HCI Projects

Goal: Identify a research question (RQ), propose and test a solution

Timeline

24 sept 2026: Pair up with a partner and notify the teacher on the project's pad
1st oct. 2026: Iterate on RQs with the teacher by email
Before 8 oct. 2026: Have your proposed RQ validated by the teacher by email
1st oct. 2026: Start the literature review: "how did others contribute to your RQ?"
5 nov. 2026: Present your first draft of literature review, prototype, and experimental plan
12 nov. 2026: Fine-tune your literature review, prototype, and experimental plan
19 nov. 2026: *Mid-project presentation*. Then fine-tune prototype and make corrections on experimental plan
3 dec. 2026: Start running your experiment
10 dec. 2026: Present your analysis of the results
17 dec. 2027: Present your analysis of the results
7 jan. 2027: Present your analysis of the results
7 jan. 2027 midnight* at the latest: Send the report to the teachers
14 jan. 2027: Final defence

* If you submit the report after this time, we will not be able to guarantee that we have read it by the time of your presentation. Given the limited time for presentations and questions, you risk that your time will be taken up by clarifying ambiguities that the report could have addressed. You will not receive a grade for this course until you have submitted your written report.

Guidelines

The objective of the project is to identify an HCI problem, propose an original solution, and evaluate it. You must work on an interaction for which you can anticipate benefits that you state clearly.

1. Choosing a problem

Each pair of students chooses the HCI problem they want to address in their project. The research question is “moderated” by the professors. The idea must be relevant to the course: the solution must be original, your motivations must be clearly stated and convincing, and you should be able to evaluate the interaction with a prototype (which can be anywhere between high and very low fidelity).

The project must be validated by the teacher and presented in class during the first project session.

2. Design

2.1 State of the art

Once a teacher has validated your project's problem, you must make a quick review of the state of the Art: what approaches have been tried for your problem? Which systems were implemented? What worked and what didn't?

2.2 Propose a solution

Building on the state of the art, you must design an original solution for the identified problem. The design must follow a user centred approach: the interaction must be designed so that is satisfies the users’ needs as well as possible. You must be able to clearly state why this solution is suitable for the problem and could reasonably be expected to improve the users' experience.

3. Evaluation

You must evaluate your solution through a user study.

3.1 Prototyping

You prototype the interaction to evaluate it. Depending on the feasibility, you create either a low or a high fidelity prototype. You will be able to prototype the interaction with specialised input/output devices from Fabrication Laboratory (FabLab) on the campus (called FabMSTIC) and E310 at ENSIMAG (documentation). You will be able to use rapid fabrication tools to build your own devices. Do not hesitate to ask your teachers for more devices if you are looking for something that is not available there.

3.2 User Study

You test the proposed solution by having non-members of the project use it. You evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of your proposed solution through examining interaction with your prototype. Take care to separate technical problems (the prototype does not satisfies the specifications) from conceptual problems (stemming from the analysis and/or the design). You can evaluate the solution through objective (e.g. is the solution faster than the status quo) and subjective (e.g. do users prefer this solution) measures. Note that a negative result (i.e. the solution does not improve the user experience) is a valid finding. In this case, discuss possible reasons.

Deliverables

Report

The report (5 pages maximum) should include the following content

Presentation of the scientific question addressed by your study,
rapid overview of the related work,
presentation of your solution,
presentation of your results,
a general discussion and conclusion about your project.

Presentation

Presentation (12 minutes, same outline as the report) + Questions (5 minutes)

Please . Include your group number when booking the presentation time. Please coordinate with your partners and only book one presentation slot per group. Make sure to arrive ahead of your scheduled presentation start with your presentation materials ready - the projector has an HDMI connection, should you require anything else please make sure to let us know well in advance. As your presentations are back-to-back please do NOT enter the room unless the door is open (and the previous group is finished).

Example projects

Example projects from 2024-2026

Further examples can be found from previous years' Human in the Loop and AR VR courses Schedule/Class notes