Human Centred Computing Systems

The course provides comprehensive coverage of HCI, interaction design and software development. Students are required to take 8 modules, including introduction to HCI, CSCW, software design, interactive learning environments, integrated studies, web design and evaluation, introduction to object oriented programming and psychological methods for software evaluation.

Students who have no programming experience can take introductory courses in C and java. Conversely, students with no knowledge of psychology can do course in psychological methods and cognitive theory. All students have the opportunity to learn prototyping skills (e.g. director) and web authoring tools (e.g. dreamweaver).

Both individual and team work are an integral part of the course. The main means of teaching is through small group seminars, design sessions and lab classes. This is augmented with computer conferencing and video conferencing. Students also get the opportunity to carry out their dissertation project in conjunction with a variety of local companies (e.g. Epic, VictoriaReal) and international organisations (e.g. BT, Motorola).