Learning objectives
At the end of this course students are able to:
- Select the correct usability measure for evaluating a product
- Know a number of effective research methods in design research
- Observe and analyse behavioral strategies of users
- Explain and critically reflect on concepts of user experience
- Understand the timeless barriers of user adoption (and know how to work around some of them)
- Apply psychological theories to design problems
- Understand future design challenges in robotic and AI design
In what way does this master’s course prepare students for the (Psychology) work field?
The course aims at preparing students for the fields of usability research and user experience design:
- 1sychological theories, such as self-efficacy theory or fluency of processing theory, are applied to real world design problems.
- In practice, such theories are of value, but are not sufficient. The course introduces a number of relevant measures, methods and research paradigms. In a dedicated workshop, students get familiar with the gold standard technique of usability testing.
- Practitioners routinely have to deal with a number of adoption barriers, that find little regard in academic research, for example, diversity of users or the barriers of adoption. The course puts much emphasis on these issues on critically reflects on the practical value of (some) research..
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Course description:
The course introduces classic and recent topics in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). HCI is a member of the Human Factors family and is about designing interactive products to best suit the human user’s mind. The course is primarily on research in HCI. Together we will read and discuss a number of seminal and recent research papers. At the same time the course always transfers to real design problems, such as:
- What are the advantages of aesthetic design?
- How to design for a broad population where users differ in wished, habits and capabilities?
- Technology is changing at a rapid pace. How do users learn to use new products? How do people keep up with the change?
In the last third, the course will cover future challenges, such as designing robots and conversational agents.
On the very practical side, the course contains a one-day training in usability testing, a central technique for user-centered design that is widely used throughout industry.
The following topics are covered by the course:
- User Testing
- User Experience & Engagement
- Learning & Change
- Intuitive Design
- Individual differences
- Human-Robot Interaction
- Social Intelligent Systems
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Examination: One written assignment per week
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