OVERVIEW

The course provides the basic theories and techniques of Human Computer Interaction, aiming at the acquisition of the fundamental methodologies and technical skills necessary to the mastery of the interaction design development process for interactive systems, from desktop and mobiles to augmented, mixed, and virtual reality. To this aim, students will be involved along the semester in exercises and examples from concrete projects, including sessions at the InfoMus-Casa Paganini research centre of UniGe.

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The teaching unit provides the student with the methodology, the theory, and the techniques for the design of interactive products to support the way people communicate and interact in their everyday and working lives.  This relies on the mastery of the development process for the understanding of the capabilities and desires of people and on the kinds of technology available to interaction designers, together with a knowledge of how to identify requirements and develop them into a suitable design. 
The teaching unit will cover standard techniques as well as an introduction to advanced topics, including sound and music computing (as a complementary component of visual and haptic interfaces), and emotional and social interfaces. 
A coursework devoted to the realization of the development process of a concrete interaction design project of an interactive product will be implemented during the whole semester, in a simulated working environment typical of Startups. Further, students will learn to design and manage motion capture sessions using the Qualisys industry standard motion capture system available at Casa Paganini-InfoMus. Finally, students will learn techniques to present their results, including elevator pitches and reporting to stakeholders.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

Acquisition of concrete skills in the Interaction Design (ID) development process including usability, user experience design, evaluation techniques, for the design of multimedia and multimodal user interfaces in desktop and mobile PCs, wearables, augmented, mixed, and virtual reality systems.

PREREQUISITES

Foundations of computer science; basic knowledge on software engineering.

TEACHING METHODS

Frontal instruction, seminars, and active participation of students in examples and exercises on the application of the theories and techniques, also using the technology infrastructure (audio, motion capture system, various sensor systems) available at the premise of the InfoMus-Casa Paganini Research Centre.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

Introduction to Human Computer Interaction and Interaction Design (ID). The ACM curricula on HCI.

Foundations of human perception and cognition for human-centered interactive systems design. Usability and User experience. Human processor model and other recent models from cognitive science; visual, auditory, haptic sensory channels; Introduction to auditory perception: Auditory scene analysis, Equal Loudness Contour,  

Design Principles – Usability: learnability, visibility, errors, efficiency.

Design Techniques: User Analysis; Task Analysis; Domain Analysis; Iterative design; Prototyping.

Designing, developing, and evaluating interfaces: the ID development process. The Double Diamond; Design Sprints; Theories and models supporting the development process; Predictive Motor Theories (Hick-Hyman, Fitts’ Law, Steering Law) and impact on UI design.

From WIMP to multimodal interfaces: command-based, WIMP and GUI, Mobiles, Multimedia, Speech, Sound, Touch, Air-based gesture, Motion Capture, Haptic, Shareable, Tangible, Wearable, Augmented/Mixed/Virtual Reality. Exercises and examples.

User Experience design - Emotional and Social Interfaces; Digital Nudging and Persuoasive technologies.

Evaluation and research methods: Field studies, Interviews, Lab Experiment design; Controlled lab experiments; introduction to statistical techniques for the analysis of interfaces.

Introduction to Human-AI Interaction; the impact of AI in the ID development process.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Course slides, links, and suggested readings available online on the Shared Resources of the Teams Class of the course.
• Preece, Rogers, Sharp (2023) “Interaction Design – Beyond Human-Computer Interaction”, Wiley, 6th Ed. 

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

LESSONS

LESSONS START

https://corsi.unige.it/en/corsi/11160/students-timetable

https://easyacademy.unige.it/portalestudenti//index.php?_lang=en

Class schedule

The timetable for this course is available here: Portale EasyAcademy

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

Oral exam, consisting of discussion on problems and exercises on multimodal UI design, usability, UX design.

Students with certification of Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD), disabilities, or other special educational needs must contact the instructor at the beginning of the course to agree on teaching and examination methods that, while respecting the course objectives, take into account individual learning styles and provide appropriate compensatory tools. It is reminded that the request for compensatory/dispensatory measures for exams must be sent to the course instructor, the School representative, and the “Settore servizi per l'inclusione degli studenti con disabilità e con DSA” office (dsa@unige.it) at least 10 working days before the test, as per the guidelines available at the link: https://unige.it/disabilita-dsa

ASSESSMENT METHODS

The oral exam will enable to verify the students critical reasoning skills, their use and mastery of the vocabulary and specialist ID theories and techniques.