Approval

The course was established 2006-12-13. This syllabus was approved 2007-09-07 by the Education Committee at Arts and Communication. The syllabus is valid from 2007-08-31.

Stage

Mandatory course for the Master degree in Interaction Design.

Entry requirements

Admitted to the study programme Interaction Design, 120 higher education credits.

Learning outcomes

The purpose of the course is to develop the students' ability to assess the use qualities of digital artifacts. The learning outcomes are specified as follows.
Knowledge and understanding
After completing the course, the student should
• display knowledge of the scope of assessment methods and techniques in interaction design, ranging from the HCI tradition of instrumental and cognitivistic methods to experience-oriented and sociotechnical methods;
• display knowledge of the role of assessment in interaction design.
Skills and abilities
After completing the course the student should
• display ability to perform assessments of digital artifacts within the scope of assessment methods and techniques indicated above.
Judgement and values
After completing the course the student should
• display ability to choose appropriate methods and techniques for assessing the use qualities of digital artifacts;
• display ability to interpret the value and implications of assessment outcomes.
• demonstrate ability to, within interaction design as an area of knowledge development, exercise judgement accounting for relevant societal and ethical aspects. In particular, the ability to judge design qualities associated with gender, migration and ethnicity, and environmental issues should have been developed.

Assessments

Students perform projects where they carry out assessments of digital artifacts, some individual and some in groups. The projects are documented in use quality assessment reports and presented. Reports and presentations are graded according to the degree to which they demonstrate attainment of the learning outcomes stated above.

Course content

The course consists of two modules, where module 1 contains the following topics.
• qualitative and quantitative use studies of usability and usefulness;
• qualitative and quantitative use studies and analytical models for assessing use experience.
The contents of module 2 are as follows.
• cognitivism and the HCI tradition: cognitive ergonomics, heuristic evaluation, usability testing;
• sociotechnical assessment: contextual inquiry, drama and roleplay;
• the product semantics of ICT.

Learning activities

The course is built around a range of practical assessment projects, where use-quality assessment methods and techniques are introduced, applied and reflected upon. Some of the projects are closely integrated with the parallel studio course, others are specific to this course.

Grading system

Fail (U), Pass (G) or Pass with Distinction (VG).
ECTS grading system can be used on students demand.

Reading list

Entire course
Literature study year 2007/2008
Beyer, H., Holtzblatt, K. (1998). Contextual design: Defining customer-centered systems. San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann.
Blythe, M., Overbeeke, K., Monk, A., Wright, P. (2003). Funology: From usability to enjoyment. Dordrecht: Kluwer. (Excerpts.)
Jones, M., Marsden, G. (2006). Mobile interaction design. Chichester: John Wiley.
Jordan, P. (2000). Designing pleasurable products: An introduction to the new human factors. London: Taylor and Francis. (Excerpts.)
Krippendorff, K. (2006). The semantic turn: A new foundation for design. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. (Excerpts.)
McCarthy, J., Wright, P. (2004). Technology as experience. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
Monk, A., Wright, P., Haber, J., Davenport, L. (1993). Improving your human-computer interface: A practical technique. New York: Prentice Hall.
Preece, J., Rogers, Y., Sharp, H. (2002). Interaction design: Beyond human-computer interaction. New York: John Wiley. (Excerpts.)
Additional reading may be recommended during the course.

Course evaluation

The course is evaluated using qualitative summative evaluation methods.

Other

Course language: English