YHTTAY-40066 Methods in Human-Centered Design, 5 cr
Additional information
Suitable for postgraduate studies.
Person responsible
Kaisa Väänänen, Thomas Olsson
Lessons
| Implementation | Period | Person responsible | Requirements |
| YHTTAY-40066 2017-01 | 3 - 4 |
Thomas Olsson |
Learning Outcomes
The course provides a concrete and project-work based experience of human-centered design of digital products and services. After this course the student is able to conduct a full human-centered research and design process in practice. The student can apply the methods in different types of design processes and application areas. The student has enough experience to take responsibility of a small design project. The student can analyze and model different types of user research data from various sources, and identify the most relevant user-related aspects that affect the design of ICT.
Content
| Content | Core content | Complementary knowledge | Specialist knowledge |
| 1. | Contextual Design (CD) as a holistic R&D methodology for interactive technology: both in theory and practice. | Applying Lean thinking to various types of projects. | |
| 2. | Contextual Inquiry: user research in authentic contexts. Techniques for gathering user research data with observation, interviewing and by gathering relevant artifacts that relate to the user activities. Understanding of how to gather relevant user data in different types of cases. Interpreting the data. Modeling the user, context and task according to the notations and principles in CD. Consolidating the models (Interaction model, sequence model, artifact model, physical model and cultural model). Building an affinity diagram. | Selecting the most suitable modeling notations and analysis methods based on the studied context and goals of the project. | |
| 3. | Specifying and designing a product/service based on the user research: how to make design decisions based on the understanding of the user. Methods like Affinity diagram walkthrough, visioning and storyboarding, Personas, UED-modeling. | Theory about idea creation techniques and working in groups, and how to apply this knowledge in design processes. | |
| 4. | Interaction design, interface design and prototyping: storyboarding, UI mock-ups, wireframes, landing pages. Advanced principles of UI design and graphical design. | Knowledge of other relevant design roles and approaches, such as graphical design, experience-driven design, information architecture. Understanding of what is expected of a UX designer in the industry, particularly in software industry. |
Instructions for students on how to achieve the learning outcomes
The grade is mainly based on the practical assignment. Attending ~50% of the weekly teaching sessions is compulsory. The more sessions one attends, the more it shows in the final grading.
Assessment scale:
Numerical evaluation scale (0-5)
Partial passing:
Prerequisites
| Course | Mandatory/Advisable | Description |
| TIE-04100 Käyttäjäkokemuksen perusteet | Mandatory | 1 |
| YHTTAY-04006 Principles of Usability, User Experience and User Interfaces | Mandatory | 1 |
| TIE-40106 Psychology of Pervasive Computing | Mandatory | |
| TIE-41206 Human-Centered Product Development | Advisable | |
| YHTTAY-40020 Usability Evaluation Methods | Mandatory |
1 . TIE-04100, YHTTAY-04006 (tms. peruskurssi)
Additional information about prerequisites
A compulsory prerequisite is the course "Usability Evaluation Methods" (provided by University of Tampere) or similar skills about conducting user research.
A Master's level or postgraduate student who has taken a Bachelor's degree elsewhere than at TUT should have theoretical knowledge and preferably also practical skills of the following: user-centered design as a process, user research, usability testing, interviewing, user interface design.
Correspondence of content
| Course | Corresponds course | Description |
| YHTTAY-40066 Methods in Human-Centered Design, 5 cr | TIE-41416 Methods in Human-Centered Design, 5 cr |