Term projects will be a major focus of this course. The project will require hands-on experience with HCI research. You can choose to design and implement a new piece of HCI technology, or to design and execute a study of existing technology with HCI research implications. I expect that most students will do the project in groups of two, but individual projects or groups of three are possible. I encourage you to integrate your HCI course project with your other ongoing research or projects when appropriate. In addition, I encourage you to consider human values questions in your project, using the Value Sensitive Design theory and methodology.
I plan to be very available during the first two weeks to discuss ideas for projects (in person, by email, or phone as appropriate).
In addition to the formal midpoint and final presentations, we will regularly have more informal discussions of project progress in class.
The report should have the same general structure as a full CHI paper, including an introduction (what is the problem you're trying to solve?), a description of related work, a methods section that describes the methods you used, results, a conclusion, and (if appropriate) possible directions for further work. The paper should be 4-10 pages (longer if necessary but please try to avoid going over 10 pages). Use the HCI archive format -- templates for Microsoft Word and LaTeX are available via the link.
The final presentations will be in class, spread over 2 days, with 12 minutes per presentation including questions and discussion. (This still is less time than one would like, but unless we were to go for 3 class sessions that's what fits.) The presentation should follow the general outline of the report, but obviously you'll need to leave out quite a bit of material to make it fit -- hit the high points, and assume that the listeners will be willing to read the report if they really want the details. If you'd like to select when you present, sign up on the course wiki.