User interfaces and usability

Course contents

• Design principles of web based and mobile interfaces
• Human-centered design process
• Understanding users through basic HCI research methods and applying this knowledge in design
• Design techniques, such as use cases, prototyping, storyboarding, and usability evaluation
• Usability and user experience as concepts
• Usability standards in interface design and usability testing
• Design patterns and considerations of designing interfaces for modern software systems

The course project involves some programming with Dart and Flutter.

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student will be able to

• understand what good usability is, how user experience relates to it, and which factors contribute to both
• know about the evolution of interfaces and how they led to current practices
• design interactive systems that provide a good usability and how user experience relates to it
• understand the most common usability techniques and evaluation methods
• design and conduct a small user study using basic HCI research methods
• use the findings of a user study to create a conceptual design of an interactive system
• apply design knowledge to most common contemporary interactive environments, such as mobile and web

Prerequisites

To participate on this course you need to have taken basic courses in programming and software engineering first. At LUT, the required programming skills can be attained in the course Introduction to Programming (CT60A0203), and the software engineering understanding in the course Software Engineering (CT60A4002).

Study materials

• Sharp, H., Rogers, Y., Preece. J. 2019. INTERACTION DESIGN: beyond human-computer interaction. Fifth Edition. Wiley.
• Tidwell, J. (2010). Designing interfaces: Patterns for effective interaction design. O’Reilly Media, Inc.
• The Guide to Human-Centered Design, available online here.
• Other materials announced during the course.

Teaching methods

The course is online-only and self-study. Lectures are recorded and provided through the course platform.

Online lectures, independent reading, assignments, and course project. Online exam. Total 162 h.

Course schedule

The course has weekly assignments. All material is available in Moodle. You can find the schedule in Moodle when the course starts.

Assessment scale and assessment methods

Grades 0-5. Project 40 %, weekly assignments 35 %, online exam 25 %.

More information in the LUT University study guide.

You can get a digital badge after completing this course.

käytettävyys käyttöliittymä suunnittelu ohjelmointi UX UI