Design Analytics

In this elective, students will gather tools and acquire knowledge to critically evaluate (interactive and intelligent) technological prototypes and set the stage for the next iteration of the design phase by eliciting actionable design guidelines based on comprehensive empirical analysis. The technological component of this course is demonstrated by the strong focus on the improvement of IPSS (intelligent products, services, and systems) such as, conversational assistants, wearables, etc.

Instead of examining the complete design cycle, students will focus solely on the quantitative assessment of IPSS and examine their cognitive, perceptual, and experiential effects. To this end, students will learn and add skills to their methodological toolkit, which will enable them to a) design sound experiments (with Control and Experimental groups), b) use sensing technologies (e.g., eye-tracking) and adapt existing data-acquisition tools (e.g., NASA TLX, MSLQ), c) identify the right statistical tests (descriptive vs. inferential; comparison vs. regression), d) discriminate correlation from causation and identify confounding factors, and e) understand the proper means of communicating their quantitative analysis and results.

The content of this course is relevant for students because they learn how to systematically assess their designs with standardized practices and communicate their findings with multiple stakeholders and a broader design-research community. In this way, this course offers an essential ingredient in students transformation from a UX Designer to a UX Researcher.

In this course, the student will become familiar with the 5-stage Design Analytics Process (DAP) i.e., design diagnostics, study design synthesis, experimentation, data analysis, and design prescription.

The learning objectives of this elective will be assessed through a group report, including a final presentation, and an individual exam. Group deliverables will contribute to 60% of the students final grade. The final exam will contribute to the remaining 40%.

Group Work (60%): Student groups will deliver a final report at the end of the elective (max. 20 pages). This group deliverable corresponds to the aforementioned DAP stages and the underlying LOs. The LOs are fulfilled by the rigorous evaluation of an IPSS (design artifact), for which the groups will work throughout the duration of the course. The course coordinators will provide a template and assessment rubric for these reports, and instructions on the length and structure of each report. The final report will manifest into a research portfolio that will be shared at the end of the course to the stakeholders, who supplied our course with their IPSS designs, other students, and interested parties. The final individual grade for the group work will be the sum of the grades for each group report, weighted by the peer contribution assessment scores produced weekly.

Individual Exam (40%): A final exam will constitute a mix of MCQs (multiple choice questions) and open questions.

Formative Assessment: Weekly thematic coaching will provide students with the necessary feedback as well as enable them to assess the progress of their learning, their conceptual understanding. In addition, thematic coaching will assist students to effectively align their project direction by reflecting critically about the diverse aspects of design analytics.