(Photo by dcJohn – http://flic.kr/p/7BVsM)
If you’ve been following me on Twitter and other places, you’ve probably heard me mention that I’ll be teaching some courses at BCIT come January. The first course on deck is Human Factors for Interaction Design, a course that will ground the students in the theoretical foundations of this discipline. I’ll also be teaching Information Architecture, and an introductory Dreamweaver course as well, beginning in March.
I’d be lying if I said this hasn’t been a challenge. Presented with a rough outline of what the students should be expected to know at the end of the course, I had to select materials and create assignments that would not only get the students to produce deliverables, but to get them thinking seriously about the profession and their places within it. Because it is only a six-week course, I’m not able to pass on nearly as much information as I’d like, but I feel fairly confident that they’ll walk away with enough to prepare them for the other courses in their program.
Over the six weeks, the course will focus on cognitive psychology, human-computer interaction, persuasion, user-centred design, and design methodology. The students will be expected to keep design logs that will help them focus their thinking about design in general, and their own designs in particular. They’ll also get an opportunity to work in pairs as observers/test subjects during a cognitive walkthrough exercise. I think this step is important, because it is one of the skills that is most difficult to hone properly, especially outside of a proper research methods course. The goal isn’t to turn them into ace researchers, but help them become familiar enough with the processes so that when they’re working in the real world, they’ll know what they don’t know, and will be able to fill the gaps on their own.
I’ll be experimenting with making course materials widely available on the course website (once it’s finished – there aren’t enough hours in the day!) and perhaps here as well. From what I gather, course materials are often treated like closely guarded intellectual property, a position that I am sympathetic to. However, I’m also sympathetic to other instructors and students, and would like these materials to be useful to as wide an audience as possible. I don’t pretend to suggest that my course notes are the definitive discourse on this subject, only that if someone finds something of use in the materials I’ve prepared, then our profession as a whole will be made the better for it. So if you’d like to see what we’ll be talking about in week one, have a look at the lecture notes or a sample of the slide deck.