Designing Interactive Systems I '11

Description

This class introduces students to the field of human-computer interaction (HCI) and user interface design. Topics covered include fundamental characteristics of human cognition (such as reaction time, rules of perception, and memory performance), models of interaction between people and their environment (such as affordances, mappings, and constraints), a brief history of interactive technologies, iterative design, user interface prototyping techniques, user studies and evaluation methods. After the class, students will know how user interfaces have developed over the past decades, and what constants of human performance need to be considered when designing user interfaces. They will be able to apply a series of prototyping and evaluation methods to design usable, appropriate user interfaces in a user-centered fashion.