Informatics Cognate: Human-Computer Interaction

BA in Informatics

The human-computer interaction subtrack is geared primarily towards students interested in designing useful and usable technologies. It can lead to careers in interaction design, web design, implementation of user interfaces and evaluation of human-computer interactions, as well as provide valuable skills for graduate studies in human-computer interaction.

An informatics major with an HCI cognate consists of a total of 46 semester hours, 21 of them taken in the cognate area with courses drawn largely from Psychology, Sociology, and Industrial Engineering. The four required courses provide an introduction to psychology, cover basic human abilities and performance relevant to the use of information technology, include an overview of modern visual communication and provide an introduction to research topics in human-computer interaction.

Students who desire to concentrate more on social aspects may take 034:001, Introduction to Sociology: Principles, and 034:009, Sociological Theory, instead of 031:001 and 031:016.

The three elective courses give students an opportunity to deepen their understanding of psychology topics relevant to human-computer interaction, as well as learn about human factors from an engineer’s perspective. Students must take at least one from each set below with a minimum of 9 s.h. total.

Note: students are encouraged to work with an Informatics faculty advisor to develop and get approval for personalized cognate course sets. We expect to expand and refine this cognate's course set based on student goals and creation of new informatics-related cognate courses.

Last modified: May 2, 2008