TIE-04107 Basic Course on User Experience, 5 cr
Additional information
The following books are helpful in learning the course content:
- Interaction Design, beyond human-computer interaction. 3rd edition. Rogers, Y., Sharp, H., Preece, J. Wiley, 2011.
- The Design of Everyday Things. Norman, D. Basic Books, 2013.
- About Face: The essentials of interaction design, Fourth Edition, Alan Cooper, Robert Reimann, David Cronin & Christopher Noessel. Wiley, 2014.
Person responsible
Kirsikka Kaipainen, Jari Varsaluoma, Kaisa Väänänen
Lessons
| Implementation | Period | Person responsible | Requirements |
| TIE-04107 2019-01 | 1 |
Kirsikka Kaipainen |
Group assignment (in groups of three) and an exam. |
Learning Outcomes
This is a basic course on user experience. After passing the course, the student: - Understands what a good user experience (including usability) is and which factors contribute to it. - Knows how to design interactive systems to achieve a good user experience. - Knows the most common user experience assessment and evaluation methods. - Understands what it is like to do practical work in user experience design. - Can design and conduct a small user study using interview and observation methods. - Can use the findings of a user study to create a conceptual design of an interactive system, and report the results clearly.
Content
| Content | Core content | Complementary knowledge | Specialist knowledge |
| 1. | User experience (including usability) and the factors contributing to it. | Essential terms and concepts of user experience (UX) and human-computer interaction (HCI). Theoretical UX models. Human characteristics that influence user experience. Human information processing (memory, attention, senses, etc.). The significance of use environment (use context) in design. | |
| 2. | Basics of designing user experience of interactive systems. | Main principles and importance of human-centred design. Key design principles (e.g. Norman). Defining the target group of a system, gathering user needs, defining usability and user experience goals. Conceptual design. Interaction styles and modalities. Prototyping in HCI. | |
| 3. | Basics of user experience evaluation and research. | Examples of user experience evaluation methods and research studies. Analysis and presentation of research findings. | |
| 4. | Understanding the practical work in user experience design. | Entire product offering (product/service, support, sales, user manuals, branding etc.) Organizational perspective, incl. cost-benefit analysis of user experience. Roles of UX professionals. |
Instructions for students on how to achieve the learning outcomes
The exam assesses comprehension of basic concepts, understanding of user experience related matters, and ability to apply the knowledge. The group assignment measures especially the students' skills to apply what they have learned on the course in gathering user needs and in conceptual design of an interactive system with a good user experience.
Assessment scale:
Numerical evaluation scale (0-5)
Partial passing:
Study material
| Type | Name | Author | ISBN | URL | Additional information | Examination material |
| Lecture slides | Yes |
Correspondence of content
| Course | Corresponds course | Description |
| TIE-04107 Basic Course on User Experience, 5 cr | TIE-04101 Basic Course on User Experience, 5 cr | |
| TIE-04107 Basic Course on User Experience, 5 cr | TIE-04106 Basic Course on User Experience, 3 cr |