This is by far the worst course I have ever taken at UVA. It is very disappointing, as the actual topic is very interesting and should be very useful in real world scenarios.

However, Professor Apostolellis doesn't seem to display any particular level of care for the topic, nor does he seem to care for the students at all. He has a very strict "I am right, you are wrong" policy and is not open to discussion about any topic beyond what you agree with him on. He doesn't even seem to communicate well with the TAs, who frequently supplied information contradictory to what he would later say. His feedback on every assignment is not at all constructive, simply saying "this was wrong" in as many different ways as he could without explaining what specifically is wrong, what the correct answer is, or why the correct answer is correct. His rubrics are always incredibly vague, to the point that I'd say many of them are intentionally misleading. The textbook is also completely useless, which he cites numerous times as having the "correct information" despite often contradicting it in his own lectures. Even if he didn't contradict it, though, it's a very poor educational tool. It amounts to telling you "this is this, because it is." In hindsight, perhaps that's fitting for a textbook assigned by Apostolellis.

The only thing this class is good for is wasting paper. I highly recommend you seek out another elective.

Pretty much all of the reviews I've seen below for Apostolellis still hold true in Spring 2022. He grades incredibly harshly on every assignment, taking off points for requirements that were never given beforehand, and nitpicking every single aspect of a submission. My team spent 10+ hours per week per person on the final project. He tells you he won't grade based on attendance to the "optional" TA office hours but does everything he can to get people to go to them, grading extra harshly for those who don't attend. This class is a three-credit class that he tries to make a four-credit class with two 75 minute lectures and a lab section. The amount of writing and drawing in this class is obscene for a CS class, and in week 10 out of 16, we have yet to write a single line of code. The textbook for this class is mind-numbingly boring and costs $68 through the UVA inclusive access, just to discuss basic UX ideas and processes that most people who've used more than three websites in their life could come up with. Multiple people warned me about this class and they were right. If you enjoy spending obscene amounts of time on busywork for an elective and then still getting points off for bs requirements you had no clue existed, I highly recommend this class. Otherwise, avoid it at all costs.

I was told this was an easy A and even though the reviews on here told me otherwise, I still took it. Do not make this mistake. There is a massive semester long project that took up at least 5 hours a week, plus a reading quiz every week, plus an In Class Assignment every week that always went longer than the class time, plus random other homework assignments. The rubrics are either not shared or very abstract and yet the grading is very hard and based on specific criteria. The material itself is interesting but the work you do will make you resent it. The Professor basically wants you to do a 40 hour workweek as if it is your only job (but he knows you are taking other classes), and it is graded extremely harshly. Even if you have a good group for the project, which I did, the class is still utterly terrible. Do not take this class unless you literally have no other options.

Aside from the anti-Semitic and sexist allegations, take these with a grain of salt. I feel these were over-exaggerated to reason poor performance in the course. The professor is a good guy and means well. The course has lots of busywork that may seem useless, the textbook is really boring, but is core foundation to understanding the field of UX. This is treated more of a process rather than meet these deadlines and do all the work at the last second. If you put forward the effort, you should be fine.

From what I have gathered, the class had a rough first two years, but it has significantly improved. It is a high workload, but manageable if given the due attention. The class did give me a useful insight into HCI and the professor has made a discernable effort to be more understanding and helpful in this class. He was responsive to all of my questions, and the TA's were helpful with any of my confusions. This is a high group work class, and from what I have heard, the only groups that failed were those that didn't communicate/were not able to meet up. My group had a member that contributed nothing whatsoever and we still managed to all get A's as a group. TLDR; this class in very involved, but not hard. It is much better than what the 2018/2019 reviews say.

I took this course during Session 1 Summer Session 2021. To be completely honest, I liked the course. Even though it was a lot of work, I think it was more like a "learning experience" instead of stressing out about assignments. I am highly interested in UI/UX design and I feel that this course exceeded my expectations. Overall, it was a rewarding experience and I am glad that I took it. The professor is SUPER nice and his research experience with UX design is super interesting. This course was a nice balance from all of the coding I had to do last semester and if you are interested in business or marketing, you may enjoy this course. The only thing I did not like is the reading. There were 10 quizzes in total and the readings were over 100 pages.

This review is for summer 2021 (it wasn't an option to input). It was a compressed, 3 week, class.
Okay, I have a fair number of comments.
I loved the material in this class. Honestly, I think that this should be a required class if you want to get a computer science degree. All the other classes I've taken have taught me how to code. That's important. This class taught me how to make products that people will actually use. That is equally if not more important. To use a construction metaphor, all the rest of the classes I've taken have taught me how to use tools (hammers, chop saws, steamrollers). This class taught me how to actually build a house. If you know how to use all the tools to build a house you might think you can build a house. You can't. You need to actually learn how to build a house. This class teaches you how to build a house.
Because I like this class so much there are many things I see in it that need improving. If I cared less about it then I wouldn't be as critical. Here are some of those critiques:
This class was too hard. I took this class in a compressed summer class so that might have contributed to the difficulty. The professor, at one point, said that he had to balance the difficulty of this class with how much we learn. I understand that balance. I have learned so much from this class. But I think the professor's metaphor was that if you increase the difficulty of a class then the students will just learn more. This is not the case. This class was so difficult that it decreased the amount I could learn from it. It decreases the amount I learn if I grind myself into the dirt through studying. This is what happened. So I think decreasing the difficulty would, in fact, increase the amount students learn.
The professor speaks in a very blunt manner. This could make his words feel like a personal attack when I don't think they are. He seems like an actually pretty nice dude.
The collab site layout is fairly unintuitive. It would often be difficult to find the material we were looking for as it could be in places we wouldn't think to look. It is a little bit frustrating that a class on human-computer interfaces would have such a poor interface.
Despite all my problems with this class, as I said, I think it's an amazing class. I believe it is essential for any computer scientist who wants to be more than a code monkey. Um, no disrespect to code monkeys. If you want to keep your head down, just write code, and have no say over what you're writing and why then totally don't take this class. Anyone who has higher aspirations than that, absolutely should. This class teaches you how to build products people will use and will want to use. This is an amazing class.

Worst course ever! DO NOT TAKE. I REPEAT DO NOT TAAAAKKKKEEEE!!!!

It's been a few months since I've been in this class. I'm sitting in my bedroom laughing about how terrible this class was. Like it was so bad. I had a good group which saved a lot of the experience but seriously do not take this class. Take peepee poopoo 1010 instead, seriously you will probably learn more.

Probably the worst class I have ever taken. Apart from the TA's being unclear and not knowing the material themselves, QUIZZES WERE 20% OF THE GRADE