Topic outline

  • General


    Learning Outcomes

    The course aims to provide the students with the conceptual and technical skills required to test interactive technologies with users, involving the whole path from designing experiments to conducting them and analyzing the collected data, and drawing the appropriate implications.

    The learning outcomes of the course are:
    • Ability to plan and execute empirical user studies using a scientifically sound methodology.
    • Skills in data statistical analysis, data visualization, user modeling.
    • Understanding how user research relates to user interface design.

    Contents

    The topics of the course include field research, experimental research, experimental design, statistical data analysis, data visualization, user modeling. Please see the syllabus for more information.

    Prerequisites

    There are no strict prerequisites for attending the course, but some background in statistical analysis using Python (or R, Matlab, etc.) is strongly recommended. Students with no programming or statistical background should expect an extra workload while they go through the assignments.

    Schedule

    Please note that all lectures and exercise sessions will be held online and that we will start at 12 sharp. Both lectures and exercise sessions will be held in Zoom: https://aalto.zoom.us/j/69027372031.

    • Lectures (online): Mondays 12:00-14:00 and Thursdays 12:00-14:00
    • Exercise sessions (online): Mondays 16:00-18:00

    The first lecture and first exercise session are on September, Monday 13th.

    Attendance

    Attendance is not mandatory, but we highly recommend attending the sessions as slides only may give you a limited understanding of the materials. Note that we will NOT record the lectures.

    Assignments

    The assignments are completed at home and submitted online. There will be two types of assignments on this course:

    • Weekly assignments: These assignments are released weekly and there’s one exercise per lecture. The assignments will be 20p each and there will be five of them altogether (5x20p=100p). You will need 50% of the aggregate weekly assignment points to pass the course. The assignments are released on Thursday before midnight. The deadline for the assignments is on Wednesday at 23.59.
    • ‘Super assignment’: This assignment will cover the entire course and is worth twice the points of a regular assignment (40p). You will need 50% of the ‘super assignment’ points to pass the course. Note that there won’t be a separate course exam.

    Course personnel
    • Lecturer: Dr. Aurélien Nioche
    • Course assistant: Ekaterina Marchenko
    • Guest lecturers: Pr. Antti Oulasvirta (Aalto University), Pr. Luis Leiva (University of Luxembourg), Aini Putkonen (Aalto University), Pr. Jussi Jokinen (Jyväskylä University), Dr. Esko Kurvinen (Elisa), Pr. Antti Salovaara (Aalto University), Carlos de la Torre Ortiz (University of Helsinki).

    Communication

    Please use the forum for any questions that might be of general interest (e.g. course organization, exercises). Otherwise, feel free to email the course personnel. Note that the preferred way to ask questions about the exercises is attending the exercise sessions.