31777 Advanced Interaction Design
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particular session, location and mode of offering is the authoritative source
of all information about the subject for that offering. Required texts, recommended texts and references in particular are likely to change. Students will be provided with a subject outline once they enrol in the subject.
Subject handbook information prior to 2025 is available in the Archives.
Credit points: 6 cp
Subject level:
Undergraduate
Result type: Grade and marksRequisite(s): 31260 Fundamentals of Interaction Design
Anti-requisite(s): 32509 Advanced Interaction Design
Recommended studies:
two years full time study
Description
This subject focuses on the concept of user experience (UX) in Interaction design. UX is defined as a person's perceptions and responses that result from the use of a digital product, system or service. Understanding how to approach UX in design is a major focus in interaction design because the quality of UX can affect people's adoption of a particular designed technology. For many technology design companies, paying attention to how people experience their products is the edge that can potentially set them apart from their competition. However, designing UX effectively is difficult because the term UX is very problematic, meaning very different things to different people, in academic research and in industry.
Firstly, students are provided with some conceptual tools to help them talk about UX productively: to identify, describe, analyse and critique real-life experiences with various types of digital technologies. To put these skills into practice, students are introduced to a range of current and emergent human-computer interactions such as mobile and social computing, pervasive and ubiquitous computing, quantified self, and the 'internet of things' (IoT). Through discussing and exploring particular characteristics, interaction styles, affordances, and the ways these technologies are used in our everyday lives, students develop the skills to be able to understand the types of user experiences that arise from people's interactions with particular technologies, while pursuing specific goals, whether alone or with others, carried out in particular contexts. Through this, they understand how to consider relevant and appropriate user experiences to support when designing for different kinds of human-computer interactions.
Students also learn methods, concepts, and techniques used in design activities to support for a specific user experience. This includes user research techniques, sketching, storyboarding, prototyping and evaluation approaches that can support them to design appropriate and engaging user experiences. They hone their skills through responding to a real-world problem, designing a technology solution that not only meets the users' needs effectively but, more importantly, supports desirable and potentially engaging experiences. By building upon students' prior understandings of fundamental interaction design concepts and processes, it is expected that when they successfully complete this subject, they are able to not only design useful and usable technologies, but also technologies that are optimised to support the users' experience.
Subject learning objectives (SLOs)
Upon successful completion of this subject students should be able to:
| 1. | Use appropriate conceptual tools to accurately describe, critique, analyse and evaluate user experiences that arise through-and-during interactions with information technology. (D.1) |
|---|---|
| 2. | Identify the types of user experiences that are most appropriate for different types of human-computer interactions. (C.1) |
| 3. | Apply appropriate methods, concepts, and techniques to successfully design interactive technologies that can support engaging user experiences during use. (C.1) |
| 4. | Describe the range of social/technical and experiential concepts that are important to consider when designing technologies that can be experienced positively by users. (B.1) |
| 5. | Demonstrate awareness on how to design in a positive and respectful manner when working with, and for, Indigenous Australians. (A.1) |
Course intended learning outcomes (CILOs)
This subject also contributes specifically to the development of the following Course Intended Learning Outcomes (CILOs):
- Indigenous Professional Capability: FEIT graduates are culturally and historically well informed, able to co-design projects as respectful professionals when working in and with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. (A.1)
- Socially Responsible: FEIT graduates identify, engage, interpret and analyse stakeholder needs and cultural perspectives, establish priorities and goals, and identify constraints, uncertainties and risks (social, ethical, cultural, legislative, environmental, economics etc.) to define the system requirements. (B.1)
- Design Oriented: FEIT graduates apply problem solving, design and decision-making methodologies to develop components, systems and processes to meet specified requirements. (C.1)
- Technically Proficient: FEIT graduates apply abstraction, mathematics and discipline fundamentals, software, tools and techniques to evaluate, implement and operate systems. (D.1)
Contribution to the development of graduate attributes
Engineers Australia Stage 1 Competencies
This subject contributes to the development of the following Engineers Australia Stage 1 Competencies:
- 1.3. In-depth understanding of specialist bodies of knowledge within the engineering discipline.
- 1.5. Knowledge of engineering design practice and contextual factors impacting the engineering discipline.
- 2.3. Application of systematic engineering synthesis and design processes.
- 3.3. Creative, innovative and pro-active demeanour.
Teaching and learning strategies
This subject is linked with the postgraduate subject 32509 Advanced Interaction Design. While both cohorts will engage with the same lecture materials, undergraduate students will attend separate tutorials from the postgraduate students.
Students will be asked to engage with pre-recorded video lectures on various topics and attend tutorial sessions. The pre-recorded lectures videos will allow students to learn theoretical aspects of User Experience as conceptualised, researched and supported through the design processes of Interaction Design. In addition, online lecture discussions are held to help students clarify their understanding of the video lecture materials. Tutorials will provide students with continuous guidance and formative feedback as they practice the design skills presented in the videos. The learning activities are designed to iteratively build students’ skills, confidence and understanding in the subject matter, providing them with the best possible opportunity to succeed. Then, students will work individually and with a group on various problems that contribute to their overall assessment. Again, they will receive regular guidance and feedback from their tutor.
With guidance from tutors, students are required to create and maintain a personal portfolio of their work in the subject throughout the session. They will be required to choose work samples they have created that through a guided reflection, demonstrate their learning and developing knowledge of the various tools and skills required in designing for user experience.
Students are expected to use various online resources, including some provided through Canvas to access materials such as prescribed readings, videos, guides, and research materials to prepare for class assignments and individual work. Accessing and reading prescribed texts, as well as completing required set tasks before class will enable students to engage more deeply and successfully in the collaborative activities of the workshop and their weekly tutorial tasks. The subject values learning-through-doing. Students will be expected to participate regularly in online discussion forum, and to collaborate with others in a session-long group assignment to solve a real-life problem through design activities.
Content (topics)
- What is User Experience? How is it different from Usability?
- differences between the two and some history of the fields and recent developments
- Describing, analysing, critiquing and investigating user experience
- Considering user experiences when designing major types of human-computer interactions
- Mobile and Social computing
- Pervasive and Ubiquitous computing
- Internet of Things and Quantified Self
- Designing to support engaging user experiences
- Researching experiences/user experiences
- Representing users’ experiences in design process
- Prototyping users’ experiences
Assessment
Assessment task 1: User Experience Journal Entries
| Intent: | To assess students’ understanding of different aspects of user experience. This includes both the conceptual and practical aspects of user experiences when people use interactive technologies in their everyday lives. |
|---|---|
| Objective(s): | This assessment task addresses the following subject learning objectives (SLOs): 1 and 2 This assessment task contributes to the development of the following Course Intended Learning Outcomes (CILOs): C.1 and D.1 |
| Type: | Journal |
| Groupwork: | Individual |
| Weight: | 20% |
| Length: | Each journal entry will use the template provided, and should be between 2-4 pages long. |
Assessment task 2: Design Assignment
| Intent: | To provide students with opportunities to practise a Human-Centred Design methodology to focus on designing to support User Experience through combining user research, design and evaluation activities including theory, exploratory and experimental studies, prototyping and evaluation. |
|---|---|
| Objective(s): | This assessment task addresses the following subject learning objectives (SLOs): 1, 2, 3 and 4 This assessment task contributes to the development of the following Course Intended Learning Outcomes (CILOs): B.1, C.1 and D.1 |
| Type: | Project |
| Groupwork: | Group, individually assessed |
| Weight: | 50% |
| Criteria: | The marking criteria will be included with the assignment. Students will be asked to assess the contribution of their peers to the group project. This peer assessment will be used to determine whether all group members receive the same mark for the assignment. If discrepancies in contribution are noted, individual marks will be scaled in accordance with the peer feedback. |
Assessment task 3: Reflection and Personal Portfolio
| Intent: | To evaluate students’ capacity to collaborate and contribute to their own and their peers' learning as well as to reflect upon their own understanding and proficiency of the range of skills and tools used in user experience design. |
|---|---|
| Objective(s): | This assessment task addresses the following subject learning objectives (SLOs): 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 This assessment task contributes to the development of the following Course Intended Learning Outcomes (CILOs): A.1, B.1, C.1 and D.1 |
| Type: | Portfolio |
| Groupwork: | Individual |
| Weight: | 30% |
| Criteria: | The marking criteria will be included with the assignment description. |
Minimum requirements
In order to pass the subject, a student must achieve an overall mark of 50% or more.
Required texts
Hartson, R., and Pyla, P. (2019). The UX book: agile UX design for a quality user experience (2nd Ed), Morgan Kaufmann.
(The book is available online via the UTS library. This book is also useful as a reference for the Agile Development process used in the subject Interaction Design Studio subject.)
Leong, TW., Lawrence, C., and Wadley, G. (2019). Designing for Diversity in Aboriginal Australia: Insights from a national technology project. Proceedings of OzCHI'19, Freemantle, ACM Press.
Nicholas, KP., and Chestnut, D. (2014). UX for Dummies, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated.
(Chapters are also available for download from the UTS library. This is a surprisingly practical and useful book.)
Recommended texts
- Allanwood, G., and Beare, P. (2019). User experience design: A practical introduction. London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts.
- Foster, P. and Janke, T. (2015). Keeping cultural knowledge with Indigenous research protocols: A case study on the Kimberly Land Council's Intellectual Property and Traditional Knowledge Policy. http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/ILB/2015/26.pdf
- Greenberg, S., Carpendale, S., Marquardt, N., and Buxton, B. (2011). Sketching User Experience: The Workbook, 1st edition. Morgan Kaufmann.
- Kimberley Land Council Research Policy. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/59fecece017db2ab70aa1874/t/5a541bad8165f57dfd133d4f/1515461551417/klc-research-protocol.pdf
- McCarthy, J. and Wright, P. (2007). Technology as experience, MIT Press.
- Rogers, Y., Preece, J. and Sharp, H. (2015). Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interaction, 4th edition, John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
References
The Encyclopedia of Human-Computer Interaction, 2nd Ed. http://www.interaction-design.org/books/hci.html
Readings, videos and other digital stimuli related to the weekly topics will be provided to students prior to each class during the semester. In terms of published academic papers, they are available for download via the UTS Library website. Please check the subject page on Canvas for the most current list of readings.
Other resources
Canvas
In this subject Canvas will be used to:
- post announcements about this subject from the subject co-ordinator
- provide electronic copies of the subject outline, lecture slides, readings, and subject documents
- provide links to videos of lectures and video guides
- provide a forum for different threads of discussions
- provide links to other digital resources and websites
- inform you of your grades via the Gradebook.
Microsoft Teams
The subject will have a folder on Microsoft Teams. The folder will be used to host copies of videos (video lectures, video guides, etc) that are hosted on YouTube. This will allow students from China participating in this online subject to access the videos from beyond the firewall.