Getting the Most out of this Specialization-week1

Lecture-Based Questions

Module 1 - Introduction

• What does HCI mean to you? What are ways the human and computer interact?
• What are examples of good/bad designs in your life? What made them good/bad? Give examples where good/bad designs may affect lives, money, time
• Find/bring an object and perform “I like, I wish” statements for its design
• Find/bring an object and backtrace the prototyping stage
• Describe the Feel, Implementation, and Role of your prototype
• What are the pros/cons of surveys, focus groups, feedback from experts, comparative experiments, participant observation, and simulation & formal models?
• Which method do you think is best and why?
• How would you reinvent the mouse? What is your favorite version of the mouse?
• Why do they call it the “long nose” of innovation? (Buxton)

Module 2 - Needfinding

• Give an example of something that you’ve observed in the past that didn’t meet someone’s needs?
• In the Walmart example, what’s a better way they could’ve communicated with their customers about the cluttered aisles?
• Say you’re designing for 1. an online learning platform, 2. a new amusement park, 3. a cereal company (e.g., Honey Nut Cheerios’ competitor). Describe your recruiting process. Who would you interview? How would you go about finding these people to interview? etc etc. Give good/bad examples of interview questions to be/not to be asked
• Say you’re designing for 1. an online learning platform, 2. a new amusement park, 3. a cereal company (e.g., Honey Nut Cheerios’ competitor). Create 1-2 personas for each of the scenarios above and share these with your peer(s). Discuss the similarities and differences between the personas you created against the personas your peer(s) created.

Module 3 - Rapid Prototyping

• Create a paper prototype of the design you are considering for
• Think of a successful design and break down the design. Build it back up into a wizard-powered prototype. How might you play the “wizard”?
• Talk through the steps that you would take to create a video prototype: would you use audio? would you demonstrate success or failure? etc.
• Why do you think more people don’t create parallel prototypes during the design process?

Module 4 - Heuristic Evaluation

• Think about a website or tool that you’ve used recently that you’ve become frustrated with. Apply Nielsen’s heuristics to the website/tool to show where improvements could be made. Give severity ratings and brainstorm solutions with your peers.
• Of the 10 design heuristics, choose one and demonstrate proper execution of the heuristic.
• At what point in the design process would you want to use HE? Why?