HMI721. Qualitative Approaches to HCI, 5p

This graduate seminar course will introduce students to qualitative approaches to HCI. As such there will be no prerequisites. The readings will start with Suchman's Plans and Situated Actions (1987) and will run chronologically through some of the HCI literature.

The course would cover some of the Scandinavian and N. American approaches to HCI. The course will also treat current developments and research in HCI as development out of HCI's earlier history and paradigms. Given the breadth and depth of the HCI literature, the class will focus on the CSCW research literature. One topic that the course will discuss is participatory design.

The course will look at Scandinavian (Bodker, Kensing/Simonsen) and N. American (Blomberg) approaches to participatory design as a practical research activity. In particular, the course will look at the contributions ethnography can make to participatory design.