Study Guide

Objective

After completing the course, the student will be able to:
- Understand agile utilization of interactive technologies, known from the entertainment industry, in different field of operation
- Understand the values of an attractive user interface design and positive user experience when using interactive technologies – such as virtual reality headsets, augmented reality devices and similar
- Critically evaluate and correct UX designs to suit the needs of target users
- Integrate sound UX principals into the application development for various interactive technologies
- Make use of the latest standards and tools for evaluating interactive technology UIs
- Develop appealing user interfaces (UI) for specific interactive technology applications
- Apply subjective analysis techniques for immersive sound validation

Content

- User interface design standards from latest academic literature
- User experience design standards from latest academic literature
- Principles of user-centred design and quick prototyping by using interactive UX solutions with certain novelty value for new applications
- UI development tools and evaluation metrics
- UX measurement approaches and methods
- Room acoustics, sound source identification and hearing

Materials

Due to the practical nature of this course, there is no prescribed learning material. All necessary documentation and other material toward the successful completion of the Advance UX and UI course will be shared with students throughout the course.

Teaching methods

The course will be delivered through a hybrid teaching model comprising online tuition and practical Game Lab work. Peer-assisted learning is required throughout the course.

The course material, assignments and direct instructions will be shared through Teams. Students will be granted access to the Teams page based on an active course registration in the Peppi system.

Online tuition will be conducted with Zoom (we will share the link on the introductory Teams page).

Exam schedules

There are no exams for this course.

This course does not have any retake possibilities. Failing the course means that students will have to repeat it the following year.

International connections

This course leans on CDIO principles and takes a project-based learning approach.

Student workload

This course requires students to work 135 hours and is divided as follows:
- Tuition and other contact: 48 hours
- Assignment work: 87 hours

Each assignment will span two weeks.
The first week of an assignment:
- We will introduce the topic, present the learning material and define the assignment deliverable;
- Student groups will be required to conduct independent preliminary research on the assignment topic;
- Student groups must familiarize themselves with the assignment technology.
The second week of an assignment:
- We will present and explain the assignment fully;
- Student groups must conduct the work to complete the assignment deliverable.

All assignment submissions will be in the form of a 3 to 5 minute narrated video of the group’s assignment deliverable.

Below is an example implementation schedule (this may vary depending on the number of student groups)
Weeks 2 and 3
Student groups 1 to 4 work on assignment 1
Student groups 5 to 8 work on assignment 2
Student groups 9 to 12 work on assignment 3
Weeks 4 and 5
Student groups 1 to 4 work on assignment 2 and submit assignment 1 on 27.01.2021
Student groups 5 to 8 work on assignment 3 and submit assignment 2 on 27.01.2021
Student groups 9 to 12 work on assignment 1 and submit assignment 3 on 27.01.2021
Weeks 6 and 7
Student groups 1 to 4 work on assignment 3 and submit assignment 2 on 10.02.2021
Student groups 5 to 8 work on assignment 1 and submit assignment 3 on 10.02.2021
Student groups 9 to 12 work on assignment 2 and submit assignment 1 on 10.02.2021
Week 9
Student groups 1 to 4 submit assignment 3 on 03.03.2021
Student groups 5 to 8 submit assignment 1 on 03.03.2021
Student groups 9 to 12 submit assignment 2 on 03.03.2021

Student groups must submit all 3 assignments to be eligible to pass the course - failure to submit an assignment will cause the entire group to fail the course.

Content scheduling

Week 2:
Technology and assignment introductions and student grouping
Student groups start to work on their first assignments
Week 3 to 7:
Student groups rotate between 3 assignments and complete each assignment’s instructions.
Each assignment lasts 2 weeks.
Week 8:
This is a holiday week and students are expected to work independently

Further information

The practical elements of the course will be presented with the assistance of Turku Game Lab engineers who will also act as industry experts for evaluating group performance in the assignments.

The course material, assignments and direct instructions will be shared through Teams. Students will be granted access to the Teams page based on an active course registration in the Peppi system.
The online tuition will be conducted with Zoom (we will share the link on the introductory Teams page).

Passing this course is a pre-requisite for continuing with 4th-year studies – no exceptions will be made.

Evaluation scale

H-5

Assessment methods and criteria

The course consists of 3 assignments.
- Assignment 1: Create a VR tutorial for an existing project
- Assignment 2: Create a game that involves hand-tracking in VR
- Assignment 3: Create an AR enhanced instruction manual or marketing brochure

The class will be divided into groups of 4 students each. The groups will rotate and spend two weeks on each assignment - Each group will complete all 3 assignments.

The course is evaluated as follows:
GROUP grade...
- Industry expert evaluation of each assignment (H-5);
- Lecturer overall impression of each assignment (H-5).
Every group will, therefore, receive 6 grades and the average of these gives a group grade for each student.

INDIVIDUAL student per group grade
Each student will also be measured on their contribution for the entire course. That is, at the end of the course each student in every group will be given the opportunity to conduct a self- and peer-evaluation of their individual team member performance and contribution for all 3 assignments. From this evaluation, each student will have a:
- Self assessment of the contribution made;
- Group member evaluation of the contribution made;
The average of these gives an individual grade for each student.

The final course grade for each student is calculated by:
(GROUP grade x 0,5) + (INDIVIDUAL grade x 0,5)

Based on peer feedback and course presenter observations, the lecturers may use their discretion to fail or lower the grade of individual students.

Passing this course is a pre-requisite for continuing with 4th-year studies – no exceptions will be made.

Assessment criteria, fail (0)

Failure to submit any of the 3 assignments will cause the entire group to fail the course.
Individual non-participation as determined by the peer-evaluation will also lead to failing the course.

Assessment criteria, satisfactory (1-2)

- Deliverable contains a few of the features outlined in the assignment
- Did not adequately apply preliminary research to complete the assignment
- Deliverable is incoherent or does not work

Assessment criteria, good (3-4)

- Deliverable contains most of the features outlined in the assignment
- Adequately applied preliminary research to complete the assignment, but lacking creativity
- Deliverable is coherent and functions as required by the assignment

Assessment criteria, excellent (5)

- Deliverable contains all the features outlined in the assignment
- Creatively applied preliminary research to complete the assignment
- Deliverable is coherent and exceeds the assignment requirements