Human-Computer Interaction (DECO7250)

Course overview

Models of action, perception, cognition and interaction in human-machine systems. Methods of interaction analysis and interaction representation. Human-machine system evaluation. Practical implementation. Introduction to user and use-centred design principles. Broader topics may include: societal considerations, groupware, multimedia, media perspectives.

DECO2500 gives students an introduction to human-computer interaction and interaction design including user experience, human-centred design, and identifying system requirements to support. Classes will be a mixture of lectures presenting the core concepts, and three-hour Studiosﾠduring which students work on a project that requires the application of those core concepts to the design of an interactive system.

The content of this course has been modified several times based on student feedback. The duration of the lecture has been extended and group work has been reduced. We recently removed online quizzes as well based on the feedback.

Course requirements

Prerequisites

You'll need to complete the following courses before enrolling in this one:

DECO7140 or CSSE7030

Incompatible

You can't enrol in this course if you've already completed the following:

COMP2506 or COMP3501 or COMP7904 or DECO2500

Jointly taught details

This course is jointly-taught with:

• DECO2500

DECO2500 lectures are jointly taught with this course.

Course contact

Course staff

Timetable

The timetable for this course is available on the UQ Public Timetable.

Additional timetable information

The timetable for DECO2500 is split into a two-hour Lecture session combined with DECO7250 students, and a two-hour Studio session. Lectures will occur on campus and will be recorded. The studio sessions will occur on campus and will not be recorded.

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Aims and outcomes

This course provides students with an introduction to the theory and methods underlying Human-Computer Interaction. Students will gain experience in researching user needs and goals, then developing appropriately targeted design solutions to the needs and goals they have identified.

Learning outcomes

After successfully completing this course you should be able to:

Assessment

Assessment summary

A hurdle is an assessment requirement that must be satisfied in order to receive a specific grade for the course. Check the assessment details for more information about hurdle requirements.

Assessment details

Design Proposal

• Team or group-based

Mode

Written

Category

Paper/ Report/ Annotation

Weight

20% (Group)

Due date

4/10/2024 4:00 pm

Learning outcomes

L02, L03, L04, L05, L06, L07

Task description

Submission guidelines

Your team should submit a single electronic file in Blackboard on or before the due date/time. Please ensure that a completed and signed coversheet is attached to the beginning of your teams work before it is submitted. Your team submission must be a single word-processed document that contains your teams report, including coversheet, reference list and appendix. Microsoft Word (.doc/.docx) or Pages (.pages) formats only. Note PDF is acceptable but is not the preferred format.

Deferral or extension

You cannot defer or apply for an extension for this assessment.

In team-based assessment, the assignment is developed and iterated on over the semester and this is used to support the development of genuine reflective practice in the assessment and enable students to learn skills required in standard industry design practice. If teams encounter extraordinary difficulties in meeting a deadline, they should contact the Course Coordinator in advance of the due date and in all cases, teams should submit a version of the assignment by the deadline.

Late submission

A penalty of 1 grade for each 24 hour period from time submission is due will apply for up to 7 days. After 7 days you will receive a mark of 0.

Interface Inquiry

Mode

Written

Category

Paper/ Report/ Annotation

Weight

25% (Individual)

Due date

11/10/2024 4:00 pm

Learning outcomes

L02, L05

Task description

Submission guidelines

You should submit a single electronic file on Blackboard on or before the due date/time. Please ensure that you include a completed and signed coversheet to the beginning of your work before it is submitted. Your submission must be a single word-processed document that contains your assignment, including coversheet (Microsoft Word (.doc/.docx) or Pages (.pages) formats only. Note PDF is acceptable but is not the preferred format.

Deferral or extension

You may be able to apply for an extension.

The maximum extension allowed is 7 days. Extensions are given in multiples of 24 hours.

Marked assignments with feedback and/or detailed solutions with feedback will be released to students within 7-14 days where the earlier time frame applies if no extensions.

Late submission

A penalty of 1 grade for each 24 hour period from time submission is due will apply for up to 7 days. After 7 days you will receive a mark of 0.

Final Exam

• Hurdle
• Identity Verified
• In-person

Mode

Written

Category

Examination

Weight

35% (Individual)

Due date

End of Semester Exam Period

2/11/2024 - 16/11/2024

Learning outcomes

L01, L02

Task description

Hurdle requirements

Exam details

Submission guidelines

Deferral or extension

You may be able to defer this exam.

Individual UX Guide

• Hurdle

Mode

Written

Category

Paper/ Report/ Annotation

Weight

20%

Due date

20/09/2024 4:00 pm

Learning outcomes

L01, L02, L08

Task description

Hurdle requirements

Submission guidelines

You should submit a single electronic file via the Turnitin Assignment Handler in Blackboard on or before the due date/time. Please ensure that you include a completed and signed coversheet to the beginning of your work before it is submitted. Your submission must be a single word-processed document that contains your assignment, including coversheet (Microsoft Word (.doc/.docx) or Pages (.pages) formats only. Note PDF is acceptable but is not the preferred format.

Deferral or extension

You may be able to apply for an extension.

The maximum extension allowed is 7 days. Extensions are given in multiples of 24 hours.

Late submission

A penalty of 1 grade for each 24 hour period from time submission is due will apply for up to 7 days. After 7 days you will receive a mark of 0.

Course grading

Full criteria for each grade is available in the Assessment Procedure.

Additional course grading information

In order to meet IVAH requirements and pass the course, students are required to gain at least a Pass (4) for the Final Exam. Failure to meet this requirement will result in the final grade for the course being capped at a Fail (3), regardless of performance in other assessment items. To calculate the final grade, all assessments will be multiplied by the weight of each assessment and are added together. At the discretion of the course coordinator, final grades may be moderated.

Supplementary assessment

Supplementary assessment is not available for some items in this course.

Additional assessment information

Grading System

A qualitative grading system is used in this course, whereby you will receive qualitative feedback on your work. You will receive a grade for each assessment that falls within a meaningful UQ grade band, e.g. Pass, Credit, Distinction, High Distinction, etc.ﾠ

Teamwork/Group Assessment

When finalising grades for the group-work items (i.e. Design Proposal), each team member by default will receive the same grade. However, mechanisms for supporting individual performance includes individual reflection from each team member that should include a reflection on their team’s progress, including a discussion on the team’s collaboration, how it contributed to the success or failure of the project, conflict resolution strategies (if applicable) and a reflection on their own contribution as an individual to the team. This will also be supplemented by moderation by the teaching team.

An online MOOC that provides resources and training for working in teams will also be provided. Teams are expected to develop their own effective conflict resolution strategies to enable them to deal with situations where workload is not shared equally. All teams should produce various articles to document their teams progress, including:

1. Team Charter – This charter will set up the “ground rules” for your team: how you communicate, when you meet, and how you will resolve issues. It really is the guide to how your team is going to work. If problems arise, you should let your demonstrator know BUT make sure that you are following the processes outlined in the charter.
2. Weekly meeting logs – Your team will also need to maintain logs of your weekly meetings. These logs should record – items discussed/worked on, issues that arose (if any), actions required, and deliverables/plan to be completed by the next meeting. It should also record who has been allocated to each of the deliverables.

Team conflicts should be resolved through discussion and negotiation. If teams encounter a situation whereby there may be issues, there is a process that students should follow if their team experiences conflict:

1. In the first instance, teams should independently take appropriate steps to resolve internal issues. It is highly recommended that all team members complete the team working MOOC and if issues arise should be able to evidence how they have applied their knowledge from this MOOC into their group project (if required).
2. All members of the team need to be given the opportunity to work on the project. Issues should be discussed in a non-confrontational manner. It is not appropriate to re-do another team member’s contribution because of a subjective opinion. The team needs to discuss and work as a group to ensure everyone is happy with the group’s output.
3. Tasks/contributions should be accurately documented in meeting logs
4. If your team cannot resolve the issue yourselves, you must inform the teaching team as soon as possible so that they can be made aware of the situation and can assist you in addressing any issues within the team.
5. Formative team performance reviews will be conducted during the project process to allow teams and teaching staff the opportunity to identify areas of conflict, concern, and opportunity. These performance reviews will not impact on individual grades but may be used in cases of severe team disfunction to inform course coordinator action.

If the above criteria have been met and there are still issues within the team, the teaching team will do their best to assist in helping to resolve the conflict. The Course Coordinator reserves the right to moderate group marks in the event of varied contributions to team effort.

Use of Generative AI Tools

This course is aimed at students understanding and being able to effectively apply HCI concepts to different and novel contexts. This application to different and novel contexts requires a level of creativity and critical thinking as these skills play a pivotal role in supporting effective practice in the field of HCI. In addition, this course also highlights the ethical issues that arise in HCI and the responsibilities of people working with HCI concepts.

Assessment in this course have been designed to be challenging, authentic and complex. Whilst students may use Generative AI technologies in some assessments, successful completion of assessment in this course will require students to critically engage in specific contexts and tasks for which artificial intelligence will provide only limited support and guidance. Generative AI Tools and techniques may be utilized as supportive elements. However, there are boundaries to your usage of Generative AI Tools. Going beyond those boundaries amounts to an academic integrity issue. Further, you will need to acknowledge your use of Generative AI tools in each assessment where you are permitted to use those tools (see below for more information on what is required for these acknowledgements). Failure to appropriately and completely acknowledge your use of Generative AI tools in an assessment also amounts to an academic integrity issue.

It is essential to recognise that the primary objectives of this course and the assessment that you will complete is for you to demonstrate your achievement of the learning objectives outlined in section 2.2 above as well as UQ’s Graduate Attributes as are relevant to this course.

Assessment and use of Generative AI Tools

Use of Generative AI Tools is not permitted when completing the following assessment item:

• Final Exam

Use of Generative AI Tools is permitted when completing the following assessment items within the boundaries outlined below:

• Individual Interface Inquiry
• Team Design Proposal
• Individual UX Guide

How you may use generative AI in assessment

Generative AI technologies may be used in the completion of assignments (apart from the final exam where it is prohibited) within certain boundaries:

• Graphics for visitor consumption: You may utilise Generative AI to produce graphic images for decorative purposes only.
• Support, Not Replace: Generative AI can be used to facilitate or enhance your communication but it should not be used to replace your own communication practices in written communication.
• Adherence to Learning Objectives: Your work must clearly demonstrate your understanding of HCI theories and concepts (including evaluation methods) ethics, and other core concepts as stated in the learning objectives. Generative AI Tools can be used to facilitate or enhance your understanding of HCI theories but must not replace or diminish your understanding and ability to critically apply these concepts.
• Transparency: You must clearly indicate any part of your work where Generative AI Tools has been utilised and provide a brief rationale explaining why it was used and how it supported your completion of the assessment.
• Compliance with Ethical Guidelines: Ensure that the use of Generative AI Tools aligns with the course's ethical, social, cultural, and cybersecurity considerations.

Remember, the goal here is not to have the AI do your job, but to use AI as a tool to expand your knowledge, understanding and skills.

Where you cannot use generative AI in assessment

Generative AI has the potential to automate certain aspects of the design and development of technologies to support for example usability and accessibility. However, in the context of this course, there are specific limitations to ensure that students' own creative thought, understanding, and application of HCI principles are not compromised.

Students must NOT use Generative AI Tools to:

1. Replace Creative Thought and Application: Utilise Generative AI Tools to generate content that supplants their own creative process and application of HCI concepts. 
2. Automate Understanding: Rely on Generative AI Tools to create or produce any content that requires you to understand and apply HCI concepts.
3. Obscure Decision-making: Use Generative AI Tools in a manner that hides or obscures the rationale, decisions, and application of HCI theories, principles, and ethical considerations.
4. Violate Ethical Guidelines: Employ Generative AI Tools in a way that contradicts the ethical, social, cultural, colonial, and cybersecurity guidelines of the course.

These prohibitions are put in place to preserve the integrity of the learning experience and ensure that your work authentically reflects your understanding of and ability to critically engage with the essential components of the course.

Acknowledging your use of Generative AI

If you are using any form of Generative AI for this assessment item, you must be transparent about that usage. Not being transparent is an academic integrity issue.

For example, if using any of following types of sources, full disclosure of how it was used, and proper acknowledgement must be made. You must make it absolutely clear what is your teams and/or your own work. Please note that this list is an example and is not exhaustive. Each student must take responsibility in understanding if the tools they have used fall under these broad categories (or similar) and provide appropriate acknowledgement:

• If you use a Generative AI Tool to find out a fact, then you need to reference it.

For example, if you ask ChatGPT 'what causes climate change' or 'what are the ingredients of milk chocolate' and you use the answer it provides, then you reference that fact in this format:

In your assignment

Milk chocolate is made of cocoa butter, cocoa powder and sugar (OpenAI, 2023).

In your reference list or bibliography:

OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Dec 20 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/

• If you use a Generative AI Tool to do other things, then you need to acknowledge it.

When you acknowledge use of, for example, ChatGPT you need to explain how you used ChatGPT and the answers it gave you. For example, if you used it to help you structure an essay, you would put an acknowledgement like this at the start of your essay:

I acknowledge the use of ChatGPT (https://chat.openai.com/) to provide me with ideas on how to structure this essay. The prompts used and the response from ChatGPT are included in Appendix xx. The output from these prompts was a structure in the form of headings and details of what should be included under each of those headings. This suggested structure was used as a basis for writing this essay and none of the output was copied and pasted directly into this essay with the exception of some headings.

Note, that you need to include all prompts and answers in an appendix. The suggested ways to do this are to include a link to your chat or to print the webpage with your chat as a PDF and include it in the appendix. You should add in the date/s of that chat.

• Grammarly and similar tools

Grammarly is also Generative AI because it provides things like suggestions on making sentences simpler. So you also need to acknowledge the use of Grammarly as well as any similar tools. This is wording that you might use:

I acknowledge the use of Grammarly (link) to ensure grammatical correctness and to improve the clarity of parts of this thesis. I have installed the Grammarly plug-in for MS Word so the suggestions that Grammarly provides are not the result of any prompt but rather automatic suggestions.

• Translation software

Some translation software also uses Generative AI. Even if the translation software you use does not incorporate Generative AI, you need to acknowledge your use of that software. Important: you cannot solely rely on translation software as it will vary in quality and will often misinterpret the context of words you have used so you must carefully check the produced version.

This is wording that you might use:

I acknowledge the use of SuperEasyTranslator (link) to support translating words from French into English. I wrote some sections of this report in French and then pasted this content into SuperEasyTranslator to produce a version in English. I copied and pasted this produced version into this assignment making small adjustments as I felt necessary.

Acknowledgements of the use of Generative AI Tools should be placed towards the start of submission.

Having Troubles?

If you are having difficulties with any aspect of the course material, you should seek help. Speak to the course teaching staff.

If external circumstances are affecting your ability to work on the course, you should seek help as soon as possible. The University and UQ Union have organisations and staff who are able to help, for example, UQ Student Services are able to help with study and exam skills, tertiary learning skills, writing skills, financial assistance, personal issues, and disability services (among other things).

Complaints and criticisms should be directed in the first instance to the course coordinator. If you are not satisfied with the outcome, you may bring the matter to the attention of the School of EECS Director of Teaching and Learning.

Learning resources

You'll need the following resources to successfully complete the course. We've indicated below if you need a personal copy of the reading materials or your own item.

Library resources

Find the required and recommended resources for this course on the UQ Library website.

Additional learning resources information

Additional readings may be prescribed in the lectures and in practical sessions.ﾠ Details will be provided in those sessions and links will be added to blackboard.

Learning activities

The learning activities for this course are outlined below. Learn more about the learning outcomes that apply to this course.

Policies and procedures

University policies and procedures apply to all aspects of student life. As a UQ student, you must comply with University-wide and program-specific requirements, including the:

• Student Code of Conduct Policy
• Student Integrity and Misconduct Policy and Procedure
• Assessment Procedure
• Examinations Procedure
• Reasonable Adjustments - Students Policy and Procedure

Learn more about UQ policies on my.UQ and the Policy and Procedure Library.

School guidelines

Your school has additional guidelines you'll need to follow for this course:

• EECS School Guidelines for Students