Course syllabus
Course-PM
DAT580 / DIT487 DAT580 / DIT487 Empirical methods for user experience lp1 HT25 (7.5 hp)
The course is offered by the Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Link to the Syllabus: https://www.chalmers.se/en/education/your-studies/find-course-and-programme-syllabi/course-syllabus/DAT580/
Contact details
The main teacher of the course and examiner is Vasiliki Mylonopoulou
Contact: via canvas - if you do not have access to canvas then contact via email: vasiliki.mylonopoulou@gu.se
Course purpose
The course purpose can be found at the Syllabus linked above.
This year
- The course will focus on both Inspection and Empirical evaluation methods.
- Following the recent legislation update from the European Accessibility Act related evaluation methods are added
- The course will be a bit qualitative research heavy but quantitative analytical methods and mixed methods will be discussed.
Schedule
TimeEdit more detailed schedule follows
Notes:
- The lectures do not have mandatory participation, but it is highly recommended to be there as they could help you with your group work and home exams.
- If you miss a lecture, you do not need to do any complementary assignment as lectures are not mandatory.
- I expect you to be able to manage your study time and use the resources given to you the way it suits you.
| Date | Time | Lecture Title | Description of Activity |
| Tue 2 Sept | 13.15-15.00 | Introduction and Design research and practice Basics | This session will contain an introduction to the course and the course activities, as well as a description of the assignments and the final home exam. It will also contain a brief lecture on the basics of design practice and research |
| Thu 4 Sept | 13.15-17.00 | Perspectives | This lecture will present different research and design perspectives, briefly introducing research paradigms and design mindsets |
| Fri 5 Sept | 13.15-15.00 | Ethics on Participation in Research and Design and Group Assignment Instructions | This session will consist of a lecture on ethics in research in combination with different designs and emerging perspectives. It will also consist of the presentation of the group work and the group tasks, as well as advice for the home exam. |
| Tue 9 Sept | 13.15-15.00 | Data collection, analysis, and conceptualization | This lecture will be a brief introduction to commonly used methods, both in academia and industry, for data gathering, qualitative data analysis, and conceptualization of data, as well as documentation tips |
| Thu 11 Sept | 13.15-17.00 | Inspection Methods | This will be a session that will consist of a lecture on inspection methods and a demonstration of some of them. It will include Q&A for their application in the project work. |
| Fri 12 Sept | 13.15-15.00 | TBA | More information coming soon... |
| Tue 16 Sept | 13.15-15.00 | WCAG, is it an inspection method? | This session will consist of a brief lecture on accessibility, inclusion, and the WCAG, as well as a workshop going through some tools one can use to apply WCAG |
| Thu 18 Sept | 13.15-17.00 | Group work time | |
| Fri 19 Sept | 13.15-15.00 | Group work time | |
| Tue 23 Sept | 13.15-15.00 | Empirical and UX methods | This lecture will go through some empirical and UX methods and refresh your memory on ethical considerations and informed consent. It will include Q&A for their application in the project work. |
| Thu 25 Sept | 13.15-17.00 | Quantitative analysis (guest) | |
| Fri 26 Sept | 13.15-15.00 | TBA | More information coming soon... |
| Tue 30 Sept | 13.15-15.00 | Prototyping and Annotated Portfolios | This session will briefly introduce prototyping techniques and describe annotated portfolios. It will include Q&A for their application in the project work. |
| Thu 2 Oct | 13.15-17.00 | TBA | More information coming soon... |
| Fri 3 Oct | 13.15-15.00 | TBA | More information coming soon... |
| Tue 7 Oct | 13.15-15.00 | TBA | More information coming soon... |
| Thu 9 Oct | 13.15-17.00 | TBA | More information coming soon... |
| Tue 14 Oct | 13.15-15.00 | TBA | More information coming soon... |
| Thu 16 Oct | 13.15-17.00 | TBA | More information coming soon... |
| Fri 17 Oct | 13.15-15.00 | TBA | More information coming soon... |
| Tue 21 Oct | 13.15-15.00 | TBA | More information coming soon... |
| Thu 23 Oct | 13.15-17.00 | Potential Group presentations (optional) |
This section will take place only if there are people who would like to present their work. You will do a lot of work in this course, and presenting it is one way of celebrating. Presentations are not part of the examination. |
| Fri 24 Oct | 13.15-15.00 | Group work time | Free space to work on your final report |
| From Monday, the 20th of October, the home exam assignments will start opening | |||
Course literature
Each session consists of a literature package, some of which are optional to read, and some are highly recommended. You do not need to read in depth all the literature to pass the course, but you should be able to use the literature given to you to argue for your methodological choices.
As a teacher, one of my aims is to make you independent. At the end of the course, you should also be able to find methods, educate yourself about them, decide which one to apply, and support your decision with literature, argumentation, and group work experience.
All the literature needed for this course is freely available.
This course will also provide you with toolkits (lists) of methods with resources from the scientific community, textbooks, and practical websites to use them in your future student work or practice.
Course design
I will mainly hold interactive lectures based on the schedule above. In some lectures, we will have the opportunity to practice some of the methods/tools presented.
I designed Canvas, so it will provide you with the material to be able to complete the course successfully
There is a designated discussion space where you can ask questions about the course (anonymous if needed).
For personal matters that impact your study or special accommodations, contact the study counselor and inform me via the Canvas messaging function
- The course is planned for 7.5 credits corresponding approximately to 202,5 hours of work. Lectures will occupy about 20-30 hours of your time
- Regardless of you missing or being in a lecture, I expect you to go through the literature
- I expect you to be able to manage your study time and use the resources given to you in a way that suits you.
- To complete the course, you will need a laptop or a stationary computer
Changes made since the last occasion
This year's course underwent a major reconstruction based on the feedback of the student representatives and the evaluation survey.
- The design starts with the evaluation process of a ready-made system
- More assignments to experience different methods are added
- Basic concepts are briefly discussed, as it was judged redundant
Learning objectives and syllabus
Learning objectives:
- describe key qualities of correctly designed qualitative, quantitative and mixed-method studies.
- explain the differences between different evaluation strategies and predict their impact on the interaction design process.
- apply standard evaluation methods to studies in the interaction design process
- plan and organize user requirements gathering and subsequent analysis in an interaction design process
- test hypotheses in quantitative and mixed-method studies of interactive artefacts
- implement an effective and ethical evaluation strategy in a design process
- report and interpret results of studies according to academic professional standards
- select design alternatives based on interpreting study results
- assess designs of interactive artefacts based on study results
- explain the advantages and the limitations of different evaluation strategies in an interaction design process
- design effective formative and summative evaluation studies
- formulate ethical requirements for empirical studies.
Examination form
Group work is examined via hand-ins
The home exam consists of two written parts
To pass the course, you need to pass both parts.
If you have not succeeded, you will be asked to rework your hand-in material to acceptable standards.
You are free to use any materials given to you, or even if you find better scientific resources to rationalize around your choices, you can also refer to them.
For passing, you will need (more details will be given in the course, based on each assignment) :
- to choose, apply, and reflect on the methods based on the literature and your experience.
- To be able to analyze the data gathered based on the literature
- To be able to interpret your results into design options that you can justify based on the literature
- Reflection skills and a good connection with the literature will impact your grade positively.
NOTE: Some assignments shown in the following course summary may be removed or changed before the 9th of September.
Course summary:
| Date | Details | Due |
|---|---|---|