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Usability Engineering (INFO30004)

Undergraduate level 3Points: 12.5On Campus (Parkville)

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Overview

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Semester 1
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AIMS

How do you design information and communication technologies that are useful, usable and satisfying? Usability Engineering addresses this question. Usability is now a vital part of the IT industry for both work and leisure. We can see usability (or the lack of it) in the design of tablets, aircraft cockpits, business software, car navigation devices, and many other technologies.

In this subject students will learn concepts and techniques integral to creating usable systems. These include: contextual analysis of human activities; principles for designing usable human computer interactions; styles of user interfaces; and methods to evaluate the usability of new designs. Students will also learn relevant theories underpinning these techniques including aspects of human cognition and the theory of natural design.

INDICATIVE CONTENT

  • Theoretical foundations of Usability Engineering
  • Understanding User Requirements
  • Expert based evaluations (e.g. Cognitive Walkthroughs and Heuristic Evaluation)
  • User based evaluations
  • Prototyping (high fidelity and low fidelity)
  • Analysis of Usability data
  • Visual Design
  • Social Computing

Intended learning outcomes

INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES (ILOs)


On completion of this subject the student is expected to:




  • Define and distinguish between the different types of user interface,
  • Exploit cognitive and social factors that make interactive software usable
  • Apply key design principles and guidelines that assist user interface designers, and understand the limitations of such guidelines
  • Apply techniques of Usability Engineering across the development lifecycle
  • Develop a sound usability test and evaluation plan for a particular design project

Generic skills

On completion of this subject, students should have developed the following generic skills:

  • Acquire design oriented problem-solving skills
  • Review and research skills
  • Team work skills
  • Written and oral presentation skills

Last updated: 12 December 2024