S1.1+2: Introduction; ABCS

S1.1+2: Introduction to the Course

Learning Outcomes

Understand:

  • If the user can’t use it, it does not work.
  • Designing a good user interface is multifaceted.
  • Whether a system is good or usable always depends on the context in which it is used.

Remember:

  • What are the ABCS of designing user interfaces?
  • What are the four main steps in designing a good user interface according to ISO 9241-1?

Apply:

  • List potential factors (from the ABCS) that impact the way in which a person would interact with a piece of technology
  • Decide whether this course is for you

Teaching Style

This course has two lecturers, Maria Wolters and Benjamin Bach.

Benjamin’s sessions will be straightforward lectures, with some interactive activities.

Maria’s sessions are structured differently:

  • Before each week, you review the materials for the week, including (most importantly) the relevant chapters of the textbook
  • Based on your review of the materials, you submit a “questions and comments” activity on TopHat
  • The sessions will review the materials for the week, with particular emphasis on answering student questions and clarifying problems
  • Each session will include in-class activities, for which we will use TopHat

Top Hat Join Code: 638404

Materials Used in the  Lectures

The ABCS of User Centred Design [PDF]

What does User-Centred Design involve? The slides about the ABCS of UCD take you through a whirlwind tour of different aspects.

7 Aspects of Design [PDF]

What do we need to consider when designing and evaluating an IT system? The slides about 7 aspects of design discuss relevant properties of IT systems.

Here is a short podcast [5 minutes, 9 MB, MP3] to explain more.

ISO Requirements [PDF]

What are the processes  involved in designing a good IT system? This is the take of the standards organisation ISO. If you would like more context, listen to this short podcast [3 minutes, 5MB, MP3]

If you only have time to do one thing after the lecture, check out Susan Dray’s Rap at CHI 2014. (The cheerleader in the scarf and the black top is Elizabeth Churchill, by the way.)

Activities On Top Hat

  1. What do you think makes a system usable? Post to Top Hat by yourself
  2. What content would you like to see covered in the course? There is scope for a session that’s designed to reflect student requests. Post to Top Hat after discussion with your neighbour
  3. Remember a time when you had problems with using a system.
    1. What was the problem?
    2. What was the source of the problem? Think about it in terms of the ABCS
    3. How could that problem have been alleviated?
  4. What aspects of context influence how well people can use the system? Think about a time when something that is normally easy to use became difficult.