Course Syllabus
Learning area
Applied Experimental Psychological Sciences
Learning objectives
Knowledge and understanding
- To develop an understanding of the interaction between people and technology, focusing on new technological developments such as virtual reality, augmented reality, robots and conversational agents.
- Knowledge of how these technologies can be used as a means to create practical applications as well as contexts within which human behaviour and cognition can be studied, supported, and improved.
- Basic knowledge of the human-centred design process applied to novel technologies.
- Basic knowledge of the functioning of Unity3D, one of the main authoring platforms for real-time content, e.g. VR, AR, or 2/3D simulations and games.
Applying knowledge and understanding
- Students will be able to apply basic concepts of human-technology interaction to everyday relevant issues.
- Students will grow their ability to identify, discuss, and eventually address human factors issues caused by design flaws and constraints posed by current, and possibly future, technologies.
- Students will have the chance, even if not mandatory, to acquire basic computational thinking skills applied to the development of systems using new technologies with direct experience on C#, Unity3D scripting language
Contents
This course provides an overview of the field of human-technology interaction, with a focus on the application of psychological knowledge to the design life cycle with new technologies.
- The course will provide students with tools and techniques for creating, prototyping and improving interactions in different fields encompassing new technologies such as ubiquitous computing, virtual and augmented reality.
- Different new technologies relevant to human interaction will be studied as well as the general process of approaching a new technology from the perspective of an interaction designer.
- By the end of the course, students will have learned some useful techniques and gained an understanding of systematic procedures for creating usable and useful designs and systems.
- Students will be involved in a real software development project: they will design, create and evaluate an interactive experience using Unity3D, one of the main authoring platforms for real-time content, e.g. VR, AR, or 2/3D simulations and games.
• The course is NOT programming intensive.
Learning outcomes:
• Being able to design effective interactions between humans and technology (i.e., computers, wearable devices, car systems, mobile phones, websites, apps, etc.) in specific areas (medical, entertainment, educational, etc.).
• Being able to apply design principles and knowledge from research to a new interaction problem or technology.
• Being able to go through the iterative process of needs finding, prototyping, evaluating and revising.
• Being able to discover the goal behind a design (e.g., usability, research, behavioural change, entertainment, etc.) and to measure the effectiveness in achieving it.
• Being able to build a prototype with Unity3D for the evaluation of interactions.
Detailed program
1. Introduction.
• The place of HTI between UI, UX, HCI, IxD, Accessibility and inclusiveness
• The design cycle.
2. Recap of Design Principles (especially for students who did not attend Cognitive Ergonomics or Applied Neuroscience courses)
• Identifying a task
• Human abilities and cognitive load.
• Theories, principles and heuristics: affordances, cognitive modelling, human needs and motivation, activity theory and situated cognition.
• Explain the main principles and advantages of a user-centered approach.
• Cognitive aspects of interaction design
Human Error
Attention and multitask performance
Memory limits and interaction design
Compare cognitive frameworks applied to HCI.
Mental models
• Requirements Elicitation
Prepare and run data-gathering programs, interviews and questionnaires preparation and execution
• Prototyping
Translation of models and requirements in prototypes
Types of prototypes and models: verbal, paper, Wizard of Oz, wireframe, physical prototype, personas, user profiles, timelines, scenarios, storyboards, video prototyping, user modeling.
• Evaluation
• Types of Evaluation: Qualitative, Empirical and Predictive evaluations.
• Challenges of Evaluation
• Inspections: Heuristic Evaluation and Walk-Throughs
• Agile methods: A/B testing, live prototyping.
Computational Thinking
What is a computer?
Computational Thinking
from a recipe to your first flowchart and C# program
Introduction Variables, Structures, Objects and Classes
Unity3D
What do you think is inside Unity3D
Unity3D Elements
Base Unity Tutorial
UXF - Unity Experiment FrameworkURL
First Unity3D but 2D program
6 Voice Interaction System Design
• What Is a Conversation
• Natural Language Interfaces
• Conversational UX Design Process
• Conversational UX Patterns
• Introduction to code free Conversational System prototyping tools
7 Interaction in Other Realities
• Introduction to code free immersive interaction systems prototyping tools
• Hardware
The Convergence of AR and VR
VR Input Devices
HMD System Calibration
HMD Latency Reduction
• VR Perception
Perceptual Constancies, Adaptation, Attention
Perceptual Stability, Attention, and Action
Distal and Proximal Stimuli
Sensation vs. Perception
Bottom-Up and Top-Down Processing
Limited Field of View, Exploration and Saliency
Motion Perception
• VR Interaction Concepts, Patterns and Techniques
Immersion, Presence, and Reality Trade-Offs
Interaction Fidelity
Proprioceptive and Egocentric Interaction
Reference Frames
Sickness and Fatigue
Visual-Physical Conflict and Sensory Substitution
Interaction Selection, Manipulation, Viewpoint Control, Indirect Control, and Compound Patterns
8 Human Robot Interaction
• Introduction to code free HRI prototyping tools (in simulation for the moment)
• Hardware: success and failures
• Anthropomorphism Applications in Interaction Design and Human Robot Interaction
• Theory of mind and intention recognition
• Spatial Interaction
• Nonverbal Interaction
• Verbal Interaction
• Robots in Society
Prerequisites
Interest in human technology interaction and in achieving a basic understanding of how technologies, particularly computer-based technologies, works are the main requirements.
Good knowledge of the basis of Psychology enables a more aware use of the course contents, in particular: perception, memory, learning; research methods, and experimental design.
Students lacking such knowledge are encouraged to ask for a list of basic references that will be supplied during the course. Students are strongly recommended to attend Cognitive Ergonomics or Applied Neuroscience before taking this course.
No previous programming experience is required. Computational concepts will be explained in an intuitive and simple manner by relating them to cognitive concepts, simple exercises and examples.
Teaching methods
Teaching mixes frontal lessons and invited talks with collaborative problem solving, active discussion on case studies and flipped classrooms on specific novel technologies.
Students are encouraged to design and test interactive systems starting from the introductory material provided by the instructor
Course attendance is strongly recommended in order to take advantage of interactive lessons, research and technology hands-on activities.
Assessment methods
Assessment comprises a final oral exam and in-class activities including:
- In-class group presentation (+ slides) of at least 2 technologies agreed with the instructor
- In-class exercises and tests about invited talks, & students presentations
- Computational thinking, Unity3D and C# exercises, which will provide bonus marks.
Oral exam covers one of these two:
- a UX project (group) presentation [grades not topped]
- OR: a research paper or technology presentation of about 20 minutes AND an oral interview on the course material (slides or technology topics covered in invited talks) [grades topped]
Important
- If no technology presentation took place in class, the student must prepare an additional research paper or technology presentation of about 20 minutes
- If in-class exercises and tests about invited talks & students' presentations were not submitted during the course they will be discussed during the oral interview
You must:
- consult with the instructor ASAP to choose the project topic/technology/paper
- send the presentation to the instructor at least a week before the exam date
Note that:
- Project and technology presentations can be organized as a group of at most three students.
- In group works contributions must be specified.
Textbooks and Reading Materials
- The material will be downloadable from eLearning and from the Bicocca digital library.
- Slides discussed during the lessons in PDF format will be downloadable from eLearning.
- Papers and book chapters in PDF will be downloadable from the Bicocca Digital Library and/or from eLearning.
- Reccomended optional books:
- Interaction Design beyond human computer interaction
- The Encyclopedia of Human-Computer Interaction, 2nd Ed.
- The VR Book Human-Centered Design for Virtual Reality
- Unity Virtual Reality Projects
- Conversational UX Design: A Practitioner's Guide to the Natural Conversation Framework
- Research methods in human computer interaction
5.Real life examples: videos, hands-on with prototypes and final products.
6. Practice tasks: Collaborative design with prototyping tools and evaluation
Sustainable Development Goals
Staff
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Dimitri Ognibene
