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Topics in Human-Computer Interaction: User Research for Interactive Systems (Seminar)

Course Information (Summer Semester 2026)

This website provides an overview of the seminar. For official course details, enrollment information, and materials, please refer to the university course catalogue.

Instructor: Mr. James Simpson

Introduction Session: Wednesday October 15th at 4 PM; Location tba

Weekly Seminar: Every Wednesday between 4 PM and 5:30 PM;  Location tba. Weekly attendance required (aside from 2 weeks which may be taken off due to illness/personal reasons)

Assessment:

  • Seminar Presentation (~30 min)
  • User Research Study Paper (6-10 pages)

Target Audience

Bachelor/Master students in Computer Science and Data Science (maximum 15 participants)

Prerequisites

Recommended: Statistics knowledge. Openness to reading empirical literature on user research and to applying user research methods to practice.

Course Overview

Everyday life is full of interactive systems—apps on our phones, AI chatbots like ChatGPT, and complex software systems to name but a few. These systems rely on core areas of Computer Science such as graphics, databases, and machine learning. Yet, technical efficiency alone doesn't tell us whether people find these systems useful, usable, or enjoyable.

This seminar will give you hands-on experience in studying how people use technology. Specifically, you will design, run and analyze the results of a user study you will conduct towards the middle of the term, applying the techniques you learned to the study.

Topics Covered

Students will explore user research along four themes:

User Research Ethics & Data Privacy

  • User Research Ethics & Data Privacy Framework
  • User Research Ethics Process
  • Conducting User Research at Ethical Boundaries

User Research Study Design 

  • Defining the Research Question(s)
  • Independent & Dependent Variables
  • Participant Sampling
  • Experimental Procedure

User Research Methodologies

  • Conventional User Studies
  • Questionnaire Based User Research
  • Interview Based User Research
  • Automated User Research Methods
  • Quick n’ Dirty User Research Methods
  • Frontier User Research Methodologies

Reporting User Research Findings 

  • Quantitative Data Analysis
  • Qualitative Data Analysis
  • Writing Empirical Papers