Thesis

General Information

Writing and defending your thesis is last step in your current study. It might be the most important puzzle of your future career. Hence, you should really think about it and find an appropriate topic, which you will get passionate about.

How to write a thesis at the Human-Computer Interaction group

Are you interested in writing your bachelor’s or master’s thesis at the HCI group? On this page, you will find the most important information on how to get in contact with us and how to start your thesis. This website provides you with some information about how the process of writing a thesis at the Human-Computer Interaction group works. Additionally, you can find official information on the website of the Academic Office.

When to start

• Start thinking about your bachelor’s and master’s thesis when you are about halfway through your studies. If you are interested in writing your thesis in the HCI group, attend some lectures we offer (Interaction Design, Usability Engineering & User Experience Design, Bachelor Project, Bachelor Practical Course).
• Please attend at least 2–3 courses, especially the project or practical course, to gain enough knowledge about our research field and the technologies we use.
• Usually, you can start working on your thesis during your final year, although an earlier start would also be possible.

How to find a topic

• On our website, we offer open topics. Before accessing the open topics, please complete a quick test to check if these topics are appropriate to you based on your skills and knowledge.
• Even if you do not find a suitable topic on the website, you can take a look at our group members' websites. Here, you will find information about each person's research interest.
• Otherwise, you can come up with your own topic idea. Especially courses like the Bachelor Project could give you an idea about what we are researching, and some ideas about possible topics.

How to find a supervisor and reviewers

• Usually, one of our group members will supervise your thesis. With your supervisor you will stay in contact during your thesis to discuss your progress regularly.
• Additionally, you have to find two reviewers who will review and grade your thesis. Usually, Prof. Dr. Steinicke would be the first reviewer and your supervisor would be the second one.
• If you want to work on a topic provided on the website, contact the responsible person listed there.
• Otherwise, try to find one of our group members, whose research area you think fits your topic idea. You can get to know our research areas by attending our courses or by checking our websites.
• Write an email to one of the group members. Please do not contact everyone at once. If the person you contacted thinks that another person would fit better, they will handle it and forward your request accordingly.
• In the initial mail, please include some key information
  • Your study program / degree
  • Relevant courses you have taken, your relevant skills (programming, AR/VR experience, …), work experience, statistics…
  • Your topic idea
• Ask if your topic would fit and if the person would be available to supervise your thesis.

How to start writing a thesis

• Once you and your supervisor have agreed on a topic, it is time to familiarize yourself with the topic. Start reading literature and find a narrower research topic. Discuss this with your supervisor.
• Do a literature search. Read relevant literature in detail, identify the aspects you want to focus on, and understand possible research methods and study designs.
• Plan your research questions, hypotheses, motivation, study design, and possible measures. Discuss it with your supervisor.
• After the agreement on your topic with your supervisor, schedule a meeting in the office hours of Prof. Dr. Steinicke with your supervisor. Come prepared to that meeting to explain your research focus in max. 5 minutes.
• Discuss the registration of your thesis with your supervisor.

How to actually write the thesis

• For writing the thesis, we strongly recommend using LaTeX. You can find a template at the bottom of this page.
• The thesis can be written either in english or in german.
• Typical thesis includes introduction, related work, implementation, user study (including hypotheses, methods, results and discussion), limitations and conclusion sections. However, this might be subject to your thesis topic.

How to develop an application and run a study

• Most likely, you will develop an application using the Unity engine (for some topics also other technologies and software might be useful).
• In our field, we are interested in understanding how humans interact with digital systems and how systems can be designed to meet the users’ needs. Therefore, during your thesis, you will most likely run a user study to collect data.
• You will use git for version control. This way, you always have your work backed up and can easily share it between devices. Please remember that lab computers are not a permanent place to store your data. If you do not back up your data or your project from these computers online (git or a cloud service), it might get deleted. Also, do not store backups on these computers themselves - they will definitely be deleted.
• Before you run your study, please test your implementation first yourself and then with people from your close circle. Afterward, present your final implementation to your supervisor to receive feedback.
• Studies have to be prepared carefully. Ask your supervisor to get necessary information about ethics, consent forms, how to invite participants, which room to book and more.
• Correctly saving data during studies is crucial. Record mock data or pilot your study to verify that your data acquisition works as expected.
• Plan your data analysis before running the study. Run the analysis on your mock or pilot data to verify the data acquisition.
• Finalize the preparation of your study material and present it to your supervisor for final approval.
• Run your study.
• Perform the analysis and report your results in the written thesis.

How to finish your thesis

• For information on how to submit your thesis, please read the Academic Office’s website.
• Besides submitting the written thesis, you will be required to defend your thesis in a colloquium. Here, you will present your work and answer questions from the audience (especially your supervisor and reviewers).
• For a Bachelor’s thesis, your presentation should last 15 minutes; for a Master’s thesis, it should last 20 minutes. The presentation will be followed by around 5 minutes for questions and discussion.
• The colloquium can take place shortly before or after the submission of your thesis. Approach your supervisor in time to arrange a date.

Helpful Links

Open Topics

We have a variety of interesting topics in the area of human-computer interaction. However, you need certain qualifications and abilities, which you should have learned in some of our courses.  If you do not have these skills, our open thesis topics will not be appropriate for you, but will rather frustrate you, and therefore we will not recommend to write your thesis in our group.

We prepared a short test, in which you can check your knowledge. After successful completion, you will be forwarded to our open topics.

Quick Test

To see the available topics directly, just click here:

Open Topics

Documents

Example LaTeX template

Completed Thesis