OVERVIEW

The course provides the essential theories and techniques for the field of Interaction Design, aiming at the acquisition of the fundamental methodologies and technical skills necessary to a complete and reliable mastery of the interaction design development process. To this aim, each student will be involved along the whole semester in the development of a concrete project of an interactive product.

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The course 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 course 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 for multimedia and multimodal interfaces: how to manage the development process (Iterative, User-Centered, Participatory Design); usability, user experience, and evaluation in HCI/ID. Basic introductory knowledge on the design of emotional and social interfaces, and on sound and music computing.

PREREQUISITES

Foundations of computer science; basic knowledge on software engineering.

TEACHING METHODS

The course will include group projects / coursework developed during the whole semester in weekly sessions, supported by the team of researchers of the Casa Paganini – InfoMus Research Centre (www.casapaganini.org), including prototyping using various tools, e.g. Android Studio, Unity, and EyesWeb, and evaluation of usability of interfaces also based on statistical techniques (e.g. T-test, ANOVA). Group projects and prototyping include one or more sessions with the Qualisys motion capture platform available at Casa Paganini - InfoMus, as well as other available audiovisual and sensor technology.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

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

Foundations of human perception and cognition for human-centred interactive systems. Usability and User experience.

Interfaces: command-based, WIMP and GUI, Virtual reality, Mobiles, Multimedia, Speech, Touch, Air-based gesture, Motion Capture, Haptic, Shareable, Tangible, Wearable, AR/MR, Multimodal interfaces integrating sound and haptics.

Designing, developing, and evaluating interfaces: the ID development process.

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

Design Techniques: Task, User, Domain Analysis, Prototyping, User testing;

User Experience design - Emotional and Social Interfaces.

Theories and models supporting the development process.

Evaluation and research methods:

Experiment design; Controlled experiments; Statistical techniques for the analysis of interfaces (foundations).

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Course slides and suggested readings available online from AulaWeb page of the course (MS in Ingegneria Informatica);
• Preece, Rogers, Sharp (2019) “Interaction Design – Beyond Human-Computer Interaction”, Wiley, 5th Ed. Slides available online at http://www.id-book.com/slides_index.php

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

ANTONIO CAMURRI (President)

ALBERTO MASSARI

GUALTIERO VOLPE (President Substitute)

LESSONS

LESSONS START

https://courses.unige.it/11160/p/students-timetable

Class schedule

The timetable for this course is available here: Portale EasyAcademy

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

The exam consists of two parts:

1- Practical project: developed during the whole semester in class and with assignments.

2- Written exam, followed by oral exam.

At the end of the course, usually the last lesson, a simulation of an example of a written exam will be presented and discussed.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

After completing this course the students will be able to face the design of interactive multimedia systems and manage the interaction design process.

The final result will result from the integration of the two parts examinations (approx. first part 1/3, second part 2/3).

Exam schedule