Unit 5: HCI Paradigms and Principles

Designing for maximum usability is the goal of design and we all strive to have a usable system that attracts a large number of people with different groups. This unit will focus on identifying usability paradigms and principles that govern human-computer interaction. The usability will be at the center of this unit and we will explore it in detail in order to understand how to make a very useful system.  

Unit learning outcomes:

At the end of this unit, you will be able to:

          1. Explain the usability principles and how they could increase human-computer interaction.

          2. Describe the Principles for usability-theoretically driven from psychological, computational, and sociological knowledge.

          3. Understand how an interactive system can be developed to ensure its usability.

          4. Understand how the usability of an interactive system is demonstrated or measured. 

Learning activities:

You will need to do the following activities:

          E-tivity 1.1 Online assessment on usability principles.

          E-tivity 1.2 Exercise on how to measure usability of an interactive system.

          E-tivity 1.3 Online/in-class assessment through the files that students will submit.

Learning resources:

[1]. Alan Dix, Janet Finlay, Gregory Abowd & Russell Beale (2004). Human-Computer Interaction. Hillsdale, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2004. ISBN 0-13-458266-7 (hardback); 0-13-437211-5 (paperback) only outside USA. 1998 (Second Edition) ISBN 0-13-239864-8. Chap. 4