Increasingly, the design of computer software calls for an understanding of the social and cultural contexts of end-users (see BusinessWeek, NewYorkTimes, Intel, Xerox, Steelcase, on this emerging trend in corporations).  This raises questions.

How do we understand the social and cultural needs of our users?

How do we turn what we understand into system requirements that can help us to build applications that people find usable (easy to operate) and useful (meaningful)?

This course is to help you answer those questions by learning about empirical methods that will help you to identify important social and cultural goals of end-users, and then turn those goals into systems requirements.  Also, you will learn about empirical methods that can help you evaluate whether a software system can be used by its intended audience.