Fundamentals of Interaction Design

Welcome to DESN S364. We are very pleased that you have chosen to study this course, and hope that you both enjoy your studies and acquire useful and interesting knowledge and skills.

The aim of this course is to provide you with an understanding of interaction design. i.e. the factors, techniques, tools and theories that affect the design of usable interactive products and systems such as websites, mobile telephones, desktop software applications and video recorders.

Although the course often focuses on the interface to these products, interaction design is about more than the interface alone: problems with an interactive product can often be traced back to misunderstandings about the product's users, their goats, capabilities and circumstances. Overcoming these problems requires an understanding of a wide range of subjects, and an effective approach to involving users in an iterative development cycle. The course teaches a variety of topics from fields such as computing, psychology, graphic design, entertainment, informatics and usability. By studying the course, you will gain an understanding of underlying theory balanced with practical skills that will equip you to analyze, design and evaluate the kinds of interactive products you meet every day in your work and home environments.

This Course Guide provides an overview of the course and its constituent parts. You will find it helpful to read through this Course Guide before you start the course, and then use it as a reference guide as your study progresses.

2.1 Entry

DESN S364 is a Level 3 course. Level 3 courses build on study skills acquired from previous courses at Levels 1 and 2. They are intended only for students who have recent experience of higher education in a related subject. However, in the case of DESN S364 you DO NOT need to have studied other courses in Maths and Computing.

To study DESN S364 you will ideally be a competent user of computer technology with an interest in people and good design. If you are studying for one of the Design and Innovation, EMMD, PDT or Communications Technology Degree programmes, this understanding may be gained from DESN S217 or IT S234. DESN S364 will extend the coverage of human-computer interaction (HCI) and graphical user interface (GUI) development offered by these courses. If you are not following programmes that include DESN S217 and IT S234 you will not be disadvantaged as the course does not assume any previous knowledge specific to these courses.

2.2 Preparatory work

No preparation is required to study DESN S364, however you may find it useful to visit the website www.id-book.com that supports the Set Book. This will give you a good idea of the kind of topics covered in DESN S364 (but remember that we provide additional materials too). This site offers a variety of resources such as articles, other websites and 'Interactivities' (or games) that you might find interesting.

2.3 Computing facilities

It is essential that you have the necessary computing equipment before you start the course. In particular, you need to ensure that you have:

• access to a computer that meets the minimum specification for the course;
• obtained access to the Internet by subscribing to an internet service provider (ISP);
• Installed an internet browser;
• a word processor for completing electronic tutor-marked assignments which is capable of including diagrams in documents (such as Microsoft Word).
• installed the course DVD. From the beginning, you will be making use of the course DVD, which contains the Computer Activities.

The main components of the course are: a Set Book, four course books, and a DVD. These main materials are organized into four blocks of study. The study path for each block is controlled by the relevant course book, which tells you when to refer to the Set Book and when to go to the DVD. In this way, we have kept the study path simple and straightforward. These main materials are supported by a Glossary and an Index.

We also provide a presentation schedule to help you organize your study time, the assignments you should complete through the course, and a specimen examination paper (with solutions) to prepare you for the real examination.

All of these items can be downloaded from the course website. The course website contains up-to-date information (such as course news and any errata) and we recommend that you check the course website regularly throughout the course

The course is also supported by an online discussion forum.

Each of these is described in more detail below.

3.1 Paper-based teaching materials

The Set Book

Interaction Design: Beyond human-computer interaction by Preece, Rogers and Sharp (2009).

This book is supplied with the other course materials for DESN S364 and is referred to as the Set Book throughout the course documentation. This is an international best seller on interaction design. It is an exposition of the design of current and new generation interactive technologies, such as websites, mobiles and wearables, and it covers a wide range of issues, topics and paradigms. The book's Main locus is how to design Interactive products that enhance and extend the way people communicate, interact and work.

The Set Book is central to the course, containing most of the content. You will need to spend much of your study time working through this book. However, we do not expect you to study all of the chapters, and you will not be asked to read the chapters in order. Details about how you should read this book are given in the four course books prepared by the course team (see below).

The Set Book has an associated website www.id-book.com which contains reinforcement and extension material. DESN S364 is self-contained, and there is no requirement for you to visit this website as part of your study. However you may find it interesting and helpful to look at these resources if you wish to extend your understanding.

In the course books, this icon in the margin indicates directed study of the Set Book.

Four course books

The four course books have the following titles:

Block 1: An overview of Interaction design

Block 2: Requirements

Block 3: Design

Block 4: Evaluation

These books were prepared by the course team and are designed to complement the Set Book. They serve a number of functions, including the following.

• They guide you through the course, telling you which sections of the Set Book to read and which Computer Activities (on the DVD) to complete, and when.
• They provide brief summaries of the main Set Book sections, plus Review Questions. Both of these emphasize the concepts that are of particular importance to this course.
• They provide additional acclivities designed to clarify and build upon the material contained Set Boot.
• They provide additional examples and readings, in order to clarify and extend the material contained in the Set Book.
• They provide additional teaching on topics relevant to this course, but which are not addressed by the Set Book.

Each book organizes one block of study, and is broken down into a number of units. We refer to the course books as Block 1, Block 2, Block 3 and Block 4 throughout the course materials.

At the end of Block 4 there is a short 'Course reflection' which discusses the course material In terms of a perspective based on a set of course themes. These themes are introduced in Section 4 of this Course Guide.

This icon in the margin indicates that an Activity or Review Question involves writing or sketching, rather than using your computer.

Glossary and Index

The course Index covers the material in the course books only. The Set Book has its own index. The Glossary pulls together in one place definitions of key course terminology.

Terms picked out in bold type in the course books can be found in the Glossary, for Instance there is an entry for interaction design.

3.2 Electronic components

Course DVD

The material on the DVD consists of the detailed text and electronic resources needed to complete the Computer Activities referred to within the four course books. You only need to refer to the DVD where you see one of these icons in a course book alongside a Computer Activity. The Web icon indicates that you also need access to the internet to be able to complete the activity; otherwise you only need access to your computer.

Resources required for the Computer Acclivities are all included on the DVD, except in case where we ask you to refer to the websites, in which case the relevant link will be provided. Resources include:

• Videos which illustrate concepts on the course.
• Simulations which reinforce some elements of the text.
• Journal papers and articles which expand on course concepts.

Some of the video programmes may be played on a stand-alone DVD player attached to your television set. However, you will need your computer's DVD-ROM drive for the Computer Activities.

This icon in the margin directs you to a Computer Activity on the DESN S364 DVD.

This icon in the margin directs you to a Computer Activity for which you will need to access the Web, possibly using a search engine to find resources.

Course website

DESN S364 will have a course website on the OLE, which links from your HKMU home page. This website will contain up-to-date news and information such as errata. We recommend that you check the course website regularly during your studies.

You can also download some of the course components from this website, including the presentation schedule, assignments and Specimen Examination Paper.

Online discussion board

There will be an online forum for this course, which is a good way to make and maintain contact with other students studying DESN S364 and with your tutor. The forum is particularly relevant later in the course when its use is built into the assignments, but to make the most of the benefits, we encourage you to take an active part in the discussions from early on in the course.

This icon in the margin Indicates that an activity involves either computer forums or some other group activity.

3.3 Assessment documents

Please note that you will be able to download the assignments, the specimen examination paper, and the solutions to the specimen examination paper from the course website.

Assignments

This course contains four assignments that you will have to complete during the course. We provide more information about the assignments in Section 6 of this Course Guide.

Specimen Examination Paper

The specimen examination paper (SEP) gives you a preview of the real examination paper. The questions on the SEP are in the same style as those that will appear in the real examination. The solutions to the specimen examination paper (SSEP) will give you some idea of the standard expected of your answers.

Interaction design affects most people in their daily lives. We are surrounded by interactive products at home, in work, and during leisure hours. For example websites, mobile telephones, video games, ATM machines, drinks dispensers, etc. are part of everyday life. But how many are easy, satisfying and enjoyable to use? Interaction design studies the factors, techniques, tools and theories that affect the design of such products.

The course will teach you a variety of topics from computing, psychology, graphic design, entertainment, informatics and usability. You will learn about the underlying theory, balanced with practical skill that will equip you to analyze, design and evaluate the interactive products you meet every day. In particular, the course will help you to answer the following kinds of question:

• Why are some websites easier to use than others?
• Why do people have difficulty using some software packages and not others?
• How can paper prototypes help improve the design of mobile phones?
• How can I assess the usability of this video game?
• As a user, how can I get involved in the re-design of the new information system at work?
• How and why should I find out more about the users of this software system I'm building?
• What problems might people with disabilities face when using a software application and how can designs be improved to avoid these problems?
• What issues should you consider if you wish to design a website to appeal to people from a different country?

4.1 Who the course is for

We anticipate that students studying this course will come from a variety of backgrounds, some with a detailed knowledge of computing, and others with knowledge of psychology, systems, design or some other related area. We have aimed to make this course of relevance whatever your background. However, you will probably find some sections more immediately relevant than others.

As a consequence of the diversity of the student group we have agreed two high-level aims. These are that after the course you will:

• know enough to be able to communicate effectively with an interaction designer, so you could employ and/or manage an interaction designer;
• be able to apply interaction design techniques to bounded, real-world examples.

4.2 Learning outcomes

The course is built around a structured set of learning outcomes that you can use to help you monitor and review your progress. Each unit has associated with it a set of learning outcomes. These learning outcomes underpin a set of course learning outcomes which are listed below. At the end of each unit, there is a table showing how these two sets are linked. In addition, the introduction to each block collates the learning outcomes from each of its units.

The learning outcomes of the course are as follows:

Knowledge and understanding:

After studying the course you will be able to:

• Explain why it is important to design interactive products that are usable.
• Define key terms used in interaction design.
• Explain key theories used in the design of interactive products.
• Describe different techniques for involving users in the design of interactive products.
• Explain the importance of iteration, evaluation and prototyping in interaction design.
• Discuss theoretical or empirical evidence supporting a list of interaction design principles
• Discuss accessibility issues for interactive products.

Cognitive skills:

After studying the course you will be able to:

• Evaluate an interactive product using suitable techniques.
• Establish an initial set of requirements for a simple interactive product using suitable techniques.
• Perform data gathering in the context of developing a simple interactive product using suitable techniques.
• Produce a low-fidelity prototype for an interactive product based upon a simple list of Interaction design principles.

Key skills:

After studying the course you will be able to:

• Construct and convey an argument from a variety of sources to persuade a non-specialist audience of the importance of user-centered design when designing interactive products.
• Communicate effectively to peers and specialists about requirements, design, and evaluation activities relating to interactive products.
• Monitor and improve your own learning process.

Practical and/or professional skills:

After studying the course you will be able to:

• Define a suitable programme of user involvement that treats users ethically and fairly.

4.3 Course viewpoint

When we designed this course we had a particular viewpoint in mind. This viewpoint is characterized by the following themes, which permeate the course, and are discussed in the 'Course reflection' section at the end of Block 4:

• Usability goals and user experience goals. Good design is subjective, but interaction design relies on specific goals which are developed in partnership with the product's users. These goals focus attention on the users and what they are trying to achieve. If usability and user experience goals drive the design, the designer will be relying less on subjectivity and more on context and purpose.
• The importance of involving users and other stakeholders. When you are developing an interactive product it is essential to involve all the various stakeholder groups. The most important of these is the users, but each group of stakeholders brings a unique and important perspective to the development process.
• Complexity and trade-offs. When designing interaction you need to take into account the types of user, the problem domain, the environment in which the users are operating and the activities they are carrying out. All of these factors can impact upon one another, and typically there is no single right answer to an interaction design problem - rather it is a matter of making trade-offs and compromises.
• Interaction design activities are not discrete. Developing computer systems is sometimes presented as being a linear process requirements gathering, design, implementation and testing (or something similar). However, you cannot follow a fixed sequence of steps to design interaction, as all the steps are interleaved and there is no firm end point.
• Iterative development. When designing interaction there are many factors to take into account. For this reason, you will rarely, if ever, get it fight first time. To address this complexity, interaction design proceeds through an Iterative development you should be willing to evaluate your designs, recognize when they need modification, and change them.
• The need for interdisciplinary. Interaction design is an interdisciplinary field, drawing upon ideas and techniques from different disciplines, each of which is equally important.

The course is supported by the HKMU Online Learning Environment (OLE). The use of the OLE is compulsory. That means that the OLE platform is the primary means of communication. Documents such as the assignment file and stop presses will be distributed via the OLE only.

Included in the first mailing is a guide to the OLE. It is a good to check the OLE regularly. You are also encouraged to participate in the discussion group of the course.

Tutors in this course will be designated as "online tutor", with the additional task of overseeing the discussion group: to stimulate your thoughts, and also to monitor the discussion

The overall course score is made up of two components:

Continuous assessment: 50%
Final examination: 50%.

6.1 Continuous assessment

Continuous assessment consists of four assignments. Please note that the assignment files will be available for download from the OLE only. They will not be sent to you by post.

Assignments 01-04 are equally weighted and constitute 100% of this component. All assignments are summative; that is, the marks awarded go towards your overall continuous assessment score (OCAS).

You are encouraged to submit your assignments according to schedule. If you foresee difficulties in completing the assignment, please contact your tutor for help early on.

If you find you cannot meet the deadline, please apply for extension before the cut-off date. For the three assignments 01 to 03, your tutor has the authority to give you up to 7 days' extension, provided the application is made before the assignment cut-off date, and your application for extension was substantiated with a good reason. Please note that there will be no extensions to the cut-off date for the last assignment 04. This is so that the marked assignments with tutor's comments can be returned to you as a reference in time for preparation for the examination.

6.2 Final examination

The final examination is a written paper of three hours. A specimen examination paper is uploaded to the OLE which resembles the actual paper in style and format. There are no trick questions on the examination paper.

The examination is three hours long.

The course is built around a simple sequential study path that runs through the four course books, starting with Block 1 and going through to the end of Block 4 and the 'Course reflection'. The material in the course books tells you when to read sections of the Set Book and when to do the associated Computer Activities on the course DVD. You are not expected to study material that falls outside this path, for example not all chapters in the Set Book are covered by DESN S364. Of course, you may like to read further material for your own interest, and we provide some useful links from the course website for this purpose.

7.1 Studying the Set Book

Most units in the course are based around chapters in the Set Book, with additional readings and activities designed to strengthen and deepen your understanding of the material.

To get the most out of the Set Book material, we suggest that you start each unit by studying the relevant chapter sections, including the boxes, dilemmas and interviews, and complete the activities in the Set Book as you read, making notes or highlighting key sections. Then study the extension material, Acclivities and Review Questions in the course book. Completing the activities may require you to re-read sections of the Set Book, so they should help consolidate your understanding and mean that you remember more when you come to revising.

When reading chapters in the Set Book, be sure to read the introduction for appropriate background material, and the summaries and key points at the end of the chapter which emphasize important messages in the chapter. You do not need to attempt the Set Book's assignment in this first reading of the chapter. In some cases, you will be asked to complete the assignment as part of the extension material in the course books, but in others you will not need to complete the assignment at all.

Note that the assignments in the Set Book are not related in any way to the assignments you must complete as part of the course assessment

The relationship between the Set Book chapters and the course books and units is summarized in Table 1.

Table 1 Relationship between chapters in the Set Book and course units

7.2 Active learning

The course materials contain three kinds of exercises to help reflect upon and reinforce the course material. These are Review Questions, Activities and Computer Activities.

The difference between these is described below:

• Review Questions. These are to help you check that you have understood the material in the preceding section, or in the section of the Set Book that you have just read. They are short questions which focus on key aspects of the course, and should take you no more than 10 minutes to answer (in many cases much less than this). The answers to Review Questions are collected together at the back of each unit.

• Activities. These exercises are more complex and require more time to complete than Review Questions. They often involve you in applying a technique or idea to a new situation, to help you explore it in more depth yourself. Note that there are activities in the Set Book and in the blocks, which are similar in nature. You should expect activities to take about 30 minutes to complete (although some may take less time than this). If we expect an Activity to take more than 30 minutes, then this is stated in the Activity itself. Each Activity is followed by a Comment section.

• Computer Activities. These are similar to Activities, but they require the use of a computer and usually lake longer than 30 minutes to complete.  The course book includes a description of each Computer Activity. The full text, together with the resources necessary to complete the activity, is on the course DVD. Each Computer Activity includes an estimate of how long you should allow to complete it, this varies from 10 minutes to 2 hours. Most Computer Activities are followed by a comment section, but in some cases there is feedback built into the activity and so no extra comment is supplied.

7.3 Tips on studying DESN S364

The units are of different lengths, both in terms of pages and study lime, so you will need to plan your time accordingly. The presentation schedule indicates how long you should expect to spend on each unit (from one week to three weeks) and we would encourage you to stick to the timescales in the presentation schedule as closely as you can.

The subject matter is very wide ranging and so you will probably find some bits of it more demanding and others more straightforward, depending on your background. In addition, the presentation schedule includes some 'Revision Weeks'. We have included these weeks to allow for the fact that you may have fallen behind in your studies - maybe because you found some of the material particularly challenging, or maybe because an assignment took longer than you expected, or for other, personal reasons. If you don't feel that you need this extra time to catch-up, then we suggest that you use it to get ahead in your studies in case you experience delays later.

Your tutor is there to help, and can advise you on the course content. assignments, study skills and other related academic issues. Rather than get anxious about the course, contact your tutor. It is very unlikely that you are the only person experiencing difficulties. And your tutor will be used to helping out.

We have developed this course in an iterative manner, just as we teach you to perform interaction design. As such, there are always areas that could be improved. Where we discover there are errors or ambiguities, we will let you know through the course website. If you find any errors or ambiguities yourself, please let your tutor know and she will be able to inform the Course Team who, in turn can inform other students.

We recommend that you check the course website every week.

Each block has a similar structure a block introduction, followed by a number of units, followed by a block conclusion. Note that the study time required for each unit is not the same, and you should refer to the course presentation schedule for an indication of the study time required for a unit. Block 4 also includes a conclusion to the course which reflects on what you have learned and how it relates to the course viewpoint introduced in Section 4 above.

In this section we include a description of the blocks and each unit within the block. Reading these descriptions will give you an overview of the whole course.

Block 1 provides an overview of the course, and introduces a simple lifecycle for interaction design Blocks 2, 3 and 4 cover different activities within this lifecycle, as shown in Figure 1 below.

Figure 1 Block 2, 3 and 4 cover different activities within the simple lifecycle introduced in Block 1.

Block 1: An overview of interaction design

This block provides a broad overview of interaction design (ID), introducing the fundamental concepts. These concepts are discussed further in the remainder of the course.

The block contains the following four units.

Unit 1: What is interaction design?

This unit introduces the most important ID terminology, explains why ID is important, and gives a description of the main ID activities and the characteristics of the ID process. It starts with a video programme that introduces the topic of interaction design in a lighthearted manner.

Several of the examples and activities in this unit are based around the design of car dashboards - an interaction product that may be familiar to you. You should note that this course defines an interactive product as being an artefact with which a user can interact. For our purposes, this artefact is usually based around computing technology, and may be both hardware and software (e.g. a personal organizer) or Just software (e.g. a website) This is a very broad definition, which includes a wide range of systems.

Unit 2: Goals and design principles

This is an applied unit that shows you how to assess interactive products against a selection of usability and user experience goals. It also introduces a selection of design principles and shows you how to analyze the design of interactive products against these.

Unit 3: The process of interaction design, and being user-centered

This unit discusses some of the practical issues involved in developing interactive products, in particular, it considers the importance of being user-centered and the different ways of achieving this. It also discusses different lifecycle models for developing interactive products, concentrating on the ID lifecycle that underpins this course.

This discussion is supported by a substantial case study. This is based upon a UK company called Tokairo and the approach they look to designing the interaction for a record-keeping system for lorry drivers.

Unit 4: Introduction to evaluation

This unit introduces the basic concepts and terms relating to the evaluation of interactive products.

This is supported by a video programme that gives a broad introduction to evaluation, discussing some of the factors that need to be considered when designing an evaluation and demonstrating a variety of evaluation methods and the underlying technology needed to support these methods.

Block 2: Requirements

This block consists of two units. It is concerned with one of the basic activities of interaction design - identifying needs and establishing requirements. Identifying needs involves the understanding of users, those of their activities which the interactive product is intended to support, and the context in which the activities take place.

The contents of the two units are as follows:-

Unit 1: Knowing the users

This unit is independent of the Set Book. Here, we will explore two kinds of user characteristics:

• those which pertain to the user's culture - the user's values, beliefs, norms of behavior, etc.
• those which pertain to disabled users the nature of some common disabilities, how they impact on interaction with interactive products, and how such products might be designed so as to widen accessibility to disabled people.

These two kinds of characteristics are not necessarily more important than other user characteristics, such as age of familiarity with similar products: the relative importance of different user characteristics depends on the context. They are highlighted here because they are only lightly touched on in the Set Book and because they are becoming of increasing importance to designers, as the global market burgeons and as disability rights legislation reaches the statute books.

Unit 2: Establishing an initial set of requirements

This unit complements material in the Set Book. We start by distinguishing between functional and non-functional requirements. We then explore further the characteristics of the users, their activities and the relevant context, and discuss how these impacts on non-functional requirements. We consider various ways by which requirements might be gathered, including details of two: using interviews and questionnaires. The unit concludes by describing various ways by which requirements might be represented so as to inform the design of the first prototypes. These representations include Volere shells, scenarios, use cases and essential use cases, and, in line with one of the key characteristics of interaction design, usability and user experience goals.

Block 3: Design

Block 3 focuses on how to take the set of information identified through the requirements activity and produce an appropriate design. In terms of the simple interaction design model you met in Block 1, Block 3 focuses on two of the activities: '(Re)design' and 'Build an interactive version' (see Figure 1). Building an interactive version can involve prototyping and construction.
The block contains the following four units.

Unit 1: Understanding and conceptualizing interaction

In this unit you are asked to reflect on the product you are planning to produce, based on the requirements work you've done so far. It asks you to explicate your assumptions about the problem and about the intended solution, and reflect on why you think it is necessary. Exploring the problem space before you start designing helps to ensure that issues have been carefully considered and dealt with.

This unit explores ways in which the design process can proceed without concentrating on the detailed design level. In particular, we discuss the importance of investigating the problem space of a product, different conceptual models that may help envision the new product, and we give initial consideration to how the design process might move forward from conceptual design to physical design. Three key concepts explored in this unit are, conceptual models, interface metaphors, and interaction paradigms.

At the end of this unit you will not be expected to develop your own conceptual model but you will be able to understand what a conceptual model is and to recognize different types. Unit 4 will show you how to develop a conceptual model.

Unit 2: Choosing interaction devices

Most PCs have a keyboard and a mouse as input devices, and a screen and a printer as output devices. Loudspeakers may also be used for sound output, and a joystick or steering wheel may be used for input, particularly if games are being played on the computer. However, there are many different types of input and output devices available, and choosing appropriable devices will help to ensure that usability and user experience goals are met. This unit introduces different kinds of interaction devices and offers some guidance to help choose between alternatives for a particular interactive product.

Unit 3: Understanding users

In this unit we will look at what can be learned from the work of cognitive science that can be helpful in designing interactive products for people. Understanding some of tile characteristics and limitations of the human mind will help you to see why some designs work well and others fail miserably. It will also help you to understand and apply suitable design guidelines. The unit includes the following topics: cognitive processes, implications for interaction design of these processes, mental models, information processing and external cognition.
Although Unit 3 appears to be quite short, it can take some time to fully understand the concepts it contains. To help you understand them better, and to relate them to your own experiences, there is an 'Experiences Record Sheet' in the appendix. You may find it useful to copy this and have it with you while you are studying this unit so that you can record examples of the concepts that you meet during your everyday activities.

Unit 4: Design, prototyping and construction

Unit 4 pulls together much of the material introduced in the previous three units, and provides some practical guidance on how to produce the first design for the interactive product under development. Specifically, this unit teaches you about prototyping: the reasons for prototyping, and issues concerned with the different kinds of prototyping. It also leaches you how to produce three kinds of low-fidelity prototype: a storyboard which helps explore the environment of the product, a card-based prototype which represents the task flow and high-level design for the product, and interface sketches which require more details about the product.

Block 4: Evaluation

This block focuses on the activity of evaluation (refer back to figure 1).

Presenting evaluation as a separate activity from establishing requirements, (re)design and building an interactive version is rather artificial because in practice some design would have to be undertaken and 'tried out' with users in the effort to gain some shared understanding of the requirements between the users and the designer(s). Thus as you study this block there will necessarily be some moving back and forth between this block and the others.

The block contains the following three units.

Unit 1: An evaluation framework

This unit builds on what you have learnt about evaluation in Block 1 Unit 4. It reviews evaluation approaches and methods, considers six short evaluation case studies, and introduces DECIDE – a framework to guide evaluation.

There are three main evaluation approaches which strongly influence how evaluation might be thought about and undertaken. Associated with the evaluation approaches are methods which are used in the assessment of the design of an interactive product.

Unit 2: Usability testing and field studies

This unit will focus on the evaluation approaches that involve users: usability testing and field studies.  This draws on your previous reading in Block 2 concerned with data collection techniques such as direct observation, user diaries and activity interaction logs.

Unit 3: Analytical evaluation

The unit focuses on evaluation approaches that do not involve users: inspections, walkthroughs and predictive modelling. The two methods presented that are used within the analytic evaluation approach for assessing how usable an interactive product is, or is not, are: the heuristic evaluation inspection method and the cognitive walkthrough. Three predictive models are described: GOMS, the keystroke level model and Fitts' law.

We hope you will enjoy studying this course and find it to be a rewarding experience. Any feedback would be welcomed, either through your tutor, or directly to the course team via the DESN S364 OLE.

Good luck with your study of DESN S364 Fundamentals of Interaction Design.