This course delves into the captivating realm of intelligent machines and their social interactions, encompassing social robots, voice user interfaces, and chatbots. Beyond the surface, it explores the art of conversational design, emphasizing that it goes beyond creating interfaces that merely talk or chat—it’s about understanding that a meaningful conversation begins with an unspoken agreement and thrives on cooperation toward a goal. Throughout the course, we navigate design principles to craft intuitive interactions with digital systems, questioning whether a system can adeptly use modalities to align with diverse contexts and activities. Informed by Human-Computer Interaction studies on human-human conversations, we identify essential qualities, including being goal-oriented, cooperative, context-aware, quick, straightforward, turn-based, truthful, polite, and error-tolerant. The course unfolds in two parts, where students comprehensively study these conversational qualities, individually developing interaction concepts using modalities such as voice, text, gesture, haptic, or tangible. Utilizing the interaction-attention continuum, we analyze interaction flows in broader contexts, expanding interactions to provide seamless experiences connecting conversations across modalities. This exercise is crucial given the continuous evolution of intelligent systems. Designers gain a holistic view of how conversations can fluently transition among agents using alternative modalities, ultimately empowering them to create seamless conversational interactions facilitating individuals in achieving their goals easily and efficiently.
The primary objectives of this course are to equip participants with a comprehensive understanding of the fundamentals, hardware, software, and communication components inherent in both existing and emerging Information Communication Technology (ICT) systems. Recognizing the rapidly evolving technological landscape, the course places a particular emphasis on explaining emerging and disruptive technologies, ensuring participants are well-versed in the latest advancements. Additionally, the course aims to foster the effective use of basic ICT tools and applications, empowering participants to navigate and leverage these tools proficiently. Complementing this, participants will develop a profound understanding of the process modeling required for effective problem-solving, enhancing their analytical and strategic thinking skills in the realm of ICT. By the end of this course, participants will:
This course is a basic course that applies very widely. The skills students learn from this course would be very useful throughout BS studies and beyond. The course’s aims are the following:
This comprehensive course is structured to provide a thorough assessment of participants’ knowledge and skills through a multifaceted approach. The assessment framework comprises assignments, mid-term exams, and quizzes, with assignments weighing 15%, mid-term exams at 25%, and quizzes collectively contributing 15%. These components collectively contribute to a holistic evaluation of theoretical understanding and practical application. Complementing this, the course integrates a practical lab component, featuring lab tasks, assignments, a project, and exams. Lab tasks, numbering 12 and carrying a 35% weightage, reinforce practical skills, while assignments and a project, totaling 20%, bridge theoretical concepts with real-world scenarios. The mid-term lab exam, at 15%, assesses practical skills, and quizzes, at 10%, ensure ongoing engagement. The final lab exam, with a 20% weightage, provides a comprehensive evaluation of participants’ practical proficiency, culminating in a well-rounded assessment approach that ensures a thorough grasp of the course material.
In this course, students will learn several design principles and techniques for creating appropriate experiences of conversational designs. Students will also read literature and apply all the knowledge through practising with a design project. To empower students’ learning-by-doing practice, we integrate the user-centre-design and double-diamond process with the weekly topics and assignments. The overall program is presented in the following diagram, followed by the descriptions of the weekly teaching plan.