Slides presented at the workshop on "New perspectives to improve quality, efficacy and appeal of HCI courses", CHITALY 2015 Conference, Rome, La Sapienza, Sept 28, 2015

1. Teaching HCI TO
UNDERGRADUATE
COMPUTING STUDENTS:
SOME CONSIDERATIONS
CHITALY 2015, Roma, 28 Sept 2015
Roberto Polillo
DISCO – Università di Milano Bicocca

2. My experience
 HCI corse for Laurea Triennale Informatica (3d
year), University of Milano Bicocca
 15 editions since 2000
 Presently, 8 CFU (about 70 class hours)
(course size varied over the years 6  4  8
CFU
 Elective; average attendance: 80-100 students
p/y
 The course is supported by my book “Facile da
usare” (2010)
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R.Polillo 28/9/2015

3. Why HCI to computing
undergrads
 Many undergrads will directly enter the job
market without additional studies
 Many will go to small organization or work as
freelancers…
 … so many will be the “sole” responsible of
design & implementation of small applications
(mobile, web)
Practical experience of designing usable
apps nowadays is essential
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4. Course goals
 A practical, hands-on introduction to the
design of usable software applications
 Introduction to the basic concepts and
principles of Human Computer Interaction
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5. Challenges
1. Very scarce teaching time
2. Typical computing students are “left
brained”
3. Difficulty of linking theory to the
practice of design
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6. The “classical” course
organization6
Theory
Practice
Principles Deduction Laboratory
TOP-DOWN - DEDUCTIVE
In short: it does not work!
Often left as
a student
task
Often left as
a student
task
R.Polillo 28/9/2015

7. The “experiential” organization
7
It works (but is very demanding)
Practice
Theory
Laboratory Induction Principles
BOTTOM-UP – INDUCTIVE (EXPERIENTIAL)
MUST
involve the
teacher
MUST
involve the
teacher
R.Polillo 28/9/2015

8. The design project
 Groups of 3 students develop a mobile app
prototype, proposed by them (and approved)
 Must follow a precise well structured process
 No technical support for the OS &
development toolkit (chosen by the group)
 Final protype UI must be complete (but no
algorithms and db)
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9. Typical mobile app examples
 Management of a personal library
 Management of payments for Milano ZTL
 Multi-user treasure hunt (geo-localized)
 Group excursion organization and support
(geo-localized)
 Support to footbal referee activity
 …
R.Polillo, 24.3.2014
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10. An evolutionary design process
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4
Final exam
Requiremen
ts
Interactive
“paper”
prototype
Review
Video
scenario
Navigation
prototype
(toolkit)
2
1
Graphical
prototype
(toolkit)
Usability
test (video
& report)
3
Review
Review
popapp.inpopapp.in

11. Conclusion: 10 Golden Rules
1) Practice first, concepts follow
2) “Real world” app design, whenever possible
3) Interaction, not description
4) Coaching and co-design, not teaching
5) Test with users
6) Improve prototypes until "WOW!"
7) Learn design, not design tools
8) Stimulate creativity
9) Leave technology details out of an HCI
course
10 Be prepared to allocate a lot of teacher time!
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R.Polillo 28/9/2015

12. Thank you!
www.rpolillo.it
roberto.polillo@unimib
.it
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