Unpack the Curriculum

Understand the Australian Curriculum: Digital Technologies

Australian Digital Technologies Curriculum:

Human–Computer Interactions

How users experience and interface with digital systems.
Human–Computer Interactions
F-2 Unpack > 3-4 Unpack > 5-6 Unpack > 7-8 Unpack > 9-10 Unpack >
The content descriptions do not explicitly address Human–Computer Interactions in band F-2. The content descriptions do not explicitly address Human–Computer Interactions in band 3-4.

5-6

Design a user interface for a digital system (ACTDIP018)

7-8

Design the user experience of a digital system, generating, evaluating and communicating alternative designs (ACTDIP028)

9-10

Design the user experience of a digital system by evaluating alternative designs against criteria including functionality, accessibility, usability, and aesthetics (ACTDIP039)
User experience

User experience goes beyond user interfaces to encompass a user's perceptions and responses when interacting with a digital system.

F-2

The content descriptions do not explicitly address User experience in band F-2.

3-4

The content descriptions do not explicitly address User experience in band 3-4.

5-6

User Interfaces

Characteristics and elements of the digital system that determine how the user interacts with it. Includes things like buttons and prompts for text entry.

Students can demonstrate their thinking and understanding of how interactions could take place without the complexity of programming or application use that may be beyond their experience at this stage. The focus should be on how the interfaces they design facilitate interaction, and their ability to communicate the reasons behind their design decisions.

7-8

User Interfaces

Characteristics and elements of the digital system that determine how the user interacts with it. Includes things like buttons and prompts for text entry.

Students can demonstrate their thinking and understanding of how interactions could take place without the complexity of programming or application use that may be beyond their experience at this stage. The focus should be on how the interfaces they design facilitate interaction, and their ability to communicate the reasons behind their design decisions.

User Experience

Encompasses all details of how a user interacts with the system, not just the physical or on-screen elements. Considers the practical aspects such as ease of use, as well as emotive aspects such as how enjoyable it is to use.

Students can incorporate functional and aesthetic requirements, factors such as the expertise and background of users, accessibility and usability requirements into the overall impact use of the solution has on the enjoyment of the user and experience of the solution.

9-10

User Interfaces

Characteristics and elements of the digital system that determine how the user interacts with it. Includes things like buttons and prompts for text entry.

Students can design engaging user experiences, considering aesthetics, functionality and the feeling of enjoyment and satisfaction of the user. Students do this through more rigorous user testing by interviewing stakeholders specifically about their experiences and using that to inform changes and improvements to the UX design.

User Experience

Encompasses all details of how a user interacts with the system, not just the physical or on-screen elements. Considers the practical aspects such as ease of use, as well as emotive aspects such as how enjoyable it is to use.

Students can design engaging user experiences, considering aesthetics, functionality and the feeling of enjoyment and satisfaction of the user. Students do this through more rigorous user testing by interviewing stakeholders specifically about their experiences and using that to inform changes and improvements to the UX design.
Evaluate designs

Evaluate designs describes the considerations and design decisions we make when designing digital systems.

F-2

The content descriptions do not explicitly address Evaluate designs in band F-2.

3-4

The content descriptions do not explicitly address Evaluate designs in band 3-4.

5-6

The content descriptions do not explicitly address Evaluate designs in band 5-6.

7-8

Generating designs

Developing multiple prototypes or models that express either a range of design ideas, or alternative approaches to a single problem.

Students can generate a range of possible designs that may favour particular functions, features or use cases.

Evaluating designs

Comparing and contrasting different approaches or solutions to a problem in a systematic way to determine the advantages and disadvantages of each approach.

Students can analyse multiple designs to gain insight into the most important features of the user experience. This allows for an iterative and more thorough approach to development of the chosen solution which may borrow elements from all proposals.

9-10

Evaluating designs

Comparing and contrasting different approaches or solutions to a problem in a systematic way to determine the advantages and disadvantages of each approach.

Students can critique the efficacy of solutions using the information gathered from users against the requirements and criteria they have established as a measure of success. The evaluation of the suitability and effectiveness of a design includes direct comparisons between alternatives as well as against objective criteria.

Evaluation criteria

A set of explicit, measurable and observable benchmarks that can be used to determine the success of a solution against a set of requirements.

Students can engage in a more formalised process to establish the objective criteria they will use to determine the suitability of a design. This involves setting measurable indicators against the functional requirements as specified in the problem definition, accessibility and usability factors specifically identified as important to the target user group, and aesthetic elements that incorporate social and audience expectations.