MS-HCI Students Talk About their Favorite Courses
Between main coursework and electives, Georgia Techs MS-HCI program offers great flexibility. With the multitude and variety of courses, choosing courses is tough — so we asked current MS-HCI students to share their favorite courses! Here’s a selection of our favorite courses.
In HCI Project Studio, we solve a UX-related problem for a wide range of industry partners. Since the course is a project studio, it focuses on DOING research and design in teams of 2. The industry partner I’ve been matched with has been very supportive and eager to work with us. Rather than writing reports, we communicate our results through presentations.
This course helped me learn more about the UX Research process from our industry partners and gave me the opportunity to practice UX Design while receiving feedback from experts.
This course is about exploring visual communication skills and techniques and focuses on how visual skills can be utilized throughout the entire design process — including observing, recording, and presenting.
You can improve your skills in this class with hands-on assignments and in-class exercises that cover brainstorming & ideation, sketching, storyboarding, and a lot more. The professor, Courtney Garvin, is so supportive and enthusiastic about the course and the topics we cover, makes each class engaging, and really motivates all the students to keep improving.
Since it’s pretty different from the majority of classes that are taken by students in the program, that class is refreshing and almost feels like a break from other classwork you have that semester.
Qualitative Methods for HCI is all about the different qualitative methods used in HCI, such as interviews and personas. We went in depth on the concepts taught in the first semester core course (PSY 6023). This course paired nicely with the course in the first semester.
This course is focused around a semester-long group project that tasks teams with creating an interactive installation. While the beginning weeks cover different tactics to create unique, sensory interactions, the majority of the class is treated as a project studio with facilitated critiques from the professor and other classmates. It enabled me to work with people of different backgrounds (across programs beyond the HCI!) on a very interesting problem space.
I think it’s the most unique, hands-on learning experience I have had in an academic setting, and it created a meaningful portfolio piece.
Interface Prototyping introduced me to multiple software programs that let people develop prototypes for user interfaces of various sizes, like for smartphones or computer screens.
There were 4 programs I learned, and each program had increasing levels of prototype fidelity: Balsamiq, ProtoPie, Axure & VRED, and Crank Storyboard Designer. It showed me that there were many different programs made to design user interfaces depending on the user’s needs, with varying degrees of fidelity and visual clarity. I like designing things visually, and this class gave me the chance to do just that with prototype user interfaces.
I loved creating more and more advanced prototypes over the course of the semester. This culminates in embedding an interactive hi-fi prototype in a VR environment. The professor, Tim Purdy, provides interesting examples based on his industry experience in class and is very accommodating.
In this course, we learned how to design interactive exhibits or objects that entice curiosity and create meaningful interactions. It was fun to think about design from this perspective of curiosity and I got to make a lot of cool things.
In Animal Computer-Interaction, we explored animal training, ethics, history, and intelligence while learning how to design technology that animals can interact with. It was super interesting and fun!
The freedom of choice of projects in this course set me on the path to get a kickstart on my Master’s project. And the professor is awesome!
This course is about learning about educational technology tools. We also conduct an educational design project. I like the group project because it gives us an opportunity to improve certain aspects of current platforms or create a new educational platform that we can add to our portfolios.
In Interactive Product Studio, we developed 1–2 physical/digital interactive products throughout the semester. The course gave me the freedom to create projects that interested me and provided me with a chance to have another portfolio piece.
This course introduces you to skills and techniques for building physical prototypes, such as sketching, building sketch models, 3D modeling, 3D printing, and working with sensors. I learned how to create physical models and prototypes using a range of tools and mediums.
I like that the course is structured in a way that people without any knowledge or experience in physical prototyping have enough time and practice to learn the techniques that are introduced during the course. All projects are individual projects so you have the opportunity to create your own designs from the scratch.
In short, it was really fun! The course simultaneously taught me HCI-based principles that are hugely beneficial for my career and helped me develop tangible skills that have enriched my life and hobbies. The studio nature of the class helped fostered great friendships, and working on non-digital artifacts was a great way to explore a macro view of HCI.
