display
March 31 Fri Not a regular class day A4. Updated Prototype (due at 8pm; submit via gradescope)
April 4 Tu Design of everyday things (invited lecture by Houston Claure) DoET, Ch. 6: The Design Challenge
April 6 Th Data Visualization Understanding Github Code Repositories
April 11 Tu Applications: "Multimodal Interaction in Mixed Reality" (Sophie Stellmach, Microsoft) Invited talk. Come to class and ask questions! (complete in-class activity through Gradescope)
April 13 Th Universal design & accessibility A5: Prototype System Milestone (due at 8pm; submit via gradescope) RMiHCI, Ch. 3
April 18 Tu Last tips for semester-long project
April 19 Wed Not a regular class day. 584: Small literature review (due at 8pm; submit through Gradescope).
April 20 Th Applications: "Enabling Mixed Reality for People with Low Vision" (Yuhang Zhao, Wisconsin) Invited talk via zoom. Come to class and ask questions! (complete in-class activity through Gradescope)
April 25 Tu Test system prototype on TV (no need to go to classroom) A6. Final Prototype System
April 27 Th Live project demos (no need to go to classroom) Try out other projects during class!
May 2 Tu Reading period
May 4 Th Reading period A7. User Testing and Video Presentation.