Aims & Learning Objectives:
To give the students an introductory understanding of research methods in human-computer interaction and communication research. To raise students awareness of the scientific and engineering methods used in the context of human-human and human computer interaction.
Students will be able to apply appropriate techniques for the interpretation of material, including observational and ethnographic material, and for a critical understanding of assumptions that underpin the development and application of models. They will be able to understand and apply methods of analysis, experimentation and model building. The students should be able to distinguish between descriptive, predictive and prescriptive models, design and carry out empirical studies including experimental and observational approaches, apply analytical techniques to the analysis of human-human and human-computer interactions, and construct descriptive, qualitative, quantitative and explanatory accounts of human-human and human computer interaction.
Content:
Methods of analysing and interpreting, issues in ethnographic and experimental approaches. Constructing explanatory v. descriptive models. Critical and meta issues. Questions about dialogue between 'tools' and 'persons' and issues in model-building.
Core Reading:
D.A. Norman The Psychology of Everyday Things, Addison Wesley 1996
L Perelman School's Out; hyperlearning Avon Books 1992
G Salomon (ed) Distributed Cognitions; psychological and educational considerations Cambridge 1996
D Watts Small Worlds; the dynamics of networks between order and randomness, Princeton 1999
|
