Course Syllabus

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Semester & Location:

Fall 2025- DIS Copenhagen
Type & Credits:

Elective Course - 3 credits
Major Disciplines:

Computer Science, Design, Psychology

Prerequisite(s):

One year of computer science. Knowledge of at least one programming language (e.g. C / C++ / Java / Python).
Faculty Members:

Daniel Ashbrook, Ph.D. (current students please use the Canvas Inbox)
Program Contact:

CE@dis.dk
Time & Place:

Thursday, 10:05–13:00

Classroom: V23-201

 

Course Description

Computers and computation are everywhere around us: in cars and houses, in your pocket and on your wrist, and maybe soon even in your clothing or your glasses. Why is some technology easy and delightful to use, while other technology is difficult and irritating?

In this course, you will take a hands-on approach to the science of human-computer interaction (HCI). You will learn how to design interactive systems by following an iterative user-centered process, starting with understanding the needs of users, prototyping potential designs, and evaluating the designs to understand how they should change.

Each class session will include lecture, discussion, and hands-on practice of different HCI techniques. In addition to learning about and practicing with traditional screen-based interfaces (e.g., web or mobile), you will gain experience with non-screen-based physical interfaces.

The course is roughly divided into four themes:

  1. User-centered design in a nutshell: needs-finding, ideation, prototyping, and evaluation
  2. Prototyping in-depth: digital and physical
  3. What can people do? Human capabilities, accessibility, and experiment design.
  4. Past & future of HCI

Faculty

Daniel Ashbrook-smaller.jpg

Daniel Ashbrook, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Computer Science (DIKU)
University of Copenhagen

  • Ph.D. Computer Science, Georgia Tech, 2010
  • Nokia Research Center, 2009–2013
  • Samsung Research/Samsung Design, 2013–2014
  • Assistant Professor, Rochester Institute of Technology 2014–2018

Readings

Reading material will come from the main textbook as well as sources including research papers, chapters from other books, web pages, and videos. The textbook is:

  • Rogers, Y., Sharp, H., & Preece, J. (2023). Interaction design: beyond human-computer interaction (Sixth edition). John Wiley and Sons.

Other readings will be included in the details for each class session, but include:

  • Lim, Youn-Kyung, Erik Stolterman, and Josh Tenenberg. 2008. The Anatomy of Prototypes: Prototypes as Filters, Prototypes as Manifestations of Design Ideas. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction 15 (2): 7:1–27. [Link]
  • Ishii, Hiroshi. 2004. Bottles: A Transparent Interface as a Tribute to Mark Weiser. IEICE Transactions on Information and Systems E87-D (6): 1299–1311. [Link]
  • Bush, Vannevar. As we may think. The Atlantic Monthly 176, no. 1 (1945): 101-108. [Link]
  • Weiser, Mark. The Computer for the 21 st Century. Scientific American 265, no. 3 (1991): 94-105. [Link]

  • Cao, J., Jain, K., Zhang, J., Peng, Y., Patel, S., & Mankoff, J. (2025). “A Tool for Freedom”: Co-Designing Mobility Aid Improvements Using Personal Fabrication and Physical Interface Modules with Primarily Young Adults. Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1–16. [Link]

  • Krauß, V., McGill, M., Kosch, T., Thiel, Y. M., Schön, D., & Gugenheimer, J. (2025). “Create a Fear of Missing Out”—ChatGPT Implements Unsolicited Deceptive Designs in Generated Websites Without Warning. Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1–20. [Link]

  • Wobbrock, J. O., Kane, S. K., Gajos, K. Z., Harada, S., & Froehlich, J. (2011). Ability-Based Design. ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing, 3(3), 1–27. [Link]

  • Zheng, C., Gyory, P., & Do, E. Y.-L. (2020). Tangible Interfaces with Printed Paper Markers. Proceedings of the 2020 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference, 909–923. [Link]

Field Studies

The two field studies will give students the opportunity to observe and evaluate the impact of human-computer interaction in everyday life.

Approach to Teaching

We will use various learning methods, including interactive lectures, class discussions, critical analysis of reading material, field studies, and project-based learning to build a final project. All sessions combine active learning with short presentations from the lecturer as well as from students. We will learn through reflective exercises with existing interfaces and design sessions for possible alternatives to these interfaces. We will have analytical tasks and present results for critical and constructive feedback. Furthermore, students will create their own interactions and interfaces and provide constructive peer feedback to each other. The pace and specific activities planned for certain days may change depending on the interest of the students.

DIS Accommodations Statement 

Your learning experience in this class is important to me.  If you have approved academic accommodations with DIS, please make sure I receive your DIS accommodations letter within two weeks from the start of classes. If you can think of other ways I can support your learning, please don't hesitate to talk to me. If you have any further questions about your academic accommodations, contact Academic Support acadsupp@dis.dk. 

Expectations of the Students

  • Students should participate during lectures, peer-led oral presentations, discussions, group work and exercises.
  • Laptops may be used for note‐taking, fact‐checking, or assignments in the classroom, but only when indicated by the instructor. At all other times laptops and electronic devices should be put away during class time.
  • Reading must be done prior to the class session. A considerable part of the class depends on class discussions.
  • Students need to be present, arrive on time and participate to receive full credit. The final grade will be affected by unexcused absences and lack of participation. The participation grade will be reduced by 10 percentage points for every unexcused absence. Remember to be in class on time!
  • Classroom etiquette includes being respectful of other opinions, listening to others and entering a dialogue in a constructive manner.
  • Students are expected to ask relevant questions in regards to the material covered.

Generative AI Policy

Students are welcome to use generative AI (e.g., ChatGPT, Claude, etc) for the following purposes:

  • Helping with ideation and brainstorming
  • Assisting with writing code
  • Generating images for scenarios, personas, etc
  • Proofreading writing to point out areas for improvement

Students may not use generative AI for:

  • Generating any text that will be turned in. Seriously, don't do it: I would much rather read your personal efforts than AI slop. And I'm very good at spotting AI-generated text.
  • Vibe coding. Definitely use AI for help, but understand the code you're using. Otherwise, what's the point?

Any use of generative AI must be noted with appropriate attribution; see the plagiarism policy below.

Plagiarism

"Plagiarism is the fraudulent representation of another person's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one's own original work" [Wikipedia]. You can run into problems with plagiarism in this class if you present someone else's material without saying that it is not yours, and explaining where it came from. Students most often encounter issues by copying-and-pasting text from some source (including a generative AI tool) into their work. If you copy text, images, code, or anything else from a source and paste it into your work, you must indicate that you have done so.

To avoid plagiarism, you should cite your sources—that is, you must indicate what parts of your work came from somewhere else and where they came from.

Five basic rules exist regarding the use of information in professional and in academic writing:

  1. If we use the language of a source, we must quote it exactly, enclose it in quotation marks, and cite the source.
  2. If we use ideas or information that are not common knowledge, we must cite the source.
  3. If we didn’t invent it, we cite the source.
  4. Unless our professor explicitly tells us to paraphrase, we don’t paraphrase.
  5. When in doubt, we cite the source. Doing so only enhances our readers sense of your honesty.

(Source: MIT Comparative Media StudiesLinks to an external site.)

Evaluation and Grading

To be eligible for a passing grade in this class, all of the assigned work must be completed.

Students are expected to turn in all the assignments on the due date. If an assignment is turned in after the due date, the grade of the assignment will be reduced by 10 percentage points for each day the submission is late.

Grades for the class will be assigned as follows:

Item

Percent
Class participation 20%
Group participation 10%
Individual assignment 10%
Group project 60%


 

Academic Regulations 

Please make sure to read the Academic Regulations on the DIS website. There you will find regulations on:

 

DIS - Study Abroad in Scandinavia - www.DISabroad.org

Course Summary:

Course Summary
Date Details Due