Courses Information

HCI/UX in Science-Fiction Movies and Television will summarize and analyze the past 100 years of human-computer interaction as incorporated into science-fiction cinema and videos, beginning with the advent of movies in the early 1900s (e.g., Melies' "A Trip to the Moon," which was recently referenced in the recent movie "Hugo").
For many decades movies have shown technology in advance of its commercialization (for example, video phones and wall-sized television displays, hand-gesture systems, and virtual reality displays). In some cases mistaken views about what is usable, useful, and appealing seem to be adopted, perhaps because of their cinematic benefits. In any case, these media have served as informal "test-beds" for new technologies of human-computer interaction and communication. They provide ample evidence for heuristic evaluations, ethnographic enalysis, market analysis, critique of personas and use scenarios, and new approaches to conceptual and visual design. The course will explore issues of what is "futuristic" and what is not, gender-role differences, optimism/pessimism, and user-centered design characteristics in more than two dozen films and a half-dozen television shows. Examples from China, India, and Japan will also be referenced. Participants will be informally quizzed about their recognition of the media examples shown and their analysis of contexts, technologies, business models, user communities, and designs. Discussion with participants throughout the presentation will be encouraged.

Aaron Marcus, Aaron Marcus and Associates

Mr. Marcus authored The Past 100 Years of the Future: HCI in Sci-Fi Movies and TV (2012), edited a User Experience issue on this topic (2013), and gave keynote lectures/tutorials on this topic since 2010. Since 1968, Mr. Marcus published 350 articles and 19 books, taught, and designed/consulted worldwide. He is Editor-in-Chief Emeritus of User Experience, Editor of Information Design Journal, and editorial board member of Visible Language and International Journal of HCI. He is Visiting Professor, IIT’s Institute of Design, Chicago; Master, De Tao Academy, Shanghai; and International Advisor, Dragon Design Foundation, Beijing.

Intended-Audience:
The course is for people who are new to the topic of science fiction but may have some user-experience design background. Even experts will learn new things. These professions will benefit: analysts, anthropologists, designers, ethnographers, evaluators, game developers, marketers, researchers, software developers, software engineers.