ACM SIGCHI Curricula for Human-Computer Interaction
by Hewett, Baecker, Card, Carey, Gasen, Mantei, Perlman, Strong and Verplank
Copyright © 1992,1996 ACM SIGCHI
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Last updated: 2008-04-11   Accesses since 1997-04-17: 128,601

CHAPTER 3: Courses in HCI {p. 29}

Table of Contents

In informal discussions with our advisory panel and with people attending SIGCHI conference special interest group meetings on HCI education, there was a recurring request for help in preparing a first and perhaps a second course on HCI, much more so than for a detailed curriculum. In this chapter, we make recommendations for introductory courses in HCI. Our work draws upon experiences teaching a variety of courses in many departments. The result consists of four course designs, based on a mapping of the content of HCI outlined in Chapter 2 into course structures designed for particular audiences. Given our ACM SIGCHI charter, we directed our initial attention to courses that could be offered in a computer science department, but given the multidisciplinary background of the CDG, we also discussed courses that could be offered to students from other departments, especially psychology, human factors, or industrial and systems engineering departments. Finally, we have tried to provide for the fact that those individuals working in a teaching environment which differs markedly from the one envisioned here may need to instantiate a different course, or courses, by suitable modification of the order and the relative balance of topics in one or more of our proposed courses, or by judicious picking and choosing from the content inventory to shorten or lengthen the course. In other words, each course recommendation is intended to be a representative of a family of possible courses which might be fashioned from the content inventory provided in Chapter 2.

TABLE 2. Course Emphases on the Content of HCI 

CONTENT AREAS (course length assumed to       CS1: UI   CS2: Phen PSY1:  MIS1:
  be 14 weeks with 42 contact hours total)    Design    & Thy     Psych  Human
                                              & Devel.  of HCI    of HCI Aspects
                                                                         of IS

N   The Nature of HCI
    N1  (Meta-)Models of HCI                    2         2         2         1

U   Use and Context of Computers 
    U1  Human Social Organization and Work      2         4         4         4
    U2  Application Areas                       1         1         1         4
    U3  Human-Machine Fit and Adaptation        2         2         4         3

H   Human Characteristics
    H1  Human Information Processing            1         9         4         1
    H2  Language, Communication and Interaction 1         5         2         2
    H3  Ergonomics                              1         2         1         1

C   Computer System and Interface Architecture
    C1  Input and Output Devices                2         0         3         2
    C2  Dialogue Techniques                     3         0         4         3
    C3  Dialogue Genre                          1         0         1         1
    C4  Computer Graphics                       1         0         1         1
    C5  Dialogue Architecture                   1         0         1         0

D   Development Process
    D1  Design Approaches                       4         2         4         4
    D2  Implementation Techniques               5         2         2         4
    D3  Evaluation Techniques                   5         6         4         3
    D4  Example Systems and Case Studies        3         2         2         4

P   Project Presentations and Examinations      7         5         2         4

3.1 The Four Proposed Courses {p. 30}

Table 2 relates the content of HCI and the emphases of each topic for each of four proposed courses. This table also reflects the compromises in goals and philosophy of the members of the Curriculum Development Group, and requires some explanation. For different types of students, different orientations are necessary. The proposed courses can be broadly characterized as either technology oriented (CS1: User Interface Design and Development and CS2: Phenomena and Theories of Human-Computer Interaction) or human oriented (PSY1: Psychology of Human-Computer Interaction and MIS1: Human Aspects of Information Systems), and as moving from a general professional/practical orientation (CS1 and MIS1) to one that is more specialized and research oriented (CS2 and PSY1).

CS1 and CS2. The first two courses are the ones that would most probably be offered as a sequence in a computer science department, but they could be offered in a more general information systems department or in a more specialized software engineering department. The CS1 course (User Interface Design and Development) stresses practical software development concepts and would be a natural complement to a software engineering course or program. CS1 also focuses on how students in a computer discipline, notably software engineering, can produce better user interfaces. It has a major project that requires that students work on design, implementation (using tools like window libraries and UIMSs), and practical evaluation methods with their artifact, with a major goal being the realization that user interfaces are demonstrably imperfect and can be improved.

The CS2 course (Phenomena and Theories of Human-Computer Interaction) looks at HCI in a broader context, focusing on the phenomena and theories of HCI, and is intended for students interested in specializing in HCI. In CS2, the design and evaluation techniques are more refined, and there is a greater emphasis on scientific foundations of HCI. A design/implementation/evaluation project in this course begins with less well-defined requirements than in CS1 (User Interface Design and Development). The project requires that students focus more on users and on task analysis.

PSY1. The Psychology of Human-Computer Interaction course might be offered in a psychology, human factors, or industrial engineering department. It stresses the theoretical and empirical foundations of the field much more than the courses based in computer science. The course design presented here assumes this to be the only HCI course available to students. It also assumes that students have the prerequisites of human information processing psychology (especially cognitive) and a background in applied statistics (especially experimental design, data collection and analysis). It takes this knowledge and applies it to HCI, with special emphasis on design and evaluation techniques particularly relevant to HCI. Although implementation per se is not a major component of the course, tools such as HyperCard should be used as a design/implementation prototyping environments to allow evaluation and redesign to begin during the early stages of design/implementation.

MIS1. The Human Aspects of Information Systems course is designed to give professional non-technically oriented users (and managers of users) a better understanding of the HCI issues in the systems with which they interact. End-users must make decisions on which systems to buy and use, and the purpose of this course is, in effect, to increase consumer awareness of issues. Understanding the role of computers in organizations and how to evaluate the suitability of technological solutions is a major emphasis. Although not thought of as system builders, many students in this course may well become involved in program design and implementation with widespread tools like spreadsheets and databases, both of which have considerable prototyping and programming capability.

3.2 Sequencing Courses {p. 32}

In a computer discipline, the CS1 course (User Interface Design and Development) might well be the first and perhaps the only course taken by many students. However, for more advanced study and a broader perspective, students would take CS2 (Phenomena and Theories of Human-Computer Interaction) as the second in a sequence. Similarly, if a version of all of the proposed courses actually existed on a single campus, then students coming from a psychological discipline would probably begin with PSY1 (Psychology of Human-Computer Interaction), and then move on to the CS2 course (Phenomena and Theories of Human-Computer Interaction) which has less emphasis on implementation than does CS1 (User Interface Design and Development). However, if both CS1 and CS2 were offered as a sequence many computer science departments would be hard-pressed to find resources or even faculty for both courses. There are potential solutions to this problem.

For example, given the broader perspective of CS2 (Phenomena and Theories of Human-Computer Interaction), it might well be based in a different department than CS1 (User Interface Design and Development) and cross listed (as is the case for a few similar courses currently offered in some institutions). Alternatively, if one could arrange to coordinate an HCI course in a computer discipline with an HCI course in a psychological discipline, those two courses could be a lot like CS1 and PSY1 (Psychology of Human-Computer Interaction), but with the relative balance of material in the former being shifted to include more emphasis on Computer System and Interface Architecture topics, and with the relative balance of material in the latter being changed to increase the emphasis on Human Characteristics topics while decreasing the emphasis on Computer System and Interface Architecture topics.

Other Specialization Courses. In instructional environments where there is a rich concentration of expertise in HCI, one could also envision a spectrum of advanced level courses that would be of benefit to students. For example, the students who have completed PSY1 (Psychology of Human-Computer Interaction) might profit from a special topics HCI Laboratory course in which the main focus was on the foundational empirical research work on HCI. The more research-oriented students in a computer discipline might also move on to the HCI Laboratory course after completing CS2 (Phenomena and Theories of Human-Computer Interaction), whereas the more development oriented students might better be offered an HCI Project course after completing CS2.

After having completed either CS1 (User Interface Design and Development) or CS2 (Phenomena and Theories of Human-Computer Interaction), it would also be appropriate for interested students in a computer discipline to take on more advanced courses on topics such as User Interface Specification and User Interface Management Systems, Window Systems, or Hypertext Engineering. After having completed PSY1 (Psychology of Human-Computer Interaction), it would be appropriate for interested students to take a course on topics such as Cognitive Engineering, Theoretical Models of Human-Computer Interaction, or Computer Supported Cooperative Work. Given the orientation of MIS1 (Human Aspects of Information Systems) students whose primary interests and goals are satisfied by such a course are not seen as taking other specialist courses in HCI.

Multidisciplinary Courses. As a capstone experience, it should also be possible to have students from both computer and psychological disciplines combining their complementary skills in a course HCI Practicum which combines the goals of the HCI Project and the HCI Laboratory courses and which would challenge the students from different backgrounds to apply their education and skills and learn to work in project groups during the design and development of a usable and useful interactive software project. In some institutions it may also be possible to involve students from film, video, and the graphic design disciplines as well. Naturally, the sequence that such students would follow would depend heavily on the specific course content at a university.

Integrating HCI Into Existing Courses. Although we are not making specific recommendations for integrating HCI into existing courses, we recommend that in general the mention of major important HCI topics and issues be incorporated into all technology oriented courses. Too often, the only evaluative component of software engineering, for example, is the testing of the correctness of software or the analysis of performance, while ignoring the impact of user misconceptions and user efficiency. When a user makes a mistake, the correctness of some software may not be relevant, and any investments of time and money in the efficiency of the software can be lost many times over as a result of loss of user productivity. For these important reasons, we recommend that iterative design, usability testing and user productivity be at least mentioned as issues of concern in courses at all levels, along with the traditional complementary issues in software engineering. The goals are to develop in students an appreciation for the importance of HCI issues in the overall acceptance and success of interactive software and to offer them pointers to appropriate courses.

3.3 Structure of the Course Descriptions {p. 25}

This section provides a description of the generic structure and common background for each recommended course. Each description, with a title and alternate title, will have the following parts:

  1. a general course catalog description;
  2. students and prerequisites describe who might take the course, in what department(s), and what skills and knowledge they should have in preparation;
  3. philosophy and objectives explain what we think the student should get out of the course;
  4. a content outline with level of treatment (emphasis) matched to topics in Table 3.1, with terminology (knowledge units) matched to that in Chapter 2 of this report;
  5. an implied schedule geared for a course with 14 3-hour weeks; and
  6. a short set of suggested resources, materials and/or sources of information for teaching the specific course (these sections are very brief and intended primarily to provide a flavor for the type of material and to serve as pointers into Appendix A: Resources for Human-Computer Interaction).

All of these courses share several traits in common. Rather than repeat all of a core set of objectives, prerequisites, etc. for each course, we have listed the shared traits here to emphasize the aspects common to the four courses in HCI proposed here.

Shared Objectives of the Courses.

By taking courses in HCI, we expect students to have gained an understanding of the following:

Shared Prerequisites for the Courses.

We don't expect that every institution will have an existing program meeting all desired prerequisites. Indeed, the HCI courses must contribute their share to developing some of these generic topics. Customizing the course frameworks may therefore include replacing some of the recommended HCI material with units in these areas. Conversely, some programs will cover some of the recommended HCI material in prerequisite or co-requisite courses - e.g., in a computer graphics course. All students taking the proposed courses should:

Shared Goals for Coverage of Content.

In the course descriptions which follow, it is assumed that the instructors will have and set certain specific and specifiable goals in coverage of the content. Those goals can and should be stated in terms of desired learning outcomes which describe the level of understanding and experience students are expected to achieve. The major goals we believe to be important are:
Definition:
students can recognize and recall terminology, facts and principles For example, students can define 'direct manipulation' and list some of its strengths and weaknesses as an interaction style.
Concept Understanding:
students can determine the relationships between specific instances and broader generalizations. For example, students can determine which parts of a system exhibit direct manipulation features and can explain why a change in the system produced different properties.
Directed Application:
students can use concepts and principles to explain, analyze and solve specific situations, often with the applicable concepts implicit in the setting. For example, students can redesign part of an interface to exhibit direct manipulation style and predict the likely effects of the change.
Realistic Problem Solving:
students can apply course content in coping with real life situations. These differ from directed applications by having less structured questions and issues, no direction as to which concepts will be applicable and a range of potentially acceptable answers. For example, students can design an interface for real tasks and users which incorporates direct manipulation in appropriate ways (and evaluate/defend their choices).

Common Suggestions for Schedules and Exercises.

A number of people (e.g., Hewett, 1987b; Mantei, 1985) have made teaching suggestions for encouraging active student involvement in learning about HCI issues, some of which are highlighted below:

General Resources for the Courses.

There is no single source of information (e.g., textbook) useful for teaching all or even one of the proposed courses. The collection by Baecker and Buxton (1987) is comprehensive, thought provoking, and affordable. Collections of high-quality chapters are found in Salvendy (1987) and Helander (1988). The Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie-Mellon University has published a curriculum module with support materials on user interface development (Perlman, 1989). While this curriculum module is not a textbook, it is a teacher's resource for almost any course in HCI, particularly User Interface Design and Development, because of its detailed annotated content outline and categorical bibliography.

3.4 Course Descriptions {p. 38}

This section addresses the specific design of each of the four recommended courses (CS1, CS2, PSY1 and MIS1). Each course description contains a sample course catalog description, some comments about the assumed students and prerequisites, a statement of the philosophy and objectives for each course, and a topical listing of course content. This topical listing is keyed to the inventory in Chapter 2 by notations such as "D3:4," which means "Topic D3 gets 4 lecture hours."

3.4.1 CS1: User Interface Design and Development {p. 39}

Course Catalog Description: CS1 stresses the importance of good interfaces and the relationship of user interface design to human-computer interaction. Other topics include: interface quality and methods of evaluation; interface design examples; dimensions of interface variability; dialogue genre; dialogue tools and techniques; user-centered design and task analysis; prototyping and the iterative design cycle; user interface implementation; prototyping tools and environments; I/O devices; basic computer graphics; color and sound.

Students and Prerequisites: This course is intended for students in computing disciplines (computer science and software engineering) whose work may interact with user interface issues. We believe that this represents all computer science students and that therefore this course should be required for all students graduating with a degree in computer science or software engineering. In addition to the prerequisites mentioned earlier, students are expected to have considerable experience using computers. They are also expected to understand the non-HCI specific areas of the following topics:

Philosophy and Objectives: Graduates in computing are usually expected to have professional skills which can be put to work relatively quickly, so this first course is intended to provide an adequate basis in software design and implementation for user interfaces. There is content on both the issues and engineering process for user interfaces. This course also includes an appreciation of the importance of further subjects covered in CS2 (Phenomena and Theory of Human-Computer Interaction). Students will learn:

One of the key requirements for organizing the content of the course is to enable students to quickly begin project work. This implies covering evaluation material early in the semester and sequencing the design and implementation content to precede the related part of the design project. Material not directly applicable on the project may be included towards the end of the course, in parallel with the last project stage.

Course Content:

  1. Introduction to the course (N1:1) (1 hour)
  2. Interface quality and evaluation (D3:4) (4 hours)
  3. Interactive system and interface design examples (U2:1, D4:2) (3 hours)
  4. Dimensions of interface variability (H2:1, C2:3, C3:1, U3:2) (7 hours)
  5. User-centered design and task analysis (D1:4, U1:2, D4:1) (7 hours)
  6. User interface implementation (D2:5, C1:2, C4:1, C5:1, H3:1) (10 hours)
  7. Evaluation revisited; learning from HCI research; the role of models (D3:1, H1:1) (2 hours)
  8. System and interface design project: presentations and discussion (spread throughout term) (P:5) (5 hours)
  9. Course summary and wrap-up; interfaces of the future (N1:1) (1 hour)
  10. Examinations (P:2) (2 hours)

Resources:

3.4.2 CS2: Phenomena and Theories of Human-Computer Interaction {p. 43}

Course Catalog Description: CS2 is designed to train the computer science student in how to apply the theories of HCI to the task of design. It surveys the techniques available in the discipline, demonstrates where and when they are applicable and proceeds to demonstrate via a combination of scientific theory understanding and engineering modeling, and the solution of design problems facing a user interface designer.

The course surveys a wide range of psychological theories beginning with organizational behavior approaches to understanding work and workflow within organizations and moving to understanding human psychological architecture and processing constraints. It also covers new design methods and techniques available and the new conceptual mechanisms used in HCI such as the metaphors for describing user interaction.

Students and Prerequisites: As mentioned earlier, it is intended that the students in this course are either advanced undergraduates or beginning graduate students. As a prerequisite they will have taken either the CS1 course (User Interface Design and Development), the PSY1 course (Psychology of Human-Computer Interaction), or the equivalent of one of those courses.

Philosophy and Objectives: This course is intended for students from computer science, and other disciplines, who expect all or part of their future professional work to be devoted to the development of user interfaces. It's intent is to train students in the underlying science and its application to user interface design. It is an engineering course replete with engineering models drawn from psychological theory. The course trains the student in when and where to apply what models to solve specific design problems. Where theory is not robust, apprenticeship training is employed, demonstrating to students what to look for in user behavior and what design changes different forms of problematic behavior suggest. Since the science of HCI is an evolving science, the course is also a resources course which points the way to acquiring continuing information on the field and also lays a groundwork for understanding future applied research papers in the field. What the course does not teach is how to do HCI science, i.e., how to use basic psychological theory and experimentation to develop new engineering models. Its focus is on the use and adaptation of existing theory and research to a range of new problems a user interface designer faces.

Course Content:

  1. Introduction to the science of HCI (N1:2) (2 hours)
  2. The development process (D1:1) (1 hour)
  3. Social organization and work (U1:4) (4 hours)
  4. Methodology (D3:3) (3 hours)
  5. Human-machine fit and adaptation (U3:2) (2 hours)
  6. The Human Information Processor (H1:9) (9 hours)
  7. Application areas in human-computer interaction: a survey of relevant problems and characteristics (U2:1) (1 hour)
  8. Languages, Communication and Interaction (H2:5) (5 hours)
  9. Ergonomics (H3:2) (2 hours)
  10. Design specification techniques (D1:1) (1 hour)
  11. Implementation techniques (D2:2) (2 hours)
  12. Evaluating the design (D3:3) (3 hours)
  13. Case studies of the development and introduction of specific interfaces (D4:2) (2 hours)
  14. Special Project and Examinations (P:5) (5 hours)

Resources: Many books would be needed to introduce the broad content of this course. The collection of Baecker and Buxton (1987) would be a good source of readings, as would readings from chapters of Salvendy (1987) and Helander (1988). To introduce human information processing psychology, Lindsay and Norman (1977) would be adequate and lively, while Kantowitz and Sorkin (1983) would contain more applied material. To make students think about measurement and statistics, and to introduce concepts of experimental design, the following two little books have proven themselves.

3.4.3 PSY1: Psychology of Human-Computer Interaction {p. 47}

Course Catalog Description: This applied course is both a survey of Human-Computer Interaction research and an introduction to the psychological and other behavioral science knowledge and techniques useful in the design of computing systems for human use. Particular emphasis is placed on developing a knowledge of the basic psychological phenomena of human cognition, memory, problem solving and language, and on how those processes relate to and condition the interaction between humans and interactive computing systems.

Students and Prerequisites: As noted in the prerequisites mentioned earlier, the students in this course are expected to come from psychology or a related behavioral science and to be advanced undergraduates or beginning graduate students. They might also be computer science majors taking the course as an elective.

Philosophy and Objectives: There are three major objectives for this course. One objective is to familiarize students with some of the basic human and machine related factors that influence the design and development of interactive computing systems. A second objective is to familiarize students with current theory and research on the psychological factors to be considered in designing interactive computing systems. The third objective for the course is to explore the interrelationships between psychological processes and the characteristics of computing systems being designed for human use, and, in so doing, to develop an appreciation for the ways in which theory and research can guide design and in which design experience can contribute to the development of theory and research.

Course Content:

  1. Nature of HCI (N1:2) (2 hours)
  2. Human Information Processing (H1:4, H2:2, H3:1) (7 hours)
  3. Computer System and Interface Architecture (C1:3, C2:4, C3:1, C4:1, C5:1) (10 hours)
  4. Use and Context of Computers (U1:4, U2:1, U3:4) (9 hours)
  5. Development Process (D1:4, D2:2, D3:4, D4:2) (12 hours)
  6. Examinations (P:2) (2 hours)

Resources:

3.4.4 MIS1: Human Aspects of Information Systems {p. 50}

Course Catalog Description. Human-computer interaction for professionals, managers and information systems specialists. Analysis and design of systems from the point of view of HCI. Focus on selecting and using information systems to support human work. Emphasis placed on user involvement in the development process.

Students and Prerequisites. The intended audience includes individuals from any number of disciplines such as information systems, anthropology, sociology, graphic design, film and video, management, other business concentrations, English, engineering, or psychology. As mentioned earlier, students should have completed a course in psychology, preferably cognitive psychology or human information processing, and have some computer programming or end-user computing experience.

Philosophy and Objectives. Students will be able to identify and understand the:

Students will acquire skills in integrating HCI into the system development life cycle in:

Course Content: The content of this course is structured around a System Development Life Cycle (SDLC). This approach recognizes the importance of different activities related to the eventual implementation of automated systems including: analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation (Perlman, 1989; Gasen, 1987; etc.). The organization of topics from an SDLC perspective also lends itself well to the development of team projects. This perspective is on a somewhat more pragmatic level than other courses described in this report, such as CS2 (Phenomena and Theories of Human-Computer Interaction), which emphasize theory or abstraction, but may be more appropriate for students with limited exposure to the field. Recognizing that the SDLC perspective is an heuristic for organizing the material, care should be taken to ensure that students recognize and understand the iterative nature of evaluation, design, and development of interactive computing systems.

  1. Introduction (N1:1, U2:4) (5 hours)
  2. Analysis (U1:3, U3:1, D1:1) (5 hours)
  3. Design & Development (U1:1, U3:1, H1-3:4, C1-4:7, D1-2:5, D4:4) (22 hours)
  4. Implementation/Evaluation (U3:1, D2:2, D3:3) (6 hours)
  5. Project Presentations and Examinations (P:4) (4 hours)

Resources: Currently, there is no single text that encompasses the content outline described above. However, an appendix of this report describes educational resources important in designing HCI curricula, and should be helpful to individuals planning HCI courses. There are some books which might be good choices because of their breadth and/or level of technical content. Baecker & Buxton (1987) is a relatively inexpensive book containing many readings. Norman (1988) looks at the world of technology in general from a critical user's point of view. Rubinstein & Hersh (1984) focuses on designing a system from a user requirements point of view. Although there are some more recent comparable books, this one has been used successfully in several courses. Shneiderman (1987) is a survey of design and evaluation techniques for developing more usable systems. Booth (1989) is a short introduction to the field of Human-Computer Interaction that many may find useful. In addition, the curriculum module by Perlman (1989) provides a teacher with resources for creating a course in this area.

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