HCI Concentration

All students interested in pursuing the HCI option within the BS in HCDE program should contact the academic adviser. Please review the BS in HCDE: HCI course of study form (doc).

Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) is a new and developing field. According to the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), Human-Computer Interaction is a discipline concerned with the design, evaluation, and implementation of interactive computing systems for human use and with the study of major phenomena surrounding them. HCI is necessarily a multidisciplinary field, incorporating facets of information science, computer science, design, and technical communication among other fields. The University of Washington is becoming a global leader in this exciting new area.

The UW has exceptional faculty collaborating on world-class research in HCI and that collaboration extends directly to students in the classroom. Students who complete coursework in this area will obtain first-class academic preparation in a variety of different forms and get official recognition for this work.

Students interested in HCI can complete the official HCI option with coursework from four participating departments: Human Centered Design & Engineering, The Information School, Computer Science & Engineering, and the Division of Design within the Art Department. Students choose from these departments based on the following requirements:

  1. Take a minimum of four classes from the list below (16-20 credits).
  2. Take at least one class in two of the four course areas (other than Foundations): i.e., User Interface, Software and Technology; Design; Usability and User Research; Social and Ethical Dimensions.
  3. Takes at least one class in the list below from a participating department outside Human Centered Design & Engineering.
  4. Takes at least seven to nine additional approved elective credits.

Course Areas:

Foundations

  • ART 383 Introduction to Interaction Design (5)
  • CSE 440 Introduction to HCI: User Interface Design, Prototyping, and Evaluation (5)
  • HCDE 419 Concepts in Human-Computer Interaction (5)

User Interface Software and Technology

  • CSE 441 Advanced HCI: Advanced User Interface Design, Prototyping, and Evaluation (5)
  • INFO 344 Web Tools and Development (5)
  • HCDE 438 Web Technologies (5)

Design

  • ART 483 Fundamentals in Interface Design (5)
  • ART 484 Advanced Projects in Interaction Design (5)
  • INFO 424 Information Visualization and Aesthetics (5)
  • HCDE 455 User Interface Design (4)

Usability and User Research

  • INFO 310 Individual Perspectives on Information Systems (5)

Social and Ethical Dimensions

  • INFO 444 Value Sensitive Design (5)
  • INFO 447 Computer Supported Cooperative Work (5)

The following courses may be approved within any of the course areas on an individual and per-course basis, depending on the topic matter and its suitability to an area within the HCI option.

  • INFO 498 Special Topics in Informatics
  • HCDE 496 Directed Research in Human Centered Design & Engineering