REPOSITORY FOR EXCHANGING ACTIVITIES AND EXAMPLES IN USABILITY-RELATED COURSES

Usability is an important concept when developing interactive systems and it is defined as the extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use. Although frequently the concept of usability together with approaches and techniques to engineer it into an interactive system is taught and practiced in courses related to Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), the nature of the concept is introduced or expected to be used in other courses in bachelor or master’s programs.

As an example, in the Higher Polytechnic School at the University of the Balearic Islands in Spain we have the following courses that at somehow related to usability.

- Software engineering (2º year, compulsory), Web distributed applications and User interfaces (4º year, compulsory) and Graphical User Interfaces (3º year, elective) in the Bachelor degree in Computer Science
- Human-Computer Interaction, Natural User Interfaces, Usability Engineering or User Experience in the Master degree in Computer Engineering.
- Design, usability and user experience in the Expert degree in digital marketing and community management.

Therefore, it is interesting to count with a repository for lecturers to coordinate and to share information, exercises and materials. We envision different functionalities of this repository. First, it can serve as a central place for lecturers to find practical support for class or to inspire them when preparing practical examples, assignments or class exercises. Second, it can help in the vertical and horizontal coordination among lecturers teaching different courses to know which examples have been given in other courses to avoid repeating them or to reference them when needed.

Reviewing the research done in HCI education, we find works with recommendations to teach HCI in practical terms and give concrete examples on the kinds of projects or exercises to carry out. However, the HCI community is very active and extending the search to Universities web pages, we find many lecturers who place their excellent content on the Web related to the courses they teach.

Further, a common space for students (and lecturers) is also beneficial for them to allow them participate more actively in the course, and share news, products, projects or examples related to the topic that appear in the mass media or other sources. This participation helps them to observe and reflect on how the theoretical concepts are used in the industry and academia.

In this work we compile exercises, assignments and practical examples from research works and university web pages to create a repository to support lecturers who teach courses related to usability. The compiled material is then classified and grouped in categories and techniques (e.g. prototyping, card sorting, heuristics, etc.) that are used in the main activities of the User Centered Design (UCD) or serve for mind-shaking the students. Finally, we comment on the experience on setting up a group in a social network for students and lecturers to have a virtual meeting point.