Admission requirements
Master students specialisation Applied Cognitive Psychology
Description
New technologies provide the means to build wonderful tools to extend our cognitive system into the world, as well as producing the most annoying systems in terms of performance, ergonomic design, and aesthetics.
This course will provide an overview of recent approaches towards a scientific as well as a practical understanding of basic issues of usability, representation and coordination that arise in interface design and related areas. The cognitive issues that are involved in designing interactive systems are discussed and the typical real-world lifecycle of the development of a software product is presented.
The course features guest speakers sharing their practical expertise, and field trips to state of the art usability labs. In practical assignments students evaluate the usability of actual software products in collaboration with major ICT companies.
Course objectives
Students acquire basic knowledge of the cognitive issues involved in designing interactive systems (e.g., computer programs, websites).
After completing the course, students are able to critically evaluate graphical user interfaces.
Students will also acquire a good understanding of career perspectives of psychologists in software development. No technical skills required
Timetable
Human Computer Interaction (Psychology) (2010-2011):
Mode of instruction
Lectures
student assignments
practical exercises
Assessment method
Active participation, project reports
From January 1, 2006 the Faculty of Social Sciences has instituted the Ephorus system to be used by instructors for the systematic detection of plagiarism in students’ written work. Please see the information concerning fraud .
Blackboard
Information on blackboard.leidenuniv.nl
Reading list
Course lecture sheets, papers
Registration
Introduction and enrolment for courses of the first semester will take place on 2 September 2010. Introduction and enrolment for courses of the second semester will take place on 27 January 2011. More information will be available at the website of the Institute of Psychology.
NB: Exam registration will take place via uSis, and will be open between a month and a week before the (re)exam. Students who haven’t registered, cannot participate in the exam.
Contact information
Drs. P. Haazebroek
Room 2B11
Phone: 071-5273654
E-mail: phaazebroek@fsw.leidenuniv.nl