Topic outline

  • Course Staff & Guest Lecturers

    Johanna Kaipio (Responsible Teacher):

    My area of research is usability, user experience and user-centred. I have over 15 years of experience teaching at the university, including usability evaluation course, and working in multidisciplinary research projects. Currently, I’m working as a Professor of Practice at the Department of Computer Science at Aalto. During this online course, I wish to learn more about collaborative evaluation and related viewpoints as well as to have interesting discussions with students and lecturers.



    Kaisa Savolainen (Responsible Teacher):

    I have studied and researched as well as worked in the field of HCD. I have studies from both Computer science and Design departments. I'm looking forward to working with the students (especially with the assignments) and also learn new things related to evaluation.



    Floris van der Marel (Responsible Teacher)

    I am passionate about cultural differences and tensions resulting from varying ways of being. After graduating in Design Research for Interaction, I have worked 10 years in the area of designing, facilitating and researching design practice in various places across the world. Currently, I am combining Participatory Design and research practices to contribute to political activism by amplifying unheard voices and challenging power imbalances and normative hierarchies.


    Karolina Drobotowicz (Teaching Assistant):

    I finished my BSc in Robotics and MSc in Human-Computer Interaction and Design. I have work experience as a user researcher and UX/UI designer. In my latest project, I used various user-centred methods to understand the citizens' requirements for trustworthy AI public services. The initial results are published in my master thesis, while the continuation is now being submitted to the scientific conference. 


    Tapio Haanperä (Guest Speaker):

    Tapio Haanperä works as an accessibility expert in the Finnish Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (FAIDD). His job description includes developing accessibility on web services, accessibility evaluations as well as consulting web designers, developers and content creators on web accessibility. His goal is to make the web more equal to everyone - including persons with disabilities. Haanperä is also a doctoral candidate in Aalto University (School of Science) where he is working on his doctoral dissertation on usable accessibility.


    Sari Kujala (Guest Speaker):

    Sari is starting as a senior university lecturer. Her research focus has been on identifying user needs, requirements elicitation, user-centered design, user experience, and eHealth. She do also have a background in psychology. In the session, she will talk about understanding users, contexts and stakeholders; and the introduction of eHealth in Finland & Oirearvio service.



    Minttu Tikka (Guest Speaker):

    Dr. Minttu Tikka is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki/ Aalto University. Her special fields include research on mediated crises and disasters, hybrid media environment and digital media ethnography. She has co-edited a method book for the study of the internet and social media. Recently she has published articles on mediated violence, digital media ethnography and topic modelling and she is co-author of the book Hybrid Media Events: The Charlie Hebdo Attacks and the Global Circulation of Terrorist Violence (Emerald, 2018).   



    Nitin Sawhney Profile photoNitin Sawhney (Guest Speaker):

    Nitin Sawhney is a Professor of Practice in the Department of Computer Science at Aalto University. As a human-centered design researcher he examines the critical role of technology, civic media, and urban interventions in crisis and contested spaces. He engages user experience design, participatory action research, sensory ethnography, and multi-modal (speech/audio) approaches for complex contexts of human-machine interaction. He has been conducting research at the intersection of AI and HCI for real-time news as well as humanitarian and crisis situations. At Aalto University, Prof. Sawhney has embarked on a new research project on Reconstructing Crisis Narratives for Trustworthy Communication and Cooperative Agency. This research jointly conducted between Aalto University and THL proposes to analyze and reconstruct crisis narratives using mixed-methods, combining qualitative research for narrative inquiry with computational data analytics of crisis discourses in news and social media among diverse publics. Website: http://www.NitinSawhney.org


    Henriette Friis (Guest Speaker):

    Henriette is a Danish designer specialising in sustainability and a student in the Creative Sustainability programme. As a practitioner and researcher, she seeks to explore ways for design to affect not only the built environment but also policies, strategies and society at large. Her approach to design is led by values and powered by empathy, with the goal of creating positive, sustainable change in the world.



    Antti Salovaara (Guest Speaker):

    Antti Salovaara is a senior university lecturer at Aalto University, Department of Design. He studies human-AI collaboration, online trolling and develops new methodology for user studies, to make them more holistically informed by possible futures.

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