Course syllabus

Course-PM

TDA486 / TIA100 Human-centred design lp4 vt19 (7.5 hp)

Course is offered by the department of Computer Science and Engineering

Contact details

• Examiner: Fang Chen
• Course responsible: Fang Chen
• Teachers: Fang Chen and Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic
• Supervisors: Fang Chen and Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic

Contact:

Fang Chen fanch@chalmers.se 

Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic dodig@chalmers.se 

Syllabus

Link to the syllabus on Studieportalen: Chalmers syllabus

Link to the syllabus on Gothenburg University GU syllabus

Course purpose

In this course, the students are introduced to the Human Centered Design and learn when and why HCD is applicable, and when and why it is not. The course will facilitate the development of attendant from a student of interaction design to  an interaction designer with attitude and confidence, by carrying out a state of the art real-world interaction-design project. HCD course presents as well a mutual learning experience, where all participants are collaborating, contributing, exploring and extending the boundaries of understanding and practice.

Schedule

See TimeEdit

Course design

TDA486/TIA100 is a project-based course. The aim of the course is to give the students comprehensive knowledge about various Human-Centered Design theories and methods in the process of designing interactive systems and the applications in the real-word practice.

The course consists of a theoretical and a practical part. The theoretical part presents the history and development of Human-Centred Design (HCD) from research to industrial applications. Relevant theories and processes related to Human-Centered Design, such as User-Centered Design, and Activity-Centered Design are covered. Practical parts consist of small-scale workshops and a major interaction design project. The design project will investigate given design challenge through Human-Centered Design, and is expected to produce innovative and meaningful project deliverables. The project will be carried out in small groups.

During the course, we will give a number of lectures and seminars. The purpose of the lectures is to provide starting points as well as detailed insights in the various aspects of HCD and its relation to similar theories and practices. The lectures require that the participants are well-prepared and have read the assigned literature. The seminars are run in close relationship to the project work and will be an intense activity where the participants critically discuss the literature as well as raise questions of the challenges and obstacles of applying HCD in various context. The identified questions will then be discussed together with all participants.

In the course, we will provide you with papers and method-documents. In addition, we will recommend books and further resources that are not mandatory, but in the long-run will be great sources for further study.

All the lectures and supervised group work meetings are mandatory. We will evaluate individual's work and contribution for the projects.

Learning objectives

Upon successful completion of this course students should be able to organize and apply Human Centered Design in the design of interactive systems, and be able to provide a critical reflection on the ethical aspects of the suggested approach.

Knowledge and understanding

After the course, students should know

• About the central components of Human Centered Design
• How to organize a Human Centered Design project
• The constraints and possibilities of HCD.

Skills and abilities

• Being able to present an overview of the broad field of Human-Centered Design theories and practices.
• Being able to organize and apply Human Centered Design methods in specific design challenges.

Judgment and approach

• Being able to explain the advantages and the limitations of different theories and methods in this area.
• Have ability to assess and motivate when Human-Centered Design is applicable.
  
  

Examination form

The course is examined by means of: laboratory (classroom) work that will include group work, peer review (pass only), seminars (pass only), written individual examination (graded), and HCD project work with documentation (graded).

Individual assignment, Take-home exam (40% of the final grade, 40 points)

In a home exam in the course you will address three questions providing your arguments using the theoretical concepts and references to the course literature.

PEER REVIEW OF THE HOME EXAM

You will get one home exam for peer review. You are expected to read carefully and comment on its content. Write two sentences verdict that summarizes your opinion on the assignment and possible suggestions for improvement.

GRADING OF THE HOME EXAM


The final grading of home exams will be done by teachers. This individual assignment will be graded 1-40 in accordance to the quality of your submission.

Project in Human Centered Design (60% of final grade, 60 points)

The projects objective is to apply HCD-methods and techniques for interaction design in industry. It is focused on designing and developing applications that will support vehicle HMI design for future autonomous driving. Students will be working in groups. The projects are inspired by the current research work on vehicle design and the project work will aim at solving real-world problems relevant for industry. 

The details of the projects will be presented during the course introduction, together with the background of each project, as well as the requirements. During the course, you will have opportunity for contact and communication with people from industry who will give guest lectures.

PROJECT VIDEO

Each project group will produces a short video prototype.

FINAL GRADE FOR THE COURSE

The final grade is a combination of your grades for your home exam and your project. You must, however, not fail any of the parts.

Final grading follows according to the points:

0-39 = Fail

40-59 = 3

60-79 = 4

80-100 = 5

 

Deadlines

Assignment 1: Project planning report  - 5th April

Assignment 2: SOA with literature study for each project - 11th April

Assignment 3: Home exam on HCI theory - 3rd May

Assignment 4: Peer review of home exam 9th May

Assignment 5: Project presentation 23rd May

Assignment 6: Project reports 28th May

Each deadline ends at 23:59 o'clock.

Changes made since the last occasion

Since the 2018-course edition, the main change is in focus.

The focus of 2019 course edition is on use of AI in the design for the future cars. That means that Lectures are oriented towards AI, guest lectures dedicated to the topic and Projects defined around AI as a theme.