Introduction to Human-Computer Interaction Methods

(Fall '05) As the title indicates, this class introduces the most popular and effective methods utilized by HCI professionals. All students complete homework assignments exploring Contextual Inquiry, modeling, Cognitive Walkthrough, Think Aloud, Heuristic Evaluation, GOMS (including KLM), Designing from Data, culminating in a redesign of a product. In this instance, we redesigned the calendar and to-do list applications in the Palm OS. My team for the homework assignments was Jonathan Terleski and Andy Tzou.

Masters students in this class also complete a lab portion of the course, in which they analyze and redesign a product developed by other faculty or students at CMU. While the homework assignments expose students to the methods, the lab portion requires application of the methods without direct faculty supervision. My group, which included Michele Clarke, Kayre Hylton, and Cole Jitkoff, analyzed and redesigned Aaron Powers' Web Survey Toolbox, a free web survey creation tool.

Communication Design Fundamentals (CDF)

(Fall '05) This course aims to introduce students with no background in design to the importance of color, typography, text-as-image, grids, and other basic ideas of communication design. Projects included an expressive quote exercise and a type booklet for practice laying out pages of text.

Interface and Interaction Design (IID)

(Spring '06) Unlike CDF, this design class focuses on creating usable designs, not just aesthetically pleasing designs. Methods include creation of personas and mood boards, and the projects reinforce the basic ideas of CDF, such as grids and color selection, while shifting the focus to usability. Assignments in this class included creating a small screen interface suitable for cell phones, designing a transactional website, and prototyping a new digital music player.

Programming Usable Interfaces (PUI)

(Spring '06) While many HCI students have a background in computer science, several also come into the program from the social sciences and other fields. Such students take Programming Usable Interfaces, which aims to teach two things: first, an understanding of how programming works such that we can understand and be understood by programmers, and second, how to create high-fidelity prototypes in a program such as Visual Basic and Flash. Methods such as Think Aloud and Heuristic Evaluation are incorporated into this class as well, so students can understand what it's like to have their own work critiqued.

HCI Project (I)

(Spring '06) The first semester of the HCI capstone project involves primarily research and user testing, with some progress into designing the new system, concept, or implementation. During this time, the project is supposed to take no more time than a normal course. My project team included Michele Clarke, Bryan Crowe, Cole Jitkoff, and Colleen Koranda.

HCI Project (II)

(Summer '06) The second semester of the capstone project focuses on design, implementation, and creation of deliverables for the client. During this semester students are expected to spend at least 48 hours per week on the project.