First Week of School is Complete

I just finished my first week of school. As I arrived early on Monday to locate my class at DePaul Central, get my ID and CTA pass, and get acclimated, I found out the computer systems used in creating IDs was down. Which meant I couldn't get my CTA pass (no ID and no school ID number = no CTA pass). This was after spending about 35 minutes in the winding line, waiting for my bus pass. Disappointed, but not a big deal. I decided to come back the next day once the system was back up. When I did return, the process of getting my ID was about 10 minutes, including standing in line. Then I went downstairs and the line for the CTA passes was about 15 people long - quite a difference from the previous day.

At 5:30, I took the elevator up to my class for HCI 440 (Usability Engineering), a graduate level class in my major. David Burns was the instructor and there were about 20 students in class and more online. Class ran right on time from 5:45 until 9:00 exactly. The breaks were exactly on time. I appreciated the way David stayed on schedule. His teaching style seemed to run at the perfect speed for me, at least for this first class. There will be more reading than I anticipated, but I realize that it will lay the foundation for the rest of my time at DePaul, as well as my career. Looking at the syllabus, I am really looking forward to working in a small group with others, many of which will be on the same path as myself. I am pretty sure that I am the oldest in class, but some students will have more HCI experience than myself.One assignment is to find a person who works at a company that embraces HCI principals and interview them. I hope to learn more about the industry, as well as the type of environment, hours, teams that can be expected in such companies. My first assignment is to analyze the design of my alarm clock from a usability perspective. I am concerned that I may spend too much time or not enough. I want to find a happy medium so that I am not overwhelmed later as the material becomes more advanced.

Next - Class #2: Statistics (not looking forward to it) ... stay tuned