Welcome to students attending my 2008 spring course on HCI. My Name is Jared Donovan. I am the lecturer for the course. You are welcome to contact me by email or in person. My email is jared@jareddonovan.com. You can find me in person in the user centred design group on the fourth floor of Alsion.
I will use this blog to post summaries of my lectures and other resources related to the course. Please feel free to post comments or questions using the links below.
The purpose of the HCI course is to give you a broad overview of some theories in the field of Human Computer Interaction. It is intended that by the end of the course, you will be better equipped to draw on theoretical knowledge. You should also have developed practical skills to apply theory.
Classes for the course are on Mondays from 12:30 to 16:00. Contact will alternate between more lecture-like classes, where I present new concepts, and group discussions, where we reflect on your experiences with the practical tasks.
The course is worth 5 ECTS. It is assessed by an oral exam and will be graded pass/fail.
Theories covered in the course will be as listed below. We will spend two weeks on each topic (one lecture and one group discussion):
- Mental Models
- Distributed Cognition
- Affordances
- Cognitive Work Analysis
- Activity Theory
- Situated Actions
Best of luck with the course!