Browse Hierarchy ECS712P: Design for Human Interaction

Conversation is fundamental to human life. It distinguishes us as a species, it provides the foundations of all human social organisation and it has profound effects on human health and wellbeing. It is no accident that the most widely used technologies are also those that enable new forms of interaction for example: voice calls, text messaging (e.g. Whatsapp, Messenger) video conferencing (e.g. Facetime, Zoom), social networks (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, Tiktok) and social virtual realities (e.g. vTime, Facebook Spaces). This research-led course introduces the social science of human interaction. It explains the basic psychological and sociological theories of how human interaction really works. This includes verbal and non-verbal interaction and ranges from small scale conversations to large group interactions including live audiences. It also explores the profound effects human interaction can have on mental and physical health. The theories introduced in the course are applied to the task of understanding how technology changes human interaction and how technology can create richer and more engaging forms of human communication. The course provides an overview of the current state-of-the-art and future developments in communication technology and discusses the tools and techniques needed to help design and evaluate these technologies.