Coding isn’t all there is to computer science/software development

So our prof decided to give us feedback on every group’s work for a project we just finished, and roughly speaking, there were three categories: 1. Most inventive, particularly loved this 2. Well thought out, good implementation 3. Ok, good work

Our project was in group “At least you tried”

((((((:

This is for an HCI (human computer interaction) course, the only reason I’m doing this degree at all is because I want to go into HCI and the ONE course I get on that subject in my entire degree, the best we could do is “at least you tried” I want to punch a wall.

The thing is, I knew it was going to be this way? She’d specifically said, try not to do an app because it’s all been done (and I agree). But the thing is, to use like an e-textile/microcontroller circuitboard or anything you can’t just download and upload to a shared folder, you need to be in proximity to each other. During a pandemic? Nuh-uh! We were not only some thousand kilometres away, we also had massive time differences! We weren’t working together, we were a unit dividing up work to do individually.

Second very specific problem, and I’m about to get bitter here so turn away if you’d like but it’s something I see so often in computer science it drives me wild. People will act like coding and software development are the end of the world. They’ll prioritise it so much that anything that’s not building a Java applet is somehow less and pointless. Someone told me they were disappointed that this semester had fewer coding-based projects. Others in our class have been moaning around going “why is an HCI course compulsory for a software major?? ugh, useless course”, well maybe guys, because changing interfaces have ALWAYS been a part of computer science? Just because apps have been around for ten-ish years since Apple’s iPhone sparked off the mobile phone/development trend doesn’t mean it isn’t going to evolve. Just because it’s all you’ve seen growing up doesn’t mean it’s the only thing out there. It doesn’t mean the app format is the end-all and be-all of the computing world.

It’s been done. To death! Also, even for a mobile app (code word for software major porn me thinks, come on now), if your app is badly laid out and confusing to use, no one will use it. Heck, even if it’s useful, something as small and stupid as “I wish I could have a dark background” is enough to make someone not want to use your app; people are stuck up and stupid like that. So maybe shove your disdain for how she literally HAD to teach you psychology and design principles up your arse, love? If we’d have been so stuck up about what constitutes computer science and what doesn’t, you wouldn’t have a mouse today. Enjoy your ASCII-everything because psychology had a big hand in people understanding how to use a mouse in the first place; coming from a purely software outlook, you’d have thought it couldn’t be done and no one would understand it. Heck, we’d be programming punch cards still, now that’s pure computer science isn’t it.

My point is, I could swear some people had only refrained from dropping out of this course so that they could write some code and show up some usable code to put on their resume with a github link, and I know I’m not talking very nice here, but it’s how I saw it. Yes, our group did an app as well. I genuinely wish we’d done something more involvedly HCI, and uurghh it makes me sad because that’s all the HCI experience I’m gonna get from my entire university career. And it’s done. Over. Blown it. 

I just wish people would stop slagging it off, it’s the most interesting field of computer science. It’s the most relevant in a sense, because you’re going to have to use it anywhere you ever think of a computer. Whether you’ve formally studied it or not, you have used some principle of human computer interaction. If you’ve ever used and understood a feature of anything remotely resembling a computer, you’ve employed HCI yourself.  Used an ATM? HCI! Done up an Excel sheet? HCI! (and a braver person than I… I’ve written a python program once to draw up graphs from data I had because I was too intimidated by Excel). Are you reading this text post on a glass/plastic screen, and have understood that the characters off the screen are meant to be read in plain language the same way you’d read off a paper on a pamphlet or a book? H.C.I.! See? It’s everywhere! 

Anyway, that’s it. It’s just disappointment at a wasted semester and a wasted degree. I wish I knew more about HCI. I really wish I did.

Holy shit, she gave our group a 95!? I guess we actually showed her that we learned something from this course!