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Introduction

On this session we will have the introduction to the course pracitalities, as well as the basic terminology.

Course structure

The course consists of four sessions, of which this page acts as the first one.

  • Due to the sickness leave of the teacher, the first session is only in written form, i.e. this page.
  • The second session will be online, as the visiting lecturer resides in Helsinki.
    • Depending on the corona status at that point, a joint session at school might still be arranged.
  • Third session is a normal lecture, where we shall discuss accessibility, as well as the course task will be discussed in greater detail.
  • The fourth and final session is reserved for presentations of the course task.

The sessions are held on campus if possible, but the corona instructions are taken into consideration. All the sessions will be recorded.

Course practicalities

The grading is pass / fail, and attendance is compulsory on the second and the fourth session, i.e. the visiting lecturer and your own presentation. Missing these sessions or not doing the presentation are a fail, otherwise the course is passed. Compensation due to sickness leave or similar must be discussed in advance with the teacher.

Sessions are:

  1. 07.10.2020 from 11.30 to 16.30 - Cancelled / This text
  2. 21.10.2020 from 11.30 to 16.30 - Visiting lecturer
  3. 28.10.2020 from 11.30 to 16.30 - Accessibility
  4. 04.11.2020 from 11.30 to 16.30 - Presentations

If you have any questions, do ask.

Course task and presentation

At the end of the course, each student will give a presentation of an object, service, website, application, etc, for which they have designed UX & UI.

  • The item in question can be an existing one, for example this web page.
  • The presentation should show the process of design, as well as the results.
  • The presentation should be about 10 to 15 minutes, and should include pictures of your design choices.

Example

For example, one could make a presentation about a washing machines. What are the experience and the user interface like at the moment?

  • The opening, is it large enough?
  • Does the machine make annoying sounds?
  • Could a blind person use it?

For me, the experience is always tedious, as the placement of the machine at home is not optimal. I have to be crouching to load the machine. It makes annoying beeps, which then again could be helpful indicators to a blind person. The buttons are a touch screen, but it is kind of hard to use.

  • How would I improve it?
  • If I were to design it, would I make the same choices?

I think I am quite happy with the design, but I would make the touch buttons a bit elevated, or at least have some sort of separation between them. It is quite easy to press the wrong button. Also, the touch sensor is not that great… And so on.

Washing machine on white background

UX and UI

UX and UI are often discussed in unison as they are quite related, but what are they exactly, and why is there two terms?

UX

UX might be unfamiliar, and stands for User *eXperience. As the name suggests, UX is anything that can be interacted with, and the experience (or feeling) caused by it. For example, how does it feel to buy a movie ticket or a train ticket? How annoying is the pop-up for cookies on a website?

UI

UI is already somewhat a familiar term, and is of course an abbreviation of User Interface. UI can be seen as anything the user sees, touches, interacts with… and so on, to use the software or any item we are designing. It could be said that if something can be interacted with, it has an interface the user can use. For example, how big buttons should we use on our application? Where should they be situated?

Reading

Read these articles and blog posts and watch the videos before the visiting lecturer session:

Remember, blog posts are usually opinions of their writers, so reading from multiple sources helps to form your own perspective and find a more whole picture.