HCI 445 Inquiry Methods and Use Analysis

Winter 2008

Instructor

Dr. Craig Miller
Office: 745 CTI Building, 312-362-5085
Email: cmiller@cs.depaul.edu
Web page: http://facweb.cs.depaul.edu/cmiller
Office Hours: Announced on Web page

Course Meeting

Thursday 5:45-9:00 and Distance Learning
TBA, Loop Campus

Required Text

Observing the User Experience: A Practitioner's Guide to User Research, by Mike Kuniavsky, ISBN 1-55860-923-7.

Prerequisites

IT 223 or elementary statistics.

Overview

This course surveys methods for learning about users and their tasks. Methods include observation, interviews, focus groups, contextual inquiry, participatory design, and contextual inquiry. Some of these methods will be practiced as course projects. Learning outcomes include competence in the following activities:

• Selecting appropriate user research methods and articulating their advantages and disadvantages
• Critiquing the validity of various sources for user research
• Understanding the role of user research in the design process
• Conducting user research methods
• Preparing documents that are useful for designing interactive systems.

Projects

Projects for this course include one individual project, two team projects and one hands-on design activity:

• Task observation (individual assignment)
• User profiling and contextual inquiry (team assignment)
• Team-chosen method (e.g. survey, focus group, participatory design)
• Design from another team's report

Except for the survey design, individuals or teams may choose the project domains within specified constraints. The domain for the survey is determined by the instructor, but its detailed goals, design and execution will be addressed as class activities (distance learning students will also be expected to make contributions).

During the 9th week, ad-hoc teams will create system designs based on documents from team designs. A major goal of this effort is to learn more about the usability of the documents we create in this class. The resulting design and feedback will be reviewed by the originating team.

Grade Determination

The score for individual contribution to class and team projects is based on contributions to class activities, documented contributions in team reports, observed team activities (in class, email or group message boards) and team member reports at the end of the quarter.

At the end of the quarter every student is expected to submit a completed evaluation form for each group member.

Team presentations occur in the last week of class. Distance Learning students will create an online presentation.

Students receiving more than 90% of possible points are guaranteed at least an A-, more than 80% at least a B-, more than 70% at least a C-, and more than 60% at least a D.

Policies

All students are expected to attend or view all classes and participate in class activities, either in-class or remotely through the DL program.

Team projects will generally be completed in groups of three, four or five. Team composition will be determined by the instructor based on meeting preferences and shared interests. All group members are jointly responsible for the entire assignment, although the group may assign primary roles to each group member. Generally, each group member will receive the same score on each project. However, in some cases, additional credit may go to those who make an exceptional contribution to a project and reduced credit to those who contribute little to a project. Any adjustement will be based on a variety of indications including group participation in class, contribution summaries in reports, and student feedback at the end of the quarter.

The team projects require data collection in the form of interviews, surveys or observations. All team members must individually collect data and post their notes by the date specified in the assignment. Failure to post may result in loss of credit for completing the assignment.

Late assignments will be accepted without penalty until 2pm the day following the due date. Assignments turned in later than 2pm the day following the due date will not be accepted.

The individual assignment, midterm quiz and all portions of the final exam must be individual efforts. When re-using materials, citing examples or using quotes, it should always be clear to the instructor when relying on the work or results of others. If in doubt, be explicit in your assignments and reports.

School policies on instructor evaluation, email, plagiarism and incompletes.

Tentative Schedule