Personal Interaction Studio

The functionality, connectivity and computational power offered by contemporary mobile devices is advancing rapidly, however, their interfaces often mimic those of desktop computers. Yet the conditions of use at the desk are very different from a mobile context. Consequently, mobile interfaces and mobile Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) recently received much attention from both industry and academia. Important issues of technology use in a mobile context include: the amount of attention a user can devote to the interface, the type of input that can be performed on the move, the limited size of graphical displays, the social acceptance of devices and interaction techniques and the overall user experience. Intrinsically HCI is a multi-disciplinary field involving professionals coming from different backgrounds (Technology, Design, Cognitive Psychology and Ergonomics).

The Personal Interaction Studio aims at:

    * introducing research in Mobile HCI and related topics
    * exposing students to the design challenges in a constrained development environment - mobile phones
    * introducing the students to design and prototyping methods by addressing an open-ended project brief

The course includes theoretical background and learning-through-making, and includes seminar, studio components, and a semester long project. The students present their designs in reviews to experts in the field.

 

You can find the tutorial on Flash here.