Why it’s not just about Computer Science

Every year that you have attended school, computers have been increasingly woven into the fabric of your everyday life. We don’t interact with computers simply when we sit in front of their screens anymore. They are in front of our faces when we eat dinner, telling us where to go when we drive our cars, and the medium through which we express many of our relationships.

This means that we can’t dismiss the quality of our interactions with these devices as something trivial or unimportant. Computers are simply too pervasive in our lives. The quality of our interactions with computers has a direct impact on our overall quality of life.

Practically, if you write an application that people can’t use, they won’t use it. Many of the dominant companies that we are familiar with received a jump start by emphasizing core usability principles in the beginning stages of development.

Given these stakes, we need to deeply consider What is the best way for us to interact with computers? How can we quantify or capture this notion of ‘good design’? How can we build applications of our own that are designed well? By the end of this course, you should be able to…

  1. Apply human-centered design processes to find problems and design solutions that meet real human needs Develop a process for exploring problem spaces and design spaces. This will allow you to use research-validated approaches to creating apps that people find a pleasure to use.
  2. Anchor design decisions in existing design research and expertise. We will utilize existing and emerging research surrounding interaction techniques to improve the way that people engage with the world around them. This will allow you to develop a design intuition - using design ideas and principles to build user-centered applications.
  3. Communicate the provenance of your design in a clear and compelling manner. We will document our design processes in such a way that they will showcase and validate the decisions that you made. These documents are synonymous with reflections required by many companies who are hiring in the design space.

Finally, you will be exposed to people who are paving the way for the next-generation of HCI. Through them, I hope that you will catch a glimpse of the future, and use this information to grab ahold of trends before they emerge.

What you’re expected to do

Reading, Watching, Listening (12%)

Each week, our course schedule will contain a set of content you are asked to consume. Often this will involve short readings, YouTube videos, podcasts, or slide decks. My goal is to transform the lecture section of the course into a design studio as much as possible. While there will still be the occasional lecture, iterating through, presenting, and critiquing each others’ designs is where you will really learn to build in a human-centered way.

You are required to fill out a content reflection form for each day there is required content. There may be an occasional in-class quiz on this material.

Participation, Professionalism, and Critique (18%)

When the core content of a course involves people, engagement is absolutely critical. We will be doing design exercises in class, testing new software on each other, and providing critiques of each others’ work. This portion of your grade is significantly higher in HCI than some of your other courses for this very reason. Coffee up! It involves (but is not limited to): showing up to class, actively engaging in class activities, submitting good questions for our weekly visitors…

Visitors: HCI is a diverse field. It has computer scientists, psychologists, sociologists, artists, and everything in between. Giving you one perspective (my perspective) would shed light on only a corner of an increasingly exciting field that is shaping how people engage with the world around them. As a result, we will have an opportunity to chat with people across this broad spectrum via Google Hangouts. What you need to do:

  • Submit a question in the #questions channel Slack for our guest by 5pm the day before their visit.
  • Before 11am the morning of their call, indicate which current questions on Slack that you like (with emoji, a comment, whatever). We will ask the top 3-5 questions submitted each week.

Design Activities (50%)

The core of the work in this class will fall under the broad category of “Design Activities” - worth 50% of your overall grade and will be completed in teams. These will involve creating new technology by utilizing a combination of the human-centered design process and the research-based insights that you will be exposed to. Design activities will focus on different domains (visual design, data visualization, affective computing, etc.) and with different goals (designing for others, designing for persuasion, designing for fun, etc.).

Design Manifesto and Portfolio (20%)

At the end of the semester, each individual student will construct a website that acts as a design portfolio - linking to their work over the course of the semester. In addition, you will write a design manifesto that promotes a philosophy for design, as is evidenced by your work over the semester. Read more details here.

How you are assessed

  • Design Document Rubric: A majority of your assignments (including all design activities) will use a rubric that aligns with the learning goals articulated at the beginning of this document: your decisions are informed by the design process and design principles (35%), you can build working prototypes of your designs (35%), and you can effectively communicate your design to a broader audience (35%). Read the rubric and design document page carefully to make sure you are aligning with my expectations.

  • Group Work: Group work can be challenging. As a result, in each group project, you will submit a brief assessment of you and your classmates’ work. At the end of the semester, I may use these assessments to reweight the group portion of your grade (either positively or negatively).

  • Participation / Reading: Participation and reading checkpoints are largely binary: acceptable vs. not acceptable. If I find that your reading responses are too shallow to reach an acceptable bar, I will contact you.

Grading Breakdown

  • Participation and Critique: 18%
  • Modules: 50%
  • Reading Checkins and Quizzes: 12%
  • Design Manifesto and Portfolio: 20%

Note: If a student fails any single portion of the class, it is up to the instructor’s discretion whether the student should pass the course as a whole.

Late Policy

The core of the design cycle relies on feedback. If you do not complete something on time, then it offsets the entire cycle. As a result, I cannot accept late assignments. While special circumstances may warrant an extension, failing to complete an assignment in time will result either in a 0 or a grade of no more than half your final grade on the assignment. If you cannot complete an assignment, you should turn in whatever work that you have completed along with a reflection on the assignment (Why couldn’t you finish it? What was harder than you expected?).

Code of Conduct

Professionally, we strongly adhere to ACM’s Code of Ethics. More broadly, a course like CSCI 379 involves reflection, collaboration, and communication. We recognize that computer science has a checkered history with respect to inclusion - in corporate environments, in our classrooms, and in the products we create. As a result, we strive to promote characteristics of transparency and inclusivity that reflect what we hope our field becomes (and not necessarily what it has been or is now).

Above all, be kind.

We reject behavior that strays into harassment, no matter how mild. In this context, harassment refers to offensive verbal or written comments in reference to gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, race, or religion; sexual images in public spaces; deliberate intimidation, stalking following, harassing photography or recording, sustained disruption of class meetings, in appropriate physical contact, and unwelcome sexual attention.

If you feel someone is violating these principles (for example, with a joke that could be interpreted as exist, racist, or exclusionary), it is your responsibility to speak up! If the behavior persists, send a private email to Prof. Peck to explain the situation.

(Portions of this code of conduct are adapted from Prof. Lorena A. Barba)

Accessibility

Any student who needs an accommodation based on the impact of a disability should contact Heather Fowler, Director of the Office of Accessibility Resources at hf007@bucknell.edu, 570-577-1188 or in Room 212 Carnegie Building who will coordinate reasonable accommodations for students with documented disabilities.

Basic Needs Security

Any student who has difficulty affording groceries or accessing sufficient food to eat every day, or who lacks a safe and stable place to live, and believes this may affect their performance in the course, is urged to contact the Dean of Students for support. Furthermore, please notify the professor if you are comfortable in doing so. This will enable him to provide any resources that he may possess.