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Introduction

Usability Engineering Course, January 2011
DTU Course 02261

 

 

Thanks for your interest in the Usability Engineering course offered by the Technical University of Denmark (DTU).

 

This page briefly introduces the course.

Another page offers practical information about the course.

There's also an official course description on DTU's website.

 

 

 

Content of this page

- A 35-second description of the course
- Course highlights
- Frequently asked questions
 

 

 

A 35-second description of the course

This course teaches proven methods and universal design rules for creating products that are effective and easy to use.

 

The course will show you that in order to create great products, you will need to cooperate with your potential users. You are not like your users and you can't make good judgements on behalf of your users. This is an important insight for any engineer - and well worth three weeks of your time.

 

Remember: If the users can't use it, it doesn't work - and "users" are those things that make it possible to pay your salary.

 

 

 

Course highlights

The most important things you will learn in this course:

 

 

1. How to design a user-centered product. Most product examples used in the course are from websites, but the principles are universally applicable.

 

 

 

2. How to run a usability test. In a usability test you systematically observe real users who attempt to solve typical tasks with a product. A simple and very convincing method.

 

 

 

3. How to interview users to better understand their needs. You will learn about the important differences between an interview and an ordinary conversation.

 

 

4. Design rules for usability, for example how to write constructive, comprehensible and polite error messages.

 

 

 

 

Frequently asked questions

 

How much work is it?

> Full time work - that is, about 40 hours a week - for the whole course period, January 3 to 20, 2011.

 

 

I have a full-time job. Can I do it during the course?

> I don't recommend it. Some students have left the course after a few days because they found out that this isn't possible. The course takes 35-45 hours per week of your time during the course period.

 

 

How many students pass the course?

> Until now, more than 90% of the students have passed the course each year.

 

 

I am not a DTU-student. Can I take the course anyway?

> The course is open to non-DTU students under Open University (Tompladsordningen). DTU students have priority. The course fee for outsiders is very reasonable.

 

 

What do students who have taken the course say about it?

> See the complete student feedback from the previous two years' courses in the sidebar of the Practical Information page.

 

 

Is this course compatible with my skiing vacation?

> For this very reason the course ends on Thursday 20 January.

 

 

The coursebase recommends couse 02161 Software Engineering 1 as a "Qualified prerequisite" for this course. I would like to take the Usability Engineering course but I have no plans of taking the Software Engineering course.

> If you plan to take course 02161 Software Engineering 1, please do it before you take the Usability Engineering course. Otherwise, go ahead and take the Usability Engineering course right away. Course 02161 and 02291 are recommended but not required prerequisites. You will benefit greatly from the Usability Engineering course even if you haven't taken any of them. Students who have taken course 02161 or 02291 have priority if the Usability Engineering course is overbooked.

 

 

I don't have time to take this course in January. Can I take it in the 3-week period in June?

> Unfortunately, this course only runs in the 3-week period in January. If you can't take it in January 2011, consider taking it in January 2012.

 

 

I have a question that's not answered here

> Check the Practical Information page. If that doesn't answer your question either, contact the lecturer, Rolf Molich, dtu2011@molich.dk

 

 

More questions answered on the Practical Information page.

 

 

The spirit of the Usability Engineering course described in ten quotes

If your system forces people instead of helping them, you're not fit as a computer scientist.

-- Christian Andersen
(Danish professor)

 

If there's a 'trick' to it, the user interface is broken.

-- Douglas W. Andersson
 

 

It’s easy to be hard, but its hard to be easy

-- Joel Baskin

 

We cannot allow engineers to build products for an idealized rational user when real humans are irrational: we must design for the way users actually behave.

-- Jakob Nielsen

 

Websites are a product which you ask people to buy, using their time and attention as currency.

-- Tom du Pré

 

People often test to decide which color drapes are best, only to learn that that they forgot to put windows in the room.

-- Steve Krug

 

A whole lot of companies went out of business because their users were too 'stupid.'

-- Randolph Bias

 

Most advertising agencies that I come across have absolutely awful websites. They’re all flash and no substance, all getting attention and very little giving attention. They are so obsessed with being seen to be original that they’ve become ridiculous.

-- Gerry McGovern

 

Any fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction.

-- Albert Einstein

 

Users: Those things that make it possible for us to pay you.

-- Matthew Oliphant

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