This course offers a survey overview of the field of Human-Computer Interaction. It introduces the main themes of HCI set generally in a historical context. The field of HCI is both young and dynamic. Unlike more mature disciplines, such as Biology or English, HCI is still finding its intellectual identity and agenda. An interdisciplinary field, HCI reflects concerns, and draws on resources, from cognitive science, sociology, engineering, philosophy, design, and digital media studies. Even today, HCI is undergoing major intellectual shifts from an older paradigm of HCI that integrated the above disciplines to a newer paradigm that integrates design, humanistic, socio-economic, and environmental approaches. Much of Indiana University’s HCID professional Master’s curriculum reflects a forward look to the rising paradigm of HCI.
COURSE OBJECTIVES:
Encounter and engage with the major conceptual themes and intellectual traditions of HCI since the 1980s; Relate design practices to the broader socio-historical, economic, and political environment of their happening; Develop a level of comfort and competence reading academic materials; Improve your ability to develop your own intellectual positions and express them to others.