Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

HCI and education: a blended design experience

  • Published:
Multimedia Tools and Applications Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Teaching HCI in an undergraduate course for computer scientists is often a challenging experience, because the skills that characterize HCI are different from scientific and computational thinking that are the focus of most subjects of the curriculum. Often HCI teaching is organized as a set of lectures that are useful to learn concepts, but don’t increase the design skills of the students. This work reports the results of an educational experience where both learners and teachers were actively involved in a process of knowledge construction and design. This process usually happens in other domains, such as architecture or industrial design, but is not part of most computer science curricula. We chose as project a challenging theme: the design of eco-feedback interfaces that inform people about the consequences of their actions for the environment and help to take decisions for lowering energy consumption. Eco-feedback interfaces are also representative of the gap between the products available on the market and the results of scientific studies, evidenced also by a recent workshop about HCI education. The workshop evidenced a number of pitfalls in HCI education that in our educational experience we tried to overcome with appropriate methodologies. An additional challenging task was the attempt to organize all the design activities taking advantage of a platform for remote learning, stressing its limits. The paper will discuss all these issues, evidencing where the applied methodologies gave good results and where they need further improvements, with the final goal of giving useful advices for HCI educational experiences to come.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Amin SM (2011) Smart grid: overview, issues and opportunities. advances and challenges in sensing, modeling, simulation, optimization and control. European Journal of Control 17(5–6):547–567

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  2. Anderson T, Dron J (2010) Three generations of distance education pedagogy. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning 12(3):80–97

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Ardito C, Lanzilotti R, Polillo R, Spano LD, Zancanaro M (2015) New perspectives to improve quality, efficacy and appeal of HCI courses. In: Proceedings of the 11th biannual conference on italian SIGCHI chapter, CHItaly 2015. ACM, New York, NY, USA, pp 188–189

  4. Buxton B (2007) Sketching user experiences: getting the design right and the right design. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc., San Francisco

    Google Scholar 

  5. Clow D (2013) Moocs and the funnel of participation. In: Proceedings of the third international conference on learning analytics and knowledge. ACM, pp 185–189

  6. Coursera: https://www.coursera.org

  7. Darby S (2001) Making it obvious: designing feedback into energy consumption. In: Bertoldi P, Ricci A, de Almeida A (eds) Energy efficiency in household appliances and lighting. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg, pp 685–696

  8. edX: https://www.edx.org

  9. Ertmer PA, Newby TJ (1993) Behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism: comparing critical features from an instructional design perspective. Performance Improvement Quarterly 6(4):50–72

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Froehlich J, Findlater L, Landay J (2010) The design of eco-feedback technology. In: Proceedings of CHI ’10. ACM, New York, NY, USA, pp 1999–2008

  11. Greenberg S, Carpendale S, Marquardt N, Buxton B (2011) Sketching user experiences: the workbook, 1st edn. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc., San Francisco

    Google Scholar 

  12. Gustafsson A, Gyllenswärd M (2005) The power-aware cord: Energy awareness through ambient information display. In: CHI’05 Extended abstracts on human factors in computing systems, CHI EA ’05. ACM, New York, NY, USA, pp 1423–1426

  13. Hargreaves T, Nye M, Burgess J (2010) Making energy visible: a qualitative field study of how householders interact with feedback from smart energy monitors. Energy Policy 38(10):6111– 6119

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Heller F, Borchers J (2012) Physical prototyping of an on-outlet power-consumption display. Interactions 19(1):14–17

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Holmes TG (2007) Eco-visualization: combining art and technology to reduce energy consumption. In: Proceedings of c&c ’07. ACM, New York, NY, USA, pp 153–162

  16. Hunter Research and Technology: GreenMeter. http://hunter.pairsite.com/greenmeter/

  17. Invision: http://invisionapp.com

  18. Kalbach J Resources for remote design. https://blog.mural.ly/2015/08/resources-for-remote-design/

  19. Joint Task Force on Computing Curricula Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) IEEE Computer Society: Computer science 2013: Curriculum guidelines for undergraduate programs in computer science. http://www.acm.org/education/CS2013-final-report.pdf

  20. Ju W (2015) The design of implicit interactions. Morgan & Claypool

  21. Lawson B (2006) How designers think: the design process demystified. Routledge

  22. McCalley L, Midden C (1998) Computer based systems in household appliances: The study of eco-feedback as a tool for increasing conservation behavior. In: Proceedings of APCHI ’98. IEEE Computer Society, Washington, DC, USA, pp 344–349

  23. Landes M Remote design looks like this: an infographic. https://blog.mural.ly/2015/08/remote-design-looks-like-this-an-infographic/

  24. Moere AV, Tomitsch M, Hoinkis M, Trefz E, Johansen S, Jones A (2011) Comparative feedback in the street: exposing residential energy consumption on house facades. In: Proceedings of INTERACT’11. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, pp 470–488

  25. Moodle: https://moodle.org

  26. Myers BA (1998) A brief history of human-computer interaction technology. Interactions 5(2):44–54

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Neenan B, Robinson J, Boisvert R (2009) Residential electricity use feedback: a research synthesis and economic framework. Tech Rep 1019319, Electric Power Research Institute

  28. Nielsen J (1994) Usability engineering. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc., San Francisco

  29. Nisi V, Nicoletti D, Nisi R, Nunes NJ (2011) Beyond eco-feedback: using art and emotional attachment to express energy consumption. In: Proceedings of C&C ’11. ACM, New York, NY, USA, pp 381– 382

  30. Nisi V, Nunes NJ, Quintal F, Barreto M (2013) Sinais from fanal: design and evaluation of an art-inspired eco-feedback system. In: Proceedings of CHItaly ’13. ACM, New York, NY, USA, pp 3:1–3:10

  31. Pierce J, Odom W, Blevis E (2008) Energy aware dwelling: a critical survey of interaction design for eco-visualizations. In: Proceedings of OZCHI ’08. ACM, New York, NY, USA, pp 1–8

  32. Preece J, Rogers Y, Sharp H (2015) Interaction design: beyond human-computer interaction, 4th edn. Wiley, New York

    Google Scholar 

  33. Short M, Dawood M, Crosbie T, Dawood N (2014) Visualization tools for energy awareness and management in energy positive neighborhoods. In: Proceedings of 14th international conference on construction applications of virtual reality. http://hdl.handle.net/10149/559490

  34. SketchUp: http://www.sketchup.com

  35. Snyder C (2004) Paper prototyping. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc., San Francisco

    Google Scholar 

  36. Spagnolli A, Corradi N, Gamberini L, Hoggan E, Jacucci G, Katzeff C, Broms L, Jonsson L (2011) Eco-feedback on the go: motivating energy awareness. Computer 44(5):38–45

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Sundramoorthy V, Liu Q, Cooper G, Linge N, Cooper J (2010) Dehems: a user-driven domestic energy monitoring system. In: Internet of things (IOT), 2010, pp 1–8

  38. United Nations Environmental: UNEP Carbon Calculator Application. http://www.unric.org/en/apps-directory/27438-unep-carbon-calculator

Download references

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Prof. Emmanuel Dubois and his group at the Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier for taking part to the final evaluation of the course’s projects.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Via Torino 155, 30172, Mestre Venezia, Italia

    Fabio Pittarello & Tommaso Pellegrini

Authors
  1. Fabio Pittarello
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Tommaso Pellegrini
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Fabio Pittarello.

Appendix:

Appendix:

1.1 A.1 List of bibliographic references given to students

  • Barreto, M., Karapanos, E., Nunes, N.: Why don’t families get along with eco-feedback technologies? A longitudinal inquiry. In: Proc. of CHItaly ’13, pp. 16:1-16:4. ACM, New York, NY, USA (2013)

  • Chisik, Y.: An image of electricity: Towards an understanding of how people perceive electricity. In: Proc. of INTERACT’11, pp. 100-117. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg (2011).

  • Froehlich, J., Findlater, L., Landay, J.: The design of eco-feedback technology. In: Proc. of CHI ’10, pp. 1999-2008. ACM, New York, NY, USA (2010)

  • Gustafsson, A., Gyllenswärd, M.: The power-aware cord: Energy awareness through ambient information display. In: CHI ’05 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI EA ’05, pp. 1423-1426. ACM, New York, NY, USA (2005)

  • Heller, F., Borchers, J.: Physical prototyping of an on-outlet power-consumption display. Interactions 19(1), 14-17 (2012)

  • Holmes, T.G.: Eco-visualization: Combining art and technology to reduce energy consumption. In: Proc. of C&C ’07, pp. 153-162. ACM, New York, NY, USA (2007)

  • Moere, A.V., Tomitsch, M., Hoinkis, M., Trefz, E., Johansen, S., Jones, A.: Comparative feedback in the street: Exposing residential energy consumption on house facades. In: Proc. of INTERACT’11, pp. 470-488. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg (2011).

  • Nisi, V., Nunes, N.J., Quintal, F., Barreto, M.: Sinais from fanal: Design and evaluation of an art-inspired eco-feedback system. In: Proc. of CHItaly ’13, pp. 3:1-3:10. ACM, New York, NY, USA (2013)

  • Quintal, F., Pereira, L., Nunes, N.J., Nisi, V.: What-a-watt : Where does my electricity comes from? In: Adjunct Proc. of AVI ’14. Como, Italy (2014)

1.2 A.2 List of eco-feedback products and online services given to students

1.3 A.3 List of additional bibliographic references provided by students

  • Costanza, E., Ramchurn, S.D., Jennings, N.R.: Understanding domestic energy consumption through interactive visualisation: A field study. In: Proceedings of the 2012 ACM Conference on Ubiquitous Computing, UbiComp ’12, pp. 216-225. ACM, New York, NY, USA (2012).

  • Fischer, C.: Feedback on household electricity consumption: a tool for saving energy? Energy Efficiency 1(1), 79-104 (2008).

  • Foster, D., Lawson, S., Wardman, J., Blythe, M., Linehan, C.: “Watts in it for me?”: Design implications for implementing effective energy interventions in organisations. In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI ’12, pp. 2357-2366. ACM, New York, NY, USA (2012).

  • Jain, R.K., Taylor, J.E., Peschiera, G.: Assessing eco-feedback interface usage and design to drive energy efficiency in buildings. Energy and Buildings 48, 8-17 (2012).

  • Mankoff, J., Fussell, S.R., Glaves, R., Grevet, C., Johnson, M., Matthews, D., Matthews, H.S., McGuire, R., Thompson, R., Shick, A., Setlock, L.: StepGreen.org: Increasing energy saving behaviors via social networks. In: Proceedings of the 4th International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media (2010).

  • Petkov, P., Goswami, S., Köbler, F., Krcmar, H.: Personalised eco-feedback as a design technique for motivating energy saving behaviour at home. In: Proceedings of the 7th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction: Making Sense Through Design, NordiCHI ’12, pp. 587-596. ACM, New York, NY, USA (2012).

  • Quintal, F., Pereira, L., Nunes, N.J.: A long-term study of energy eco-feedback using non-intrusive load monitoring. In: Adjunct Proceedings of 7th International Conference on Persuasive Technology, pp. 49-52 (2012)

  • Spagnolli, A., Corradi, N., Gamberini, L., Hoggan, E., Jacucci, G., Katzeff, C., Broms, L., Jonsson, L.: Eco-feedback on the go: Motivating energy awareness. Computer 44(5), 38-45 (2011)

  • Van Dam, S.: Smart and usable home energy management systems. In: Proceedings of 6th International Symposium on Environmentally Conscious Design and Inverse Manufacturing, EcoDesign Conference (2009)

  • Xie, L., Antle, A.N., Motamedi, N.: Are tangibles more fun?: Comparing children’s enjoyment and engagement using physical, graphical and tangible user interfaces. In: Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Tangible and Embedded Interaction, TEI ’08, pp. 191-198. ACM, New York, NY, USA (2008).

1.4 A.4 List of additional commercial products, projects and online services added by students

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Pittarello, F., Pellegrini, T. HCI and education: a blended design experience. Multimed Tools Appl 76, 4895–4923 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-016-3782-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-016-3782-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation