By Jeanne Boyarsky from New York 8 months ago Completed

The peer review/grading system was set up well. This was nice in that you got to see how others attempted the assignments. And get feedback from real people. It also lets the assignments go deeper since they don’t need to be reviewed by a computer. I got 1-2 useful graders/feedback per set of 5 reviewers. Better than nothing.

The style of the course was similar to the SAAS one with the addition of peer review and the removal of a required book. Oh and the assignments were significantly longer.

It was a fun class and I learned a lot. There was too much complaining from the other students on the amount of time required, being asked to take photos, etc.

I blogged an essay responding to the criticisms. Which gives you a feel for what you might not like about the course. http://www.selikoff.net/2012/07/08/udacity-and-coursera-python-editor-peer-reviewing-and-complaining/

By Duncan Murray from Adelaide, South Australia 5 months ago Completed

If you want to build websites you should take this course - it has a high focus on user testing, which isn't always what a lot of developers like to do. One of those necessary but valuable chores, and in the course you will need to get real users to test your interface and you even need to provide photos of them doing testing it.

It felt a bit weird asking friends to get photographed testing a 'dummy' web application but it is one of things you need to do.

Scott is a good speaker, and knows his stuff, but you won't learn any web coding techniques as it is focused on the User Interface, so if you just want the web building skills you may want to try the Udacity course (build a web site / blog ?)

The peer review system in this course is very good - every student must pass an evaluation test to make sure they mark other students assignments correctly (based on the marks given by TA's) - this worked well.

You are provided with free tools to build the prototypes which have an interactive feel to them - they are nice but a bit clumsy and very slow, so I chose to build a web site and host it - this took a lot more time, than I estimated in terms of the rest of the course.

My only gripe with this course is that the certificate at the end doesn't really reflect the amount of effort you put into this course. A friend also did the course without doing any assignments and the only difference between our certificates is the word 'distinction' on mine in a blue box on the PDF. I would have preferred to see the grade on there, showing that I had done all the assignments well (though perhaps coursera is planning on having this available as a service later)

Overall - a very worthwhile course.

By Mike Hernandez from San Francisco, California 5 months ago Completed

Overall:
If you're in a role where you're building products to cater to user needs, and you don't already have a UX/HCI background, this is a fantastic course.

The professor goes through all of the principles in a succinct and easy-to-understand manner. All of the material is directly applicable to real-life scenarios; I know in the future I'll be looking back through the course's notes and lectures to use for work.

Feedback:
I started with the studio track, but since deadlines were very stringent and I did not have any insight into the amount of time required per weekly assignment, I wound up dropping it due to other engagements. (I'll probably go for the Studio Practicum the next time this is offered.) I would have appreciated a syllabus describing assignments as a whole, and the amount of effort required each week.

Peer grading worked out pretty well, and I thought my grades for the assignments I completed were very fair. I'm sure some of the methodology is grounded in psychology, which is perfectly fine.

Difficulty/Prerequisites:
I do not have a programming or design background, but I think this course was shaped to cater just to this. I was a little too ambitious about my studio assignment, and because I had to build something from scratch, I found myself paring down my app's capabilities. (This did not hinder my grades whatsoever because you are graded based on how you implement principles and concepts, not for how elaborate or clever you app proves to be.)

By Luis Santiago from Stratford, Connecticut 5 months ago Completed (Partially)

Even though I couldn't finish the course because of a unexpected power-internet outage caused by the famed storm Sandy, I nearly completed it.
The course covered a broad set of subjects that make up HCI, I particularly like how the behavioral-cognitive part was touched and the typography.
Real life examples demonstrating good and bad designs and the evaluation exercises gave me a sense of hoe to appreciate user experiences & designs better.

By Mihalis Hadjis from Ioannina, Epirus 6 months ago Completed (Partially)

I quitted the course on the third week, so my review is based only on the relevant course experience.

Scott is reading out the powerpoint slides and this is not my favourite teaching style. The content is indeed good but his "slow speaking" manner is very tiring to me.

I hope that he will eventually change this in the next course versions.

By Susan Kemp from Montevallo, Alabama 6 months ago Completed

I took the apprentice/amateur track in the first offering of the course, so my review can only be based as someone who did lectures/quizzes only.

I enjoyed the course and found the lectures informative, without seeming incredibly bogged down with too much to remember. I usually watched the lecture without pausing to take notes and did well on the quizzes (and this was new material). I think for some people that's desirable. Some people just may want to learn something new without all the extra effort of disciplined studying we had back in college.

My one downside to this track is there felt like there was 0 interactivity with the rest of the class. The forums were largely dedicated to the project others were doing. I think being able to interact and discuss the concepts is one of the biggest strengths of Coursera because for once you have people almost universally excited about the subject matter... and a lot of them. I hope that got addressed in the current rendition of the class.

By Milene Pereira from Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro 6 months ago Completed (Partially)

This course is innovative and very interesting.

By Gavin Conran from Portadown 7 months ago Completed

For coders, design appears easy until you do it yourself. Scott's scientific approach to the subject helped the transition but it really is a difficult art to master.

By Fraser Deans 7 months ago Completed (Partially)

Human-Computer interaction by Scott Klemmer was a very interesting course. Working in the user experience field for the last two year it still managed to teach me a thing or two. Scott's digestible videos made the course a breeze to follow through.