Teaching

HCI Methods for Health Research

Health technologies are now being used by providers to improve care and by people as they manage their health in everyday life. This course will survey research at the intersection of HCI, CSCW, and mental health. We will review research methods being used to understand healthcare processes, collect health data, and design digital health interventions. This seminar is intended for doctoral students with ongoing projects related to HCI and health. Through this seminar course, students will get exposure to the theories and sociotechnical principles that help in creating effective interventions, and methods for evaluating their success.

HCI Studio

Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) serves as the bridge between computing and humanity. The effective design of HCI systems requires a keen understanding of how interfaces and computer systems usefully support human endeavors (or not). Why would a particular set of characteristics of a system lead to reaching a desired outcome, while others encounter an obstacle? How might a good argument for a design be instantiated with effective interface and system models? Taking a step back, are our solutions actually addressing the underlying problem that humans face? What is actually the problem?

Through the studio method, we will, as a learning community, learn to ask and answer these questions for ourselves. One focus will be on developing our critical thinking and problem-solving skills through team projects and studio critique, with special emphasis on learning more effective structures and representations for thinking about the design of HCI systems. Another focus will be on learning to soften into a deeper understanding of problems that people encounter than we might at first assume – that is, developing our capacities for humility, empathy, and curiosity. Last but not least, we focus on doing — agile sprints, rapid prototyping and testing, iterating — learning to face and embrace fears, imperfections, failures that may otherwise hold us back from moving forward. Through this, we will learn to become more skillful in how we work on difficult problems.

Interactive Systems for Health Behavior Change

Health technologies are now being used by providers to improve care and by people as they manage their health in everyday life. This course will survey research at the intersection of ubiquitous computing and health informatics. We will look at how new technologies are being used to collect health data and promote behavior change. Through this seminar course, students will get exposure to the technical approaches for sensing health behaviors in everyday settings, the theories and sociotechnical principles that help in creating effective interventions, and methods for evaluating their success. By the end of the quarter, students will develop a deep understanding of health behavior change literature. They will practice core research skills, developing a research proposal that integrates theory, design, and analysis. They will also practice core professional skills by leading discussions and presenting research ideas.