毫无疑问，在2023年，智能技术将变得越来越普遍. But what happens when computer scientists create applications without considering people in their design? 最好的情况是:产品有功能，但没有使用. 最坏的情况是:可能的歧视、失去访问权限等等. 数学与计算机科学助理教授. Varsha Koushik spent three-and-a-half weeks teaching her students the importance of considering the potential impacts on people, 文化, 和组在设计界面时. 幸运的是她的学生, CC’s liberal arts education has prepared them to face these challenging questions and 讨论 while they work to create a more just future.
Koushik 's的学生 以人为本的计算基础 了解人机交互研究, 计算机科学研究的中心是人与计算机之间的关系.
“The goal of the class was to introduce students to the user-centered design process and enable them to define problems and develop solutions through the lens,Koushik说, whose re搜索 focuses on exploring accessible smart technologies as a way to empower people with 残疾的人. “此外, the course teaches existing re搜索 practices in human-computer interaction and helps students critically think about emerging technologies and their impact on our society.”
为了实现这一目标, Koushik使用了一系列的读数, 讨论, 讲座, 课堂活动, 家庭作业, 还有小组设计冲刺. Koushik在每堂课开始时都会做一个名为“好设计/坏设计”的热身练习, where she would display a picture of a design and ask students to vote on how well the design would function. “The exercise was to help students get into the class first thing in the morning but also for them to see how their design thinking evolved from day one to day eighteen,Koushik说.
Computer scientists often use the word “design” exclusively in the context of programming and architecture, 哪些可以产生功能复杂的产品, 但并没有真正使用. 这是因为一些计算机科学家在设计中忽略了人. 在这个课堂上, Koushik taught students the importance of studying both people and technology in computer science. 设计可以很棒, 但如果设计师在代码中没有考虑到人类，那么仍然是完全不可用的.
“仅仅因为我们使用了一款应用或对它有些熟悉，并不意味着它就是好的,Koushik说. “例如, you might find plenty of websites that work well on the desktop or laptop but are terrible to navigate on your phone. 用户在应用程序中导航变得极其困难. 在这种情况下, 开发人员没有与用户一起讨论他们的用户如何以及何时使用他们的应用程序. 学生们学会了克服意想不到的后果, or, I would rather phrase it as creating a human-centric design through iteration - a key user-centered design principle. 你创造了一个原型的低保真版本，并让用户进行测试. 然后，迭代你的设计. 再次强调，与用户进行测试. 不断重复这个过程，直到找到适合大多数用户的版本.”
August Knox ’24 says one of his favorite parts of the class was the design scavenger hunts throughout the block, 这让他有机会从别人的角度来看待设计.
“大多数星期三, 我们的任务是在校园里找到一些好的和坏的设计,诺克斯说。, 计算机科学专业. “Throughout the week, we would then guess in class whether the example provided was good or bad. It did a great job of getting us thinking about design choices all around us that we don't even consider during everyday life, 以及某些设计选择对某些人的影响是如何不同于其他人的.”
这是一门计算机科学课, Koushik强调了设计和编码对人的影响, 学生们喜欢哪一课.
“有很多关于道德的讨论, 比我之前在CC上过的任何计算机科学课程都要多,诺克斯说. “因为这门课的主题是设计供所有人使用的产品, 残疾的人, 社会习俗, and individual preferences were all things that we had to consider when working on each of our projects."
Koushik partnered with the Colorado Springs 美术中心 at 科罗拉多大学 (FAC) for the course’s final project. 学生 picked a project from a list of different art pieces and had to make them holistically interactive, 实现以用户为中心的设计过程.
“This project is not as easy as it looks because your user can be anyone - from an art student to someone without knowledge about art,Koushik说. “你如何设计一种适合大多数人的体验? 其次，整体互动对一幅画来说意味着什么? 学生 were specifically told that just taking information about the painting and making it an audio application or just clicking on the painting to learn about it will not suffice. It has to go beyond gaining information that might be written about the painting next to it in the museum.”
11名学生被分成三组来完成期末项目. 每个小组都创建了一个网站，概述了他们的过程、角色、原型和测试.
格温·哈德威克，24岁, 艾丽莎·布鲁姆，24岁, Grace Ivaska, 24岁, 24岁的塞拉斯·布兰查德选择了博德曼·罗宾逊的《赌博正规的十大网站》. 对于这个项目, 学生们做了一个互动展示，帮助观众理解这幅画的背景, 故事, 和意义. 基于对潜在用户的采访, 学生们创建了两个用户角色, 关联图, 以及一份“我们可能如何”的声明来开始他们设计的过程.
该组织的“How We Might”声明如下:
考虑到事实 that viewers struggle to understand the significance 和意义 of “Don Quixote and Sancho” by Boardman Robinson, 我们怎样才能 design an interactive display to support both those with prior knowledge and those who are new to the art style or 故事 如此......以至于...... 这件作品对各种各样的观众来说都很容易理解和吸引人.
该小组在信息设计中使用了一个互动情绪板, 特别是使用从画中提取的颜色. 然后他们创建了一个故事板和低保真原型. 遵循计划和创建纸上原型, 学生们进行了用户测试，然后创建了Figma原型.
“I learned to much more effectively communicate with group members and different design philosophies that allow for maximizing the number of people who can use a product,布兰查德说。, 计算机科学专业.
要查看最终演示，请查看该小组的FAC 演示视频 和前沿空中管制官 触觉演示视频. 请查看小组的 网页 获取有关该项目的更多信息.
另一组学生选择了保罗·卡德摩斯的《赌博正规的十大网站》. For their redesign, students in the group followed a similar interview and “How We Might” process. 在创作完故事和情绪板之后, 这个组的学生用他们的低保真原型进行用户测试. 遵循用户测试, 他们根据测试改变了几个功能, 并制作了Figma原型机.
“This project was difficult for our group because we didn't want to overly direct our user's experience with the piece,24岁的James Settles说, 他是计算机科学专业的学生，也是“大卫和歌利亚的研究”小组的成员. “There is a fine line between helping someone feel empowered and confident in a museum space and telling them how they should feel or interact with a piece."
要看最后的演示，请查看小组的 中保真原型视频. 有关该项目的更多信息，请访问该组织的 网页.
与FAC合作对学生来说是一次很棒的经历, 因为它给了他们一个参与跨学科学习的机会. The FAC is a vital resource for the CC community, regardless of major or department affiliation. 去年, the FAC worked with over 70 different courses to organize 115 total class visits and collaborated with 52 different faculty members across 26 academic departments, 展示FAC如何成为所有专业的工具.
诺克斯的团队使用了一幅大汤普森峡谷的画, 位于科罗拉多州北部, 他们的期末项目. “多年前，这里发生了一场致命的自然灾害, so we used an interactive display with ambient sound and narration to tell the 故事 of this event in an interactive way,他说. “在我的专业中，没有编程的课程是我从未上过的, and the focus on human-centered design seemed really useful no matter what field I choose after college.”
学生 also learned need-finding practices for specific human-computer interaction tasks with another group project, 学生在哪里采访和观察目标群体中的三个用户. 一旦小组完成需求寻找过程并开发出原型, 他们对目标用户进行了一项用户研究，以获得对原型的反馈. One 家庭作业 assignment was to create a prototype for the Computer Science website for a smart display. 一些学生创建了一个 用于桌面智能显示器的操纵杆; others created a 自动售货机.
“最有趣的部分是易用性, 这让我受益匪浅，但我很少去想,布兰查德说. “直到上这门课，我才知道它的历史，也不知道它有多有用.”
而小组项目是许多学生的亮点, 这个班还写了设计宣言, 学生们在哪里用主题阐述他们的设计理念.
“It was interesting to try to articulate our design philosophy through our manifesto,诺克斯说。. “我们选择了五个不同的观点作为我们宣言的基础, 根据我们在街区的经验. 这是回顾我们上个月讨论过的一些话题的好方法, 同时允许我们选择一些真正能引起我们共鸣的话题.”
“This manifesto demonstrated their learnings from this class because they used their classwork as evidence to describe their design philosophies,Koushik说. “这是这门课的独特成果，你在其他课上很少能找到.”