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'Always design a thing by considering it in its next larger context - a chair in a room, a room in a house, a house in an environment, an environment in a city plan'. Eliel Saarinen (Architect), 1977 |
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Context & History |
Context of the HCID Course at Southampton Solent University
I work within the School of Computing & Communications, Faculty of Technology at Southampton Solent University (SSU) which is a new university located in Southampton on the south coast. I primarily teach within the BSc Business Information Technology (BIT) and BSc Computing programmes (known also as field groups) within this School which offers degree programmes in the field of computing, business computing, networking and electronic media; I have been responsible for the Human Computer Interaction Design (HCID) course module for some time and have helped develop it to its present state. This is further expanded below. Figure 1 illustrates my working environment and is an office which I share with another lecturer colleague.
Fig.1. Artefact. ‘Working Environment'
This office environment is pleasant and has allowed me to focus on developing the HCID module in addition to my other every day tasks such as communicating with students and dealing with a variety of teaching and administrative demands. The module development has involved discussion and planning with a range of colleagues and course teams over the years because it serves and consolidates other related modules and therefore cannot exist in isolation. It sits comfortably and centrally within the above mentioned programmes within the School & Faculty. The Faculty co-exists with two other faculties within the University: Media Arts and Social Science and Business and all three offer undergraduate and postgraduate degrees / diplomas to approximately 11,000 full time equivalent students (ref. 2005-06 statistics).
HCID exists as a Level 2 module on the two BSc programmes which both focus to a greater or lesser extent on computing and IT within the School of Computing and Communications. The BSc BIT and BSc Computing programmes both consist of a series of degrees with BIT generally focusing on the way businesses use computers to undertake functions that are vital in promoting a competitive advantage. The modules on this programme range from marketing, sales, finance and production to web design, introductory programming elements and developing for the internet. The BSc Computing programme, on the other hand focuses on how engineering techniques can be applied to software development and (depending slightly on the degree) is more concerned with the core principles of application development as well as the planning and management of software development processes.
Students from both of these programmes feed into the unit following completion of their level one units and this is illustrated in Figure 2.
Fig. 2. Context Artefact. Illustrates the position of the HCID module within the University.
This diagram (Fig. 2) was constructed quickly as part of a context exercise within an HCI Disciplinary Commons meeting and is an attempt to spontaneously illustrate the position of the HCID unit within my working environment. Although some of the elements cannot be clearly viewed from this digital reproduction, I believe it demonstrates that students entering HCID from Level One of their respective programmes have experienced programming of some kind. HCID while not a programming unit, does require students to recognise, evaluate and develop a usable software based product which does involve an element of programming. This basic knowledge is covered in the different focuses of the two programmes and the diagram shows this. However, on reflection perhaps this map does not fully reveal the other modules which students have taken and which help feed into the unit, for example basic analysis techniques, internet development, etc. These are all elements which are useful in HCID. The unit also underpins a Human Computer Interaction (optional) module at Level 3 and this emphasis should be clearer. The diagram does illustrate that only some students enter HCID from the Computer Network programme and this is something which could be extended; at the moment this programme is more self-contained and loosely connected to the BSc BIT and Computing programmes.
The following degree title hyperlinks also lead to example artefacts on the SSU main web site which describes the layout of the Software Engineering and the Business Information Technology degrees and illustrate how they sit side by side within the two different programmes.
To summarize, the HCID course module consolidates modules that are done by most of the students in their level one year on the respective programmes described above and these include introductory modules in programming and introductory web design work in some cases. Figure 2 above illustrates the context of the HCID module.
I developed the module partly in reaction to the perceived needs of students on the BSc Computing programme which at the time (2001) included undergraduate degrees in BSc Computer Studies and BSc Software Engineering. It was also felt that those studying on Solent’s BSc BIT programme would also benefit from an HCI unit. In particular, business computing processes and development in both programmes demanded some aspect of an awareness of usability. More generally an HCI course module would support the needs of the various software, design and development modules running through the degrees on both programmes. Therefore when these programmes were re-validated in 2001, a Human Computer interaction module and general HCI theme was introduced.
My own involvement with the course started at this time but I had been involved with HCI prior to this and had taught on an Interface Design module (from the late 90s onwards) which was part of the Faculty’s EdExcel (BTEC) Higher National Diploma in Business Information Technology and Computing, two courses which no longer exist. This course module complemented the modules which I was also teaching within the arena of Oracle SQL/database development and visual programming using a Visual Basic development environment. The Interface Design unit mainly focused on elements of Interface Design but a teaching scheme from 1999 which includes notes to myself on certain elements (cf. Figure 3 Artefact in Historical Artefact (Fig 3)) reveals how much it relied on software development in a practical sense.
The reliance on visual programming in the Interface Design module (illustrated in Fig. 3) was thought at the time to reflect the practical nature of this higher national diploma. However, in retrospect, the weighting on programming elements possibly detracted too much from the HCI focus and usability issues were not promoted enough. This programming focus is something which, on reflection, I would avoid now partly because too much time is spent on this aspect and less time spent on important usability issues which do need to be emphasized from a student perspective.
The HCID course module and an HCI theme for the revalidated BSc programmes naturally developed from this module. It was proposed that a general HCI theme would run through the BSc programmes starting in Level 1 with an Interface Design module, followed by a Human Computer Interaction Design module at Level 2 and an optional HCI module at level 3. I was tasked with constructing this theme in conjunction with a colleague and was especially responsible for HCID at level 2. Figure 4 Artefact shows some ‘working thoughts’ which effectively are documented ideas for this themed syllabus approach from late 2000.
Figure 4 illustrates some of the complexities of providing a vertical HCI theme through three years of a degree programme. In particular, the distribution of programmatic content between Levels 1 and 2 is difficult. Should a level 1 unit be more concerned simply with aspects of design which underpin cognitive and human factor issues at level 2 or should it focus more on such issues?
The Level 2 course module existed in more or less its present format until it was modified in 2004 when the degree programmes were partially restructured. The Level 1 Interface Design course module was removed; a decision made by the programme team leaders. Level One was mostly re-configured in ‘long thin’ module format, (i.e. modules which took an academic year to complete) and a lack of space resulted in the disappearance of Interface Design. A consequence of this was the removal of any underpinning of work at level one for the HCID unit at Level 2.
The specific objectives developed over a period of time and I would modify them now in line with the changing dynamics of usability and human-artefact interaction. In fact the present module has recently been revalidated and in its new format will have a revised set of objectives, which, although similar in nature to the old set do reflect a changing focus on interaction with any digital artefact. These can be seen below
NEW OBJECTIVES
- Knowledge and Understanding
1. Identify the issues, design and functionality of the human digital artefact interface in the context of interaction with a software or digital model - Cognitive skills
2. Analyse, evaluate & design digital artefacts and software systems and make rational judgements about their usability in the context of human computer/artefact interaction.
- Practical and Professional skills
3. Use appropriate visual environment to produce and test elements of a prototype interface with application. - Transferable Skills 4. Work co-operatively as a team.
References
Saarinen, E. (1977), Time, June, week 2
