Human-computer interaction (FRI)

Higher education teachers: Jager Franc

Subject description

Prerequisits:

• Enrollment in the study year.

Content (Syllabus outline):

Lectures:

• Concepts of the human-computer communication, psychology of human and computers, perception and understanding.
• The concept of direct manipulation, metaphors, interaction styles, models of the user, programmer and designer, user interface design principles.
• Properties of graphical user interfaces, object-oriented user interfaces and user interfaces for the Internet.
• Designing user interfaces: models, process planning, analysis tasks, the selection of interaction techniques, instructions for the selection and arrangement of components for communications, standards, images, presentations and metaphors, the selection of colors and sounds, basic graphics concepts.
• A comparison of user interfaces in typical environments and their use.
• Evaluation of user interfaces, evaluation criteria, measures of performance, usability testing.
• Programming user interfaces, a typical programming environments, generators, interfaces, class of images, features images, administrators, building blocks for interaction, dialogue, portability, internationalization.
• Introduction to multimedia and virtual reality.

Exercises:

Consolidation of the content covered by lectures with examples.
Presentation of the typical aspects of user interfaces and applications.

Homework:

Students typically produce 10 small projects or applications and present them to the teacher. Students are allowed to work on these projects also at lab exercises with the assistance of a teacher.

Objectives and competences:

The goal is to provide a general introduction to the field of interaction between human and computer. Students should understand a wide range of basic concepts of communication between human and computer and are able to apply the basic principles, guidelines and techniques for: designing user interfaces and interactive applications, performing analysis and evaluation of interfaces and evaluating their usefulness.

Intended learning outcomes:

Knowledge of basic concepts of human computer communication, knowledge of the concepts of interaction, knowledge of the principles, guidelines and procedures of user interface design, knowledge of evaluation of user interfaces and evaluation of their usefulness.

Learning and teaching methods:

• Lectures and exercises with the oral exams, homework.
• Particular emphasis is on an ongoing study and independent work in class and homework assignments.

Study materials

• Raskin: The Human Interface (New Directions for designing Interactive Systems), Adison Wesley, 2005.
• Benyon: Designing Interactive Systems, Adison Wesley, 2005.
• B. Shneidermen: Designing User Interfaces, Adison Wesley, 1998.
• T. Mandel: The Elements of User Interface Design, John Wiley & Sons, 1997
• E. M. del Gado, J. Nielsen: International User Interfaces, John Wiley & Sons, 1996
• W. O. Galitz: It is Time to Clean Your Windows, John Wiley & Sons, 1994