Presented at Workshop HCI@Large, during the CHItaly 2011 Conference, Sept 13,2011. See also the slides in the slide section of Slideshare.

1. Teaching HCI to Undergraduate Computing Students:
the Quest for the Golden Rules
Roberto Polillo
DISCO - University of Milano Bicocca
Viale Sarca 336, 20123 Milano (Italy)
+39-335-219668
roberto.polillo@unimib.it
courses are not listed, so their number is not known, but often the
ABSTRACT offering is limited to a single HCI course per degree.
I discuss a methodological framework for implementing effective As a consequence, HCI literacy and skills among computing
Human-Computer Interaction courses in undergraduate computing students is still largely unsatisfactory because time allocated to
university degrees, and propose some “golden rules” for teaching, HCI concepts and practice is extremely limited. Since in many
derived from my 10 years of experience in such courses at the programs HCI courses are not mandatory, a large number of
University of Milano Bicocca. students will graduate totally unaware even of the basic notions
related to the design of usable systems.
Categories and Subject Descriptors Teachers of HCI courses are in a difficult position because they
K.3.2. [Computers and Education]: Computer and Information have to combat on a double front. On one side, they must struggle
Science Education – computer science education, information to get teaching space from “harder” subject matters, like computer
systems education, curriculum. programming, operating systems, mathematics or theoretical
computer science. On the other side, they have to cope with the
General Terms students themselves, who may be uneasy with the unexpected
Design, Human Factors. “fuzziness” of the practice of the design of usable systems. Even
the students who have voluntarily chosen an elective course on
HCI - perhaps attracted by the glamour of innovative interaction
Keywords technologies - may be disappointed when faced with the lack of
HCI, Human Computer Interaction, Interaction Design. clearly defined rules of the discipline. Computing students are
accustomed to more technical courses and may perceive HCI
1. INTRODUCTION topics as common sense not worth much attention [2]. Many
For a number of years, courses on Human Computer Interaction colleagues teaching HCI can easily share the frustration expressed
(HCI) have been offered in most university undergraduate by Terry Winograd in the foreword to an HCI textbook [7]:
computing degrees. These courses are not aimed at forming “In years of teaching human-computer interaction, I have often
professional interaction designers or usability specialists, their felt frustrated in trying to capture for students the experience of
goal being – simply – to introduce students of the different creating useful, useable and likeable interactive systems”.
computer careers to the main concepts and methods of HCI. This
has been a slow process because the computer mainstream The purpose of this short paper is to stimulate a discussion among
community has been slow to recognize the importance of user teachers of HCI courses, to identify ways of improving their
interface design and HCI issues in computer education. Today, effectiveness. To this end, I will summarize a number of
the importance of HCI courses in undergraduate computing suggestions, from my 10-year experience in teaching an
programs is recognized in all computing curricula developed by introductory HCI course for third-year undergraduate students in
the joint working groups of ACM and the IEEE [1]. These Informatics (Laurea Triennale in Informatica) at the University of
curricula usually suggest a number of “core” (i.e.mandatory) Milano Bicocca. It is a one-semester elective course, with an
classroom hours on specified knowledge units of the HCI attendance of 80-120 students (4 to 6 credits, depending on the
knowledge area. Regrettably, this number is still small because year). It is compliant with ACM-IEEE recommendations and has
HCI must compete with many other knowledge areas, which also been recently developed in a textbook [6].
demand the attention of students and teachers. Section 2 will summarize the space allocated to HCI in the ACM-
In Italy the development of HCI courses has been even slower. IEEE undergraduate computing curricula. Section 3 will mention
For example, while in the University of Milano the first degree in the challenges and opportunities in designing an introductory HCI
Informatics dates back to 1981, the first HCI courses started about course. Section 4 will propose a teaching approach drawn from
two decades later. GRIN1 data show that in 2009 only one third of my experience. Section 5 will summarize the key points.
the 52 GRIN-certified first level degrees in Informatics of Italian
universities have one mandatory HCI course in at least one of the 2. HCI IN ACM-IEEE CURRICULA
offered curricula (mostly one-semester, 6 credit courses). Elective The first consolidation of HCI as a discipline can be traced back
to 1992, when ACM SIGCHI issued a first set of
recommendations for education in HCI [3]. This document, now
1 considered obsolete, had an enormous impact on HCI teaching for
GRIN (Gruppo di Informatica, http://www.grin-informatica.it) many years. It gave a very broad definition of HCI, as “a
certifies and collects data on Informatics degrees in Italian discipline concerned with the design, evaluation and
public universities.

2. implementation of interactive computing systems for human use where it is defined as one of the five “pillars” of IT, together with
and with the study of major phenomena surrounding them”, and programming, network, databases and Web systems. This is not
organized the HCI topics as shown in Table 1. surprising, since the IT degree focuses on the integration between
Table 1. HCI topics, according to SIGCHI curriculum [3] information technologies and business processes. But the teaching
space is still only 20 core hours, or 6.4% of the total.
Topics and Subtopics
The Nature of HCI: (Meta-)Models
3. CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES
Use and Context of Computers: Human Social Organization and Work. All ACM-IEEE curricula contain detailed descriptions of the
Application Areas. Human-Machine Fit and Adaptation.
suggested HCI basic course, so there is plenty of material to start
Human Characteristics: Human Information Processing. Language, with. Nevertheless, defining an undergraduate HCI course is a
Communication, Interaction. Ergonomics.
challenging task:
Computer Systems and Interface Architecture: Input and Output Devices.
Dialogue Techniques. Dialogue Genre. Computer Graphics. Dialogue • Suggested HCI topics are very heterogeneous, ranging from
Architecture. human factors to widget development. There is always too
Development Process: Design Approaches: Implementation Techniques. much to teach in a single course. On the other hand, in real
Evaluation Techniques. Example Systems and Case Studies. life good design solutions can only be devised when the full
Project Presentation and Examination. range of issues involved is taken into account.
• The teaching space available is limited: even if the course is
mandatory (as it should always be, and usually is not), it will
The document suggested that “all computer science students
be normally the unique HCI course offered in a 4 year
should be exposed to the issues and concerns of HCI as part of
program (3 years in Italy).
their fundamental courses”, and defined a set of alternative 4
introductory HCI courses (42 hours each) in which the above • Computer students are analytically-minded, and more at ease
topics had different emphasis, depending on the course audience. with hacking at a computer keyboard than with the “fuzzy”
These courses were broadly characterized as either technology problems posed by humans, which may sometimes be
oriented (CS1: User Interface Design and Development and CS2: considered uninteresting or even trivial [2].
Phenomena and Theories of HCI) or human oriented (PSY1:
• Theory must be interiorized with practice, therefore large
Psychology of HCI and MIS1: Human Aspects of Information
space should be allocated to project work, and this further
Systems), and as moving from a general professional/practical
stresses the time constraints.
orientation (CS1 and MIS1) to one that is more specialized and
research oriented (CS2 and PSY1), and were intended to be • Linking theory with practice (e.g. specific design solutions to
personalized according to particular situations. The document specific usability guidelines) requires experience, and
stressed the importance of having the students understand basic individual coaching is necessary. The teacher should discuss
HCI concepts, terminology, facts and principles and be able to with each project group, on a step-by-step basis, the
apply them in real life situations. advancement of their work, pinpointing the possible
consequences of their choices. This is extremely demanding
In subsequent years various work groups were jointly established
when large classes are involved, even if now some coaching
from ACM and IEEE, to define undergraduate university
can be done online with suitable tools.
curricula for different computing areas. The 2001 Curriculum for
Computer Science (CS) undergraduate programs included HCI as • Team work on projects is advisable because it helps to
one of the 14 core knowledge areas and recognized the need for analyze problems from a plurality of point of views,
HCI courses, but the core (i.e. mandatory) classroom hours encourages knowledge transfer between individuals, and
allocated to it were only 8 (out of a total of 280). The HCI course prepares for real-life situations. This makes it difficult to
description contained both ergonomic issues and technical aspects evaluate the individual contributions of the group members.
of GUI development. In the following years, other curricula were • Design projects and usability assessments give best results
developed: Information Systems (IS: 2002, 2010), Software when they cope with real problems, involving real
Engineering (SE: 2004), Computer Engineering (CE: 2004), stakeholders, and they may not be always available.
Information Technology (IT: 2006, 2008). The Computing
Curricula 2005 [1] gives a comparative summary of these On the other side, HCI courses have some advantages with
documents, which can be downloaded from the education section respect to other more technical courses:
of the ACM Web site. All curricula contain an HCI course, but its • Lab structures and expensive tools are not necessary. For
space is not much higher than in CS (Table 2). Interestingly, HCI introductory HCI courses, students only need their laptops.
gains its best credit in the 2008 revision of the IT Curriculum, Useful software tools (e.g. for prototyping or usability
testing), are often freely available. If not, free trial periods
are usually enough to complete student projects.
Table 2. Summary of HCI space in ACM-IEEE curricula
• HCI courses may be fun. Humans and human behaviors are
strange and interesting subjects. Lots of video material is
available on the net, to easily organize media-rich lessons.
• HCI design projects can spur student creativity. Because
initial prototyping is usually involved, students can
concentrate on innovation, without being overwhelmed with
detailed implementation problems.

3. 4. PLANNING AN HCI COURSE
4.1 HCI Course Dimensions
Topics suggested for an introductory HCI course in the ACM- At every cycle, the instructor reviews the prototype, tracing back
IEEE curricula are very heterogeneous, ranging from human weaknesses and strengths to design decisions, mentioning
cognitive processes to implementation techniques. This leaves an applicable general principles and techniques, and helping students
enormous space to teacher choices. As suggested in [3], mapping to conceptualize – ex post – what has been made and relating it to
the course topics on a two dimensions schema (Figure 1) may be the theory. The design-prototype-evaluate cycle allows touching
very useful for tailoring the course to a certain degree. Any all the major topics of an HCI introductory course: the most
content item can be presented in different ways according to the effective way to understand HCI concepts is through design.
quadrant in which the course is placed. Let’s consider, e.g., the
topic of multi-touch interaction. While A-courses might examine Actual projects may vary from case to case, both in content (what
device characteristics and performances, B-courses might require is designed) and in size (small group projects vs a single project
that students practice with it. C-courses might describe involving the whole class). Although every choice may be
applications using it. D-courses might model the user interaction. justified, working with small groups of 3-4 students, who choose
their own project of interest, often is better. Indeed, interaction
during revision is more direct, and projects may be tailored to
actual student interests and experiences.
Of course, there are also lots of facts that should be mentioned in
an introductory course, requiring more structured classroom
presentations. These should be allocated in suitable moments
according to progress of project work, in order to maximize
theory ↔ practice feedbacks.
4.3 Ten Golden Rules for Design Projects
The above suggestions may seem obvious, and certainly the
benefits of a project-based experiential learning have been largely
discussed in the education literature. But if we consider the
mentioned constraints (the short time available and the broad
range of HCI topics suggested in the computing curricula), they
are not easily implemented. Moreover, most popular HCI
textbooks do not help: they adopt a top-down, concepts-first
Figure 1. Dimensions of an HCI course. approach, extensively developed in hundreds of pages. Inevitably,
if not explicitly, they suggest a rather traditional, lecture-first
4.2 Project-Based Experiential Education teaching. In my experience, to get good learning results in the
The importance of having students practice in lab projects is short timeframe available, it is necessary to renounce trade-offs,
common sense, and there is no need to comment on it. All and adopt a radical teaching approach, where direct, coached
mentioned curricula stress the importance of practical exercises design experience has top priority over systematic
and projects, and team work. While this is applicable to most conceptualization. Since the short space available here does not
computer courses, for HCI this requires a rather radical approach. permit a longer discussion, in the following I will summarize in
Experience shows that presenting theory first and applying it later 10 short “golden rules” what I have learned in my courses after
does not work. Interspersing theory and teacher-narrated years of trials and errors.
examples does not work either. HCI concepts may seem obvious
if tackled out of a concrete problem solving context. Which 4.3.1 Practice first, concepts follow
student would not agree with Nielsen heuristics? They are Assign project work as soon as possible, ideally at the very start
perceived as obvious and… immediately forgotten and never of the course.
applied. 4.3.2 Situated design, not simulation
Introductory HCI courses require a project-based experiential Use real problems for design projects, with real constraints and
education approach [8][9]. This is opposed to the traditional way real stakeholders which can be interviewed by the students.
of teaching, in which the instructor presents facts and concepts to Simulated problems have fictitious constraints, which are easily
the classroom and prescribes textbook study and learning disregarded or relaxed. Instead, real stakeholders (customers and
exercises in which facts and concepts are applied. Project-based users) are difficult to cope with, and are not always right. They
experiential education uses projects as the central focus of may have preconceptions leading to bad design; trying to
instruction. The instructor acts as a coach, leading students along convince them is very instructive (e.g., see [4]). Whenever
a learning loop: possible, pursue a situated learning approach [5].
Concrete experience → observation and reflection on that 4.3.3 Interaction, not description
experience → formation of abstract concepts based on reflection Ask students to build interactive prototypes, not simply a
→ testing the new concepts in new situations. description of the proposed system. Interaction cannot be
narrated, it must be experienced. Charts, storyboards, interaction
Although this approach could in principle be implemented with a
diagrams and the like do not tell the whole story, and are not
variety of project assignments, it matches perfectly well with
enough to evaluate a design. Learning a design language is not the
iterative design projects, where the cycle is:

4. goal of an HCI course. We need a prototype, and it must be 5. CONCLUSIONS
interactive, so we can put our hands on it, and let users do the Since the late 1980’s, HCI has been recognized as a core
same. knowledge area in almost all ACM-IEEE curricula for computing
4.3.4 Mostly coaching, not teaching undergraduate students, and detailed course descriptions have
Allow a very substantial percentage of teacher hours for planned been proposed, including a broad range of content topics. There is
coaching. Revise frequently the output of each project group, and also general agreement on the importance of having students
discuss it with students, relating project issues to design principles practice in concrete projects to learn HCI. But implementing an
when appropriate. Since HCI is not an exact science, involve effective HCI course is still very difficult, since the subject matter
different reviewers whenever possible. They will have different, is very broad, and the available teaching space is limited, because
even conflicting, points of view: confronting them is extremely HCI competes with many other important knowledge areas. In
instructive. Involve other students as reviewers. Professors are this short paper I have summarized a methodological framework
not always right: letting students discover it is part of the which may help in organizing effective HCI courses for
teaching. undergraduate computer students, based on my 10 years trials-
and-errors in teaching HCI courses to undergraduate students in
4.3.5 User testing is mandatory computing. It advocates a radical project-based, experiential
Ask students to perform user testing of every prototype. Every learning approach, in which small groups of students design
student must experience usability testing, as a user, as a simple interactive systems in real environments, using a coached
facilitator, as a developer of the tested system. The simplest iterative process, with the help of elementary prototyping tools
setting is the fittest: a table and chairs, a laptop with a webcam, and extensive user testing. This approach is summarized in ten
free software to capture and synchronize video, audio and screen proposed “golden rules”, and is called radical in the sense that
action, think-aloud protocol. Usability labs are harmful: they design practice and project coaching have absolute priority over
suggest that user testing requires expensive settings, which is not traditional lectures, which might be kept to a very minimum:
true. concepts should develop from projects, and not the other way
4.3.6 Iterate prototypes until “Wow!” around.
Pursue perfection. Never accept an almost-good prototype:
always ask to improve it. Seeing how a prototype slowly changes 6. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
from poor to excellent is an essential part of HCI learning. One I am strongly indebted with Piero Schiavo Campo, for his support,
or two iterations are never enough. Big problems hide small over many years, to my courses at University of Milano Bicocca,
problems, which become visible only later in the cycle. But a and for many discussions on how to improve them.
moment will always arrive in which everything goes to its place,
and everybody will immediately recognize it. This is the “Wow! 7. REFERENCES
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