Syllabus for IST 521 — HCI: The User and Technology

Please note, this is a live document. Changes announced in class and on the list server will be incorporated from time to time. Announcements in class and their mirror here are the definitive version.

1. COURSE OVERVIEW

This course provides students with theories, models, and analytic techniques regarding how users interact with information technology. Basic concepts of use, tied to how humans process information, are developed through readings, discussion, labs, examples, and projects.

We will explore these topics through in-class presentations, readings (from both text and on-line sources), discussion, exercises (done in groups assigned the second week), and an exam.  

2. COURSE OBJECTIVES

This course provides a balance between theory and practice, which are tightly intertwined in this area. Basic and more advanced readings will introduce the student to current thinking about facts, theories, and ways to gather new data. A small group project, drawing on the different backgrounds students bring to the program, will support integrating these various types of knowledge and applying them to an illustrative interface or system. The teaching philosophy includes working in groups and presentations. The pedagogy of this approach has been published.

There are three aspects to this topic, of users and technology, which will be developed in different ways.

1. Building interfaces. This could occur a using tools you already know.

2. Modeling the user, both with formal tools and in the designer's head. This will occur to the limit of the project's needs, and our time and abilities.

3. Evaluating the fit of the interface to the user and to their tasks. Methodologies will be taught for doing this as examples of the wide range of methodologies for doing HCI.

4. Understanding publication types and processes in HCI/HF.

At the conclusion of this course, students will be able to:

1. Understand and apply the risk-driven spiral model of system design treating usability as a risk
2. Understand and be able to use several theoretical and software-based tools to assist in the design process
3. Have a general understanding of HCI/HF and of the psychology of users related to HCI
4. Start a line of potentially publishable research related to this course, or received support from this course in their existing research
5. Gain a deeper understanding about different types of research reports (e.g., book chapters, articles, conference papers)
6. Improve their ability to create written reports, particularly as related to material in the course
7. Be IRB certified.

3. COURSE ORGANIZATION

3.1 The IST 521 Web Site. This course has an active web page that contains the syllabus, assignments, links to useful sites, and other valuable material (such as how to correctly prepare assignments, citation templates, and other academic and recreational information). This page can currently be found at frankritter.com/ist521, and will be available in some capacity through Canvas. This web page is what I use. Canvas is far more viscous (see FDUCS, Ch. 12). Bookmark this page, not canvas.

3.2 The IST 521 Listserv. Canvas provides a useful enough way to communicate with the class. Expect announcements and email from Canvas.

3.3 Required Texts

(FDUCS) Foundations for designing user-centered systems: What system designers need to know about users. Ritter, F. E, Baxter, G. D., & Churchill, E. F. (2014). Available through the library as PDF, PDF chapters, or softcover hardcopy for $40 (theoretically, you have to order it on campus or under the LIAS VPN). or abebooks.com used.

Lazar is Lazar, J., Feng, J. H., & Hochheiser, H. (2010). Research methods in human-computer interaction. Chichester, UK: Wiley. Available through the library as a PDF, or abebooks.com used.

Studies should be run under IRB where possible to support later publication. You will become IRB qualified as part of your project.

Papers and online references are available as supplements, in the papers directory.

The course will often reference this book. It is optional reading but provides structure for the course and projects:
       Committee on Human-System Design Support for Changing Technology, & Richard W. Pew and Anne S. Mavor (Editors). (2007). Human-system integration in the system development process: A new look. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. [online free, can be purchased as printed copy]

3.4 Required readings (handed out in class or available online)

Week 1,       13 Jan 26

Introductions and Syllabus overview

Web of Science start
[Lab 1 is to show you have used WoS and Google Scholar. Do citation counts in both on two faculty, and on Dick Pew (6 counts total), and find two interesting papers and get PDFs. 1 point lab, based on 1 page write up]

How to read a book

PQ4R

Read for next week: FDUCS 14

Week 2,     20 Jan

IRB at PSU [certification]

Prezzi on Pew and Mavor, risk-driven spiral model

Boehm & Hansen, 2001

Pew 08

Week 3,     27 Jan

Carmen Cole / Library presentation / Reference managers / How, when to cite

Dow 11

Ritter (accepted) Ch1, Ch3. (will be in Canvas)

Rossen & Carroll chapter on evaluation

Axure lab starts

Week 4,    3 Feb

IRB certificate due

FDUCS  1,  2,  3

Lab 2: RUI starts, including Kukreja, Stevenson, & Ritter, 2006, and Morgan et al. 2013
[RUI Lab is to use RUI or other keystroke logger to record behavior of interest and analyse it, or to check RUI accuracy using stats or other recorder]

Week 5,     10 feb

FDUCS  4,   5,   6

MacKenzie 13, Ch. 8 OR Ritter (accepted), Ch. 8 [pick one]

Theories of managing data and analyses: Good enough practices, Wilson, Bryan, Cranston, Kitzes, Nederbragt, & Teal, or Pragmatic Programmer

Project title due

Week 6,     17 Feb

Kegworth video (there are others, e.g., United 232, YouTube comments have some further gems of disasters)

FDUCS appendix

Ericsson & Simon 93 [read theory] and Appendix on how to run Ss

Lab 3, VPA starts, 2-10 pages report, on 2 min. of protocol transcribed and analysed on your project.

Week 7,    24 Feb

LaPierre 34

Lazar Chapter 5, and copy in the PSU libraries but link may be fragile]

Ritter & Schooler 2001

Grant, 1962

Ritter & Bibby, 2008 ; or 2001

Week 8,     4 Mar

FDUCS 11

Ritter, Kim, & Morgan, 09 / Ritter, Kim, Morgan, and Carlson 13 (pick one)

Ritter & Ricupero, 2023

Abstract 1 page on project

>>    Spring Break    <<

Week 9,     17 Mar

Ritter, Freed, Haskett, 2005, OR Byrne et al. 1999, as example task analyses pick one, or find another

Endsley 1999

Rosson & Carrol 2002 on scenarios

TA Lab starts

Week 10,     24 Mar

Tehranchi, Bagherzadehkhorasani, & Ritter, 24

Ivory & Hurst 01

[Pick a paper: ACM Computing Surveys]

Booher & Minneger 2003

Automatic Testing Lab such as Cynthia Says or WebAIM or Lighthouse

Week 11,     31 Mar

Lazar 4

Clark73

Nose-based interfaces

student found papers 1, 2, e.g., explainable AI, ethics and HCI, ignoring stakeholders, discrimination

Week 12,     7 Apr

student found papers, 3, 4, 5, exam review

Week 13,     14 Apr

Exam review and exam

See:   Dunlosky et al.'s paper on how to study
          Example exam

Week 14,     21 Apr

Project presentations

Ritter (accepted) Ch6, Ch7 (will be in Canvas)

Week 15,    28 Apr

Project presentations and course review and final charge

Week 16,    5 May

Project report due, 5 pm, postmarked by email and uploaded to Canvas

FINAL EXAMINATION WILL NOT be held

 

3.5 Detailed schedule as PDF

Draft Detailed Schedule as PDF <- Detailed due dates are in here and in Canvas.

 

3.6 Optional Texts and Interesting Resources

The Publication Manual of the APA as a guide to referencing, citing, and the formating of papers and manuscripts in general. Also see APA guide to online references online or interpreted by the OWL project. You will essentially have to know this style for HCI writing.

The ACM HCI Special Interest Group (SIGCHI) is a good general site.
www.acm.org/sigchi

The Human Factors and Ergonomics Society web site
hfes.org

An HCI portal of sorts.
www.hcibib.org/education

How to write an abstract by Mary-Claire Van Leunen (password protected)
Subjects vs. Participants by Roediger

Online book on typography, and Word, and how they interact for usability by Butterick

4. EVALUATION

You earn your grade but it will be assigned by me. The criteria for each assignment will be discussed in detail, as will the grading scheme. Each written assignment will be evaluated on how well it addresses the questions posed, the clarity of thinking, the organization and presentation of the material, the quality of writing, and its timeliness. 

Your grade will be based on 100 possible points. You earn points with each assignment (see below). As a maximum scale (i.e., cutoffs may be lowered): A: 100-94, A-: 93-90, B+ 89-87, B: 86-84, B-: 83-80, C+: 79-77, C: 76-70, D: 69-60, F: 59-0.  (The cutoffs for each grade is the lower number, without rounding.)

Labs and projects may be done in groups of 1 or 2. 2 is preferred.

Your learning will be assessed in several ways. Please consult the schedule to see when papers / assignments are due and exams scheduled. You will receive more written instructions for each assignment well in advance of the due date. Here is a brief summary of each:
  

Assignment	Weight	Description	Due Date
Labs Notes on writing and doing labs Writing mistakes that I hate Marking scheme	30%	You will do a variety of labs. Each lab writeup is nominally 20 points (some are smaller). A lesser number of points (60) will be taken to be the maximum lab grade (i.e., you can miss some points and get a perfect score). This score may be modified/moderated/adjusted by self and team evaluations.	Due date, beginning of class, in Canvas, on paper if you want further comments
Paper comments and paper presentations	20%	1 point comment paper on each reading [template for comments], 24 points kept out of about ~35, and you will present a paper per super-group you want us to read in weeks 11-12.	Due 30 min. before class, in Canvas
Mid-Term Exam	20%	In class, taken individually, on paper, open paper notes, 1.5 hours
Project Comments on writing Example template: RTF	30%	Final project, made up of: IRB certified 1, title 1, abstract 3, report 25, study IRB approved=+3 points. Best project will get the Fred Loomis IST521 Outreach Prize, $100, from an anonymous donor. 2025 Spring winners, Leon, Murtagh White, & Zu 2024 Spring winners, Parkinson & Gehman 2023 Spring winners, Govindarazan, Chandran, & Chen 2020 Fall winners, Guo & Li,  and                           González-Vargas & Cole 2019 Fall winners, Cai & Chen Further example projects	5 may 2026, 5pm Use this form with submission
Total	100%

5. IST 521 CLASS Projects (subject to revision)

Each semester each group does a useful project. These projects might as well have some impact rather than be just a comparison of XYZ Corp's web site to ABC Corp's web site. There must be the possibility that your report can have some impact, and most have had. One won best paper at AsiaCHI. Here are several examples of places that will have impact. My connection or interest is shown in (). Getting your study IRB approved is worth extra points and supports publication.

• Build an application for the iPhone, using the iPhone emulator if you don't have an iPhone. Or the Android.
• Multi-lingual web site design for https://www.sem-chemnitz.de/
• The design and partial implementation of a game to teach graduate students and assistant professors how to succeed at academia. Like Clash of Clans, but you are building a career and not a clan village.
• All student projects listed on this site directly or indirectly
• Other project you find or wish to develop with instructor approval

A larger example of this type of work is available in the following report:

Ritter, F. E., Freed, A. R., & Haskett, O. L. (2002). Discovering user information needs: The case of university department websites (Tech. Report No. 2002-3). Applied Cognitive Science Lab, School of Information Sciences and Technology, Penn State. acs.ist.psu.edu/acs-lab/reports/ritterFH02.pdf.
    Published as: Ritter, F. E., Freed, A., & Haskett, O. (2005). User information needs: The case of university department web sites. ACM interactions. 12(5). 19-27.

Published papers that have arisen from class projects include:

Murtagh White, M., Xu, Y., León, N., & Ritter, F. E. (2025, September). Athena: A Conversational book discovery interface combining LLM-powered retrieval-augmented generation and interactive graph visualization. In Adjunct Proceedings of the 38th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (pp. 1-3).

Cai, T., Chen, C., Huang, T. H. K., & Ritter, F. E. (2021). What makes a good reference manager? In AsianCHI 21, 64-69. Best paper award.

Wang, J., Shen, H., Chen, C., & Ritter, F. E. (2021). Are learners satisfied with their MOOC experiences? Assessing and improving online learners' interactions. In AsianCHI21, 215- 220.

Gonzalez-Vargas, J. M., Cole, C., Krishnakumar, S., Shatinsky, K., Hills, E., & Starkey, E. (2022). Innovating walking speed as a vital sign: An interface development and usability study. In Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, 2300-2304.

Yeh, K.-C., Gregory, J. P., & Ritter, F. E. (2010). One Laptop per Child: Polishing up the XO Laptop user experience. Ergonomics in Design. 18(3).  8-13. [as submitted, local version]

Stark, R. F., & Kokini, C. (2010). Reducing risk in system design through human-systems integration. Ergonomics in Design, 18(2), 18-22.

Morgan, J. H., Cheng, C.-Y., Pike, C., & Ritter, F. E. (2013). A design, tests, and considerations for improving keystroke and mouse loggers. Interacting with Computers, 25(3), 242-258.

Please note: The ideas you write about, and to some extent the literature you include in the report on your IST 501/521/530 projects can overlap. But the actual text—paragraph by paragraph, research questions, and so on—must be distinct, guided by the topics covered in the course.

6. Labs for IST 521

The laboratory portion of IST 521 provides students with the chance to become familiar with using the concepts and data about how people behave with respect to computers. It is essential for understanding the material and will be useful for passing the exams.

You will be put into small groups to do your labs because this generally leads to better learning. That means that you must turn in one lab report per group, that, in this case, conferring within your group is not a violation of academic policy or of ethics on the lab section of this course, and that conferring with other groups *is* a violation of academic policy and ethics if it results in reports that are noticeably similar without citation. Getting feedback is completely fairplay and encouraged. Use of Grammarly and chatGPT is ok, but you are responsible for the content.

The best way is to work on the lab and then meet to discuss and proofread the report. The worst way is to have each member of the group do (and thus learn) one of the sections. This will result in a noticeably inferior product. We suggest that you trade who leads the preparation of each write-up.

As we explore these topics, we will also practice skills in working together, analytical skills, and information problem-solving approaches. 

7. COURSE CONDUCT

• Classes will start on time and end as scheduled. Please take your seat or go to the Zoom room (e.g., a snow day) prior to the start of class.
• You should attend each class and actively participate in the discussions during class. University policy on class attendance is applied.
• If you are uncomfortable with public speaking, or if English is not your native language, we must meet in the first two weeks of school to establish ways to make you more comfortable in speaking and interacting with your peers. I am happy to do this; I have been there myself (e.g., in Germany on sabbatical).
• For every hour of lecture, I anticipate that you will need to budget about 3 hours of out-of-class time. This implies that you need to budget about 140 hours of out-of-class time over the course of the semester. This time estimate is a guide and you may need to budget more or less. For example, if the material is new to you or difficult to comprehend, it will require more of your time. 
• You are responsible for all the readings, even if the material is not explicitly covered in class. You should read the class materials prior to class and be prepared to discuss and ask questions about the readings and assignments. You should also re-read the material after class as not every topic will be covered during class time. Many passages in the text may need to be read several times to gain clarity. Also, taking notes on the material you are reading and reflecting on the reading and these notes will help you better understand the issues, concepts and techniques that are being presented.
• All work must be completed and turned in as noted. No late work will be accepted. Note that a computer's failure is not an excuse (it represents poor planning on your part). If you miss a deadline, a written explanation of a university recognized excuse and written request must be handed to me at the end of a lecture.
  Assignments that are simply late are very welcome to be turned in for feedback but 0 marks.
• All assignment should be double-spaced (or 1.5 spaced where appropriate), on US Letter or A4 paper. All pages should have 1" margins. Papers must be authored/dated/page numbers. Your group number and names should be on them, as well as an abstract (where appropriate).
• Proofread your work. Mistakes include spelling, grammatical errors, and other typos. You should assume that your reader is about as smart as you, not smarter. You must also show your work, even if you just note 'by inspection'. The marker will want to know that you know how to get the answer.
• I expect individual work should be just that -- it should be done by you, alone. For more help, see this site at Indiana on plagiarism and PSU university policy on plaigirism.
• I expect group work should be just that -- from all of the group. If I become aware that you are not contributing to your group equally, I will intervene.
• Students who participate in University-sanctioned events (such as athletics) must make prior arrangements and give ample notice, but will be supported.
• If you are sick, please let me know, even call during class, and I'll set up Zoom.

8. Relevant University Policies

See GURU and other PSU sites. The most salient include:

Academic integrity is the pursuit of scholarly activity in an open, honest, and responsible manner. Academic integrity is a basic guiding principle for all academic activity at The Pennsylvania State University, and all members of the University community are expected to act in accordance with this principle.
According to Penn State policy G-9: Academic Integrity, an academic integrity violation is “an intentional, unintentional, or attempted violation of course or assessment policies to gain an academic advantage or to advantage or disadvantage another student academically.” Unless your instructor tells you otherwise, you must complete all course work entirely on your own, using only sources that have been permitted by your instructor, and you may not assist other students with papers, quizzes, exams, or other assessments. If your instructor allows you to use ideas, images, or word phrases created by another person (e.g., from Course Hero or Chegg) or by generative technology, such as ChatGPT, you must identify their source. You may not submit false or fabricated information, use the same academic work for credit in multiple courses, or share instructional content. Students with questions about academic integrity should ask their instructor before submitting work.
Students facing allegations of academic misconduct may not drop/withdraw from the affected course unless they are cleared of wrongdoing (see G-9: Academic Integrity). Attempted drops will be prevented or reversed, and students will be expected to complete course work and meet course deadlines. Students who are found responsible for academic integrity violations face academic outcomes, which can be severe, and put themselves at jeopardy for other outcomes which may include ineligibility for Dean’s List, pass/fail elections, and grade forgiveness. Students may also face consequences from their home/major program and/or The Schreyer Honors College.
Consistent with University Policy AD29, students who believe they have experienced or observed a hate crime, an act of intolerance, discrimination, or harassment that occurs at Penn State are urged to report these incidents as outlined on the University’s Report Bias webpage.
Penn State welcomes students with disabilities into the University’s educational programs. Every Penn State campus has an office for students with disabilities. Student Disability Resources (SDR) website provides contact information for every Penn State campus. For further information, please visit Student Disability Resources website.
In order to receive consideration for reasonable accommodations, you must contact the appropriate disability services office at the campus where you are officially enrolled, participate in an intake interview, and provide documentation: See documentation guidelines. If the documentation supports your request for reasonable accommodations, your campus disability services office will provide you with an accommodation letter. Please share this letter with your instructors and discuss the accommodations with them as early as possible, but at least 1 month before the exam. You must follow this process for every semester that you request accommodations.

This syllabus is only for use within the requirements of AD G-10: GRADE MEDIATION AND ADJUDICATION

© 2025 Frank E. Ritter