Topics focus on field and ethnographically based design studies, participatory design methods, user laboratory studies, and usability testing. The purpose is to have access to a range of methods that help uncover opportunities, breakdowns, and interactions that affect the design and use of developing systems. Students are challenged to evaluate the underlying perspectives of the approaches and decide which approach or combination of approaches works best for particular problems. They apply the methods in field and classroom exercises and produce a real-world project or paper using course methods. The intended result is to make students more effective not only at gathering relevant user-based information, but also at integrating it into the development process.
Introduction Read about the method before coming to class.
Practice Apply the method to perspective users outside of class. Document Summarize results in a written report to be distributed to other students in the course. Evaluation Summarize the advantages and disadvantages of the method in a written report to be distributed to other students in the course. This will give students a chance to demonstrate what they learned during the course, and receive additional feedback on their projects. Teams During the first class teams of two to three students will be formed for the first half of the course.