IN4220 ¨C Understanding use before use

Course content

This course provides an overview of what interaction designers should know about use and context of use in order to design optimal and user-friendly digital artifacts and systems?and understand the challenges of designing for use. Emphasis is placed on concepts and theories, illustrated with examples from everyday life and research. The course will train students' imagination and ability to think alternatively about people's relationships to digital artifacts and systems in the short and long term.

Emphasis is placed on the ability to analyze the conditions of use and assess various challenges in use-oriented design.

Learning outcome

After taking the course you will:

• have developed your ability to understand and see things from?the users' perspective (and describe it)
• be able to describe use as a process over time, which involves learning (off-, new-learning, mastery) and new ways of using
• be able to discuss use as a complex business in a larger contextbe
• able to characterize different use situations
• be able to discuss ethical and political aspects of technical solutions, e.g. duration, sustainability, care
• be able to discuss principled and practical implications for design in different use situations.

Admission to the course

Students who are admitted to study programmes at UiO must each semester register which courses and exams they wish to sign up for?in Studentweb.

Course capacity is 80 (IN3220 and IN4220 altogether).

Ranking:

1. Bachelor students belonging to?Informatikk: design, bruk, interaksjon (bachelor)
2. Master students belonging to?Informatics: Design, Use, Interaction (master's two years)
3. Students belonging to other bachelor programmes at IFI
4. Students belonging to other master programmes at IFI

Recommended previous knowledge

IN1060 ¨C Use Oriented Design

Overlapping courses

• 10 credits overlap with IN3220 ¨C Understanding use before use.

Teaching

2 hours of lectures an 2 hours of group exercises each week. It's mandatory to attend at least 80% of the teachings. Attending the first leture is mandatory.

Approved mandatory assignments and participation in a compulsory project are required.?Read more about requirements for submission of assignments, group work and legal cooperation under guidelines for mandatory assignments.

Examination

Oral group exam with individual grading.

All mandatory assignments must be approved prior to the exam.

It will also be counted as one of?your three?attempts to sit the exam for this course, if you sit the exam for one of the following courses:?IN3220 ¨C Understanding use before use

Examination support material

All

Grading scale

Grades are awarded on a pass/fail scale. Read more about?the grading system.

Resit an examination

Students who can document a valid reason for absence from the regular examination are?offered a postponed examination at the beginning of the next semester.

Re-scheduled examinations are not offered to students who withdraw during, or did not pass the original examination.

More about examinations at UiO

• Use of sources and citations
• Special exam arrangements due to individual needs
• Withdrawal from an exam
• Illness at exams / postponed exams
• Explanation of grades and appeals
• Resitting an exam
• Cheating/attempted cheating

You will find further guides and resources at the web page on examinations at UiO.