Course Description

Fundamental principles and practices of human-computer interaction, with an emphasis on designing, prototyping, and evaluating interactive systems. Topics include human factors, interaction design, user research, user-centered design, interface design principles, prototyping, usability evaluation, accessibility, and human-AI interaction. Students will analyze real-world interfaces, create and critique interactive designs, and develop a semester project using contemporary design and AI-assisted tools.

Course Focus

This course approaches Human-Computer Interaction as a practical discipline concerned with how people interact with digital products and how those interactions can be improved through better design. The course combines established HCI principles with contemporary UI/UX practices. Students will learn how to understand users, identify interaction problems, translate user needs into interface decisions, create and test prototypes, evaluate usability, and improve designs through iteration and critique. The course also examines interaction with AI-driven systems, including conversational interfaces, copilots, generative AI products, and AI agents. Particular attention is given to trust, uncertainty, user control, and responsible interaction design. Throughout the course, concepts will be applied to real products and interfaces rather than studied primarily as abstract theory.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, students should be able to:

• Explain core principles of Human-Computer Interaction.
• Analyze how perception, cognition, behavior, and context affect interaction.
• Identify usability and user experience problems in real interfaces.
• Conduct basic user research and translate findings into design requirements.
• Apply interaction design and UI/UX principles to interactive systems.
• Create and iterate low- and high-fidelity prototypes.
• Evaluate interfaces using appropriate HCI and usability methods.
• Critique and defend design decisions using HCI principles and evidence.
• Read and critically assess current HCI research literature.
• Analyze interaction challenges introduced by AI-driven systems.
• Use contemporary design and AI-assisted tools critically and responsibly.

Course Materials

• Primary Textbook: Kasper Hornbæk, Per Ola Kristensson, and Antti Oulasvirta. Introduction to Human-Computer Interaction. Oxford University Press, 2025.
• Reference Textbook 1: Greg Nudelman. UX for AI: A Framework for Designing AI-Driven Products. Wiley, 2025.
• Reference Textbook 2: Yvonne Rogers, Helen Sharp, and Jennifer Preece. Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interaction (6th Edition). Wiley, 2023.
• Selected Readings: Recent papers and case studies from ACM CHI, HCII, and TOCHI will supplement the textbooks.

Course Style

The course combines lectures with hands-on exercises, real-world interface analysis, user research, prototyping, critique, usability evaluation, research paper presentations, and project work. Students will regularly examine websites, mobile applications, productivity tools, conversational systems, AI assistants, and other interactive products. Two sessions will use a design studio format in which students work with prototypes, evaluate other teams’ designs, receive feedback, and make revisions. Modern prototyping, UI development, and AI-assisted tools may be used throughout the course. Students will be evaluated primarily on the quality of their interaction design and the reasoning behind their decisions rather than mastery of a specific tool.

Weekly Schedule

The schedule may be adjusted according to class progress.

Assessment