Course Schedule

Project (Mondays) Seminar (Tuesdays) Methods (Thursdays)
Jan 19
No class. (University Holiday)
Jan 20 Introduction I

Course structure, basic information, intro to HCI

Jan 22 Introduction II

Course structure, basic information, history of HCI

Jan 26
Vibe Coding I
Jan 27 Research Fastforward

Fast forwarding research topics in HCI as a field. How to read HCI papers?

Jan 29 Method Overview

Positivism vs. interpretivism: Understanding truth in user research.

Feb 2
Vibe Coding II
Feb 3 Software Interaction

GUIs, UI agents.

Feb 5 Needfinding

Observation, formative study, semi-structured interviews, and ethnography.

Feb 9 IRB Training

Attendance is mandatory.

Feb 10 Hardware Interaction

Sensing, Haptics, & Physical Computing

Feb 12 Prototyping

Low-Fidelity Prototyping, Sketching and Wizard of Oz (WOz)

Feb 16
Presidents' Day (University Holiday)
Feb 17 IRB Training (continued)

Substitute Monday schedule

Feb 19 Qualitative I

Heuristic Evaluation, Expert inspection methods, interview, think aloud.

Feb 23
Fast Prototyping with AI I
Feb 24 Guest Lecture I

Fabrication and Tangible Interaction. By Yunyi Zhu (MIT).

Feb 26 Quantitative I

Designing valid survey instruments (Likert scales) and basic descriptive statistics to measure attitudes at scale.

Mar 2
Fast Prototyping with AI II
Mar 3 Immersive Computing

Virtual and Augmented Reality. Issues of presence, immersion, and 3D interaction techniques.

Mar 5 Psychophysics Measurement

Fitts’ Law tasks, reaction time, and measuring physiological responses.

Mar 9
Spring Recess (no class)
Mar 11
Spring Recess (no class)
Mar 13
Spring Recess (no class)
Mar 16
Work on Project
Mar 17 Accessibility
Mar 19 Qualitative II

Inductive/Deductive Coding, Thematic Analysis

Mar 23
Work on Project
Mar 24 AI for HCI Research

LLM-as-a-judge, AI agent

Mar 26 Quantitative II

Controlled Experiments, A/B tests and lab experiments. Hypothesis testing, independent/dependent variables, and T-tests/ANOVA.

Mar 30
Work on Project
Mar 31 Generative UI
Apr 2 Crowdsourcing

Using platforms (like MTurk or Prolific) for large-scale data labeling and evaluation. Human-in-the-Loop Evaluation. LLM evaluation.

Apr 6
Work on Project
Apr 7 What is HCI, really?

Rethinking HCI as a discipline.

Apr 9 Choosing Method

When to use which methods? Holistic evaluation.

Apr 13
Work on Project
Apr 14
No class, preparing final projects (instructor at CHI 2026)
Apr 16
No class, preparing final projects (instructor at CHI 2026)
Apr 20
Patriots' Day (University Holiday)
Apr 21 CHI 2026 Recap
Apr 23 Final Presentations: Group A
Apr 27
N/A
Apr 28 Final Presentations: Group B
Apr 30 Final Presentations: Group C