IRLS 575 Outline.

Last altered 5/23/01 This is under revision

 

The course is conceived of as discussions on 15 (or so) topics. A lecture course in the University of Arizona amounts to 37 1/2 hours of instruction spread through a semester. Our 'discussions' will be the virtual counterpart of 15 (or so) two and a half hour lectures, delivered at a rate of one a week. There will be notes, readings, discussion groups, and, possibly, conferencing (or online chat).

General

 

If we were to use a set text, it would be

  • Preece, Jenny et. al. [1994], Human-Computer Interaction, Reading, Mass. : Addison-Wesley Pub. Co.

because Preece gives you a fair bit of the 'why' (behind the 'what' and the 'how'). However, it is getting a bit old for what we want to do in this course. So, perhaps we can just mention it, and let you decide whether you wish to purchase.

You should read

  • Landauer, T. K. [1995], The Trouble with Computers. Cambridge, Ma.: The MIT Press.

Also very good are any of the writings of Donald Norman, for example

  • Norman, Donald [1988], The Psychology of Everyday Things
  • Norman, Donald [1992], Turn Signals are the Facial Expressions of Automobiles [Not so important for us]
  • Norman, Donald [1993], Things That Make Us Smart
  • Norman, Donald [1994], Defending Human Attributes in the Age of the Machine
  • Norman, Donald [1997], 'Symbiosis', Computerworld, 31(4), 87-8

The first four of these are available on a single Voyager-CD (which is certainly available for the Macintosh platform, I am unsure of its status for other operating systems).

Another leading figure is Jakob Nielsen (who is now in a consulting partnership with Norman) You might want to check Alertbox and readings emanating from it.

  • Jakob Nielsen. Designing Web Usability : The Practice of Simplicity

Another useful book is

Shneiderman, Ben. [1997], Designing the User Interface: Strategies for Effective Human-Computer Interaction, Reading, Mass. : Addison-Wesley Pub. Co. (ISBN: ?).

The text contains extensive bibliographies and lists of information resources.

There is now a very useful Website devoted to this. Designing the User Interface

And we will make extensive use of electronic sources (which will be recommended piecemeal, when needed). A start (and a finish) is

The HCI Bibliography: Human-Computer Interaction Publications and Resources

Also good for consulting is

Helander, Martin ed. (1988), Handbook of Human-Computer Interaction

ACM Curricula forHuman-Computer Interaction

And you should not miss

Bad Human Factors Designs (but not updated for a while)

Apparently many of the readings are available from EBSCO Host.

 

Readings in Human-Computer Interaction :

Toward the Year 2000

by Ronald M. Baecker (Editor), William Buxton,

Jonathan Grudin, Saul Greenberg ($70) ISBN

1558602461, 1995

 

Practical Information Architecture: A

Hands-On Approach to Structuring

Successful Websites

by Eric L. Reiss

The Topics

1: What is HCI?

 

Designing computer systems to support people safely and productively (some see this as making more money). Nowadays everyone is a User, not just experts. Should be designed to meet the needs and capabilities of those for whom they are intended.

HCI design, evaluation, and implementation of interactive computer systems and study of major phenomena surrounding their use.

New challenges-- keeping up with the technology, putting it to good use

What is it that makes easy to use systems easy to use? Why is a car so good and a video recorder so bad?
Readings

 

Have a look at The HCI Bibliography: Human-Computer Interaction Publications and Resources and follow through the Definition and Field of HCI

Preece [1994] Chapter 1 or Shneiderman[1992 or 7?] Chapter 1.

Some of

  • Gibbs, W.Wayt [1997], Taking computers to task. Scientific American, July, 81-89. [Online] Available http://www.sciam.com/0797issue/0797trends.html, Dec. 6, 1997.
  • September 95 Byte on Software Bugs (although most of these are not HCI errors).
  • Lee, Leonard [1992], The Day the Phones Stopped
  • Licklider, J. C. R. [1960]. 'Man-Computer Symbiosis.' IRE Transactions on Human Factors in Electronics, HFE-1(1), 4-11. This is a piece of history, but it is truly inspired.
  • Muller, Michael J. and Wharton, Cathleen [1997] HCI Research and Practice Agenda Based on Human Needs and Social Responsibility http://www.acm.org/sigchi/chi97/proceedings/paper/mm1.htm
  • anything written on the Three Mile Island or the Vincennes incidents eg Meltdown at Three Mile Island
  • Shackel, B. (1997). Human-Computer Interaction-- Whence and Whither. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 48(11), 970-986.

2: Cognitive Psychology and HCI

 

Cognition involves perception, memory, attention, learning and reasoning. HCI needs to take account of the views and theories covering these cognitive processes in order to exploit our cognitive strengths and avoid our weaknesses.
Readings

 

Preece [1994] Chapters 3-7.

I use Robert A. Wilson and Frank C. Keil (eds.) [1999], MIT Encyclopaedia of the Cognitive Sciences but there is no need for you to unless you are following something up.

Some of

  • Anderson J.R. [1990], Cognitive Psychology and its Implications
  • Gardner, Howard [1987], The Mind's New Science. A History of the Cognitive Revolution
  • Matlin, Margaret W. (1994). Cognition, 3rd ed. New York: Harcourt Brace Publishers.
  • Johnson, Peter.  Human-Computer Interaction: Psychology, Task Analysis and Software Engineering.  London:   McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1992.
  • Norman, Donald. [1980]. "Twelve Issues for Cognitive Science." Cognitive Science, 4 (pp. 1-32).  
  • Norman, Donald [1997], 'Symbiosis', Computerworld, 31(4), 87-8
  • Norman, Donald [1997], Melding Mind and Machine. Technology Review, April, 100(3), 29
  • Norman, Kent L. (1990). The Psychology of Menu Selection:Designing Cognitive Control at the Human/Computer Interface.Ablex Corporation: Norwood, NJ, p. 3. (http://www.lap.umd.edu/LAPFolder/POMS/Chapter1/chap1.html)
  • Taylor, Gordon Rattray.[1979]. The Natural History of the Mind. Penguin Books:New York
  • Tufte, E. R. (1983). The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. [mainly for items other than cognitive psychology.]
  • Tufte, E.R. [1990], Envisioning Information [mainly for items other than cognitive psychology.]
  • Tufte, E. R. (1997), Visual Explanations. [mainly for items other than cognitive psychology.]

3: Social and Organizational Psychology and HCI

 

For a large part, computers are used in a social setting, for example the workplace, so designers would be wise to pay some attention to social context. Also for computers that are used within organizations there are organizational issues such as the impact of automation on work practices. Finally, groupware-- which allow a number of people cooperate to a common end using computers-- is an important and developing area.
Readings

 

Preece [1994] Chapters 8-10.

  • Baeker R.M. [1993], Readings in Groupware and Computer Supported Cooperative Work
  • Donald Norman [1993], Things That Make Us Smart
  • Donald Norman [1992], Turn Signals are the Facial Expressions of Automobiles [Not so important for us]
  • Greenberg S. (ed.) (1990), Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Groupware
  • Donald Norman [1988], The Psychology of Everyday Things

4: Input and Output Devices, and Interaction Styles

 

The User and the computer need to communicate with each other. Quite what devices are best for this depends on a) the user (eg elderly hampered by arthritis, children cannot do fine manipulations, Users with disabilities), b) the task (eg drawing, which is continuous, is different from typing or selecting from a menu, which is discrete), and c) the environment (eg speech no good where it is noisy).

Many possibilities for input: keyboards, mice, trackballs, joysticks, cursor keys, touchscreens, 3-d trackers. datagloves, pens, speech, tablets...

Many possibilities for output: screens, GUI, laptop palmtop, hypermedia (animations, sound). Virtual reality, 3 dimensional, speech and sound output, touch (eg braille). experimental, sound.

Some time ago the interactions between a user and a computer were like a conversational dialog: input text was typed in then output text was displayed then input text typed in etc. (in turns). Now, with GUI computers and the like, the interactions are much richer (and they don't have the my-turn-your-turn sequencing).
Readings

 

Preece [1994] Chapters 11-13.

5: Direct Manipulation Interfaces

 

Users usually have knowledge of the target task domain-- be it desktop publishing, wordprocessing, or financial planning-- and perhaps some knowledge of computers and computer tasks. Direct manipulation interfaces aim to make the computer invisible to the User so that no knowledge of computer concepts or tasks is required and thus that the User's knowledge of the target domain is available of full without any obfuscating intermediaries.
Readings

 

Preece [1994] Chapter 13.

  • Shneiderman [1992] Chapter 5. (he first classified these)
  • Hutchins, E.L., Hollan J.D. and Norman D. [1986], Direct Manipulation Interfaces, on the Voyager CD and in Norman and Draper's book on User-Centred System Design.
  • Winograd, T. & Flores, F. (1987). Understanding Computers and Cognition. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
  • Morgan. K., Morris, R. L., and Gibbs, S. [1991] When does a mouse become a rat? or... Comparing performance and preferences in direct manipulation and command line environment, The Computer Journal 34(3), 265-271
  • Nelson, Ted, Interactive systems and the design of virtuality, Creative Computing 6, 11, (November 1980), 56ff., and 12 (December 1980), 94ff.
  • Hodgson, J. (1995). Direct Manipulation. [http://www.sju.edu/~jhodgson/gui/manip.html].

6: Menus and Windows

 

Screen size of display is finite and limited and almost always too small for what you want.The solution: windows, which are several virtual displays which can each individually be bigger than the screen, and collectively much bigger than the screen.
Readings

 

Preece [1994] Chapter 14.

7: Help Systems and Training

 

Users need to be able to learn how to use the system, there should be help available, and the system should be designed to accommodate error (assuming that the User is going to make lots of them).
Readings

 

Preece [1994] Chapter 14.

  • Clayton Lewis and Donald A. Norman [1986] 'Designing for Error', User Centered System Design, Lawrence Erlbaum and Associates. (or in the Essays on the Voyager CD)
  • Donald Norman [1988], The Psychology of Everyday Things
  • There is a fair amount of interesting material concerning Apple's Guide System-- Try Powers, J. (1994). Giving Users Help With Apple Guide. develop, 18, 6-21.

8: Group Work and Virtual Environments

 

With groupwork (or computer supported collaborative work CSCW), there are two properties to consider : asynchronous vs. synchronous, and local vs. remote. Then examples of the possibilities are:- synchronous-local: computer assisted meetings or decision making; synchronous-remote: telephone and teleconference (voice, video, personal work surface, shared work surface, status etc.); asynchronous-local (same as asynchronous-remote): ordinary mail, email, listservs, threaded newsgroups or discussion groups, bulletin boards etc.
Readings

 

Preece [1994] Chapter 16.

  • Baecker, R. M., Grudin, J., Buxton, W. A. S., & Greenberg, S. (1995). Readings in human-computer interaction: Toward the year 2000. San Francisco: Morgan Kaufman. Especially Chapter 11
  • Grudin, J. [1988]. Why groupware applications fail: Problems in design and evaluation. Office: Technology and People, 4(3), 245-264.
  • Grudin, J. [1994]. Groupware and social dynamics: Eight challenges for developers. Communications of the ACM, 37(1), 92-105. Also in Baecker et al.

9: Software Engineering

 

The problem of software engineering is to obtain high quality software within known resource constraints (time, money, equipment, effort). Ideas of what 'high quality' amounts to have changed. Some time ago it meant meeting the specification, and a specification was largely a statement of engineering requirements. A well-known technique here was the 'waterfall model' in which if the Users featured at all, they came in once only and early in the piece before the User requirements were really known. Nowadays most specifications would included the need to be User friendly. And this has led to User-centred design in which Users feature early and often in the design process.
Readings

 

Preece[1994] Chapters 17 and19

Otherwise, there are lots, take your choice, but typical are:

  • Macro, Allen, and Buxton J. N. [1987], The craft of software engineering.
  • Cooper, Alan, "Three Models of Computer Software", Technical Communication, August 1996, v 43, n.3.

10: User-centred Design

 

Producers of software-- designers, programmers, etc.-- have little or no idea how useful and usable the User will find their products. Couple this with the fact that late changes in software projects are expensive, and the conclusion is: consult the User.

Involve the Users early and often, and iterate. Some suggestions have been made as to how to involve the Users a) Soft Systems Methodology, b) cooperative design, c) multiview, and d) an HCI design approach.
Readings

 

Preece[1994] Chapters 17 and 18

  • Ameritech. Ameritech Graphical User Interface Standards and Design Guidelines: User-Centered Design. Online. 28 Nov. 1997. http://www.ameritech.com:1080/news/testtown/library/standard/guix2.html
  • Anderson, Richard I. Overcoming Obstacles to User-Centered Design. Online. 28 Nov. 1997. http://www.well.com/user/riander/obstacles.html
  • Cooperstock, Jeremy R., Sidney S. Fels, William Buxton, and Kenneth C. Smith [1997]. 'Reactive Environments: Throwing away your keyboard and mouse.' Communications of the ACM. 40(9), 65-73.
  • Landauer, T. K. [1995]. The Trouble with Computers. Cambridge, Ma.: The MIT Press. Chapters 9-14
  • Peter Checkland [1981], Systems Thinking, Systems Practice
  • Eason K.D.[1988], Information Technology and Organizational Change
  • Avison D. and Wood-Harper T., [1990], Multiview Methodology.
  • Hix D. Hartston H.R., [1993], Developing User Interfaces: Ensuring Usability Through Process and Product
  • Kawasaki, Guy, "The Beauty of Metaphor", Forbes, August 25, 1997.
  • Wilson, David L., "Scientist Uses Many Disciplines to Improve Computer Interfaces", The Chronicle of Higher Education, October 13, 1995.
  • Dervin, Brenda [1995] "The Relationship of User Centered Evaluation to Design: Addressing Issues of Productivity and Power," http://edfu.lis.uiuc.edu/allerton/95/s5/dervin.html
  • Dillon, Andrew. Artifacts as Theories: Convergence through User-Centered Design (http://www-slis.lib.indiana.edu/HCILab/adillon-artifacts.html)

11: Task Analysis and Task Centered User Interface Design

 

We standardly classify the human factors considerations into Users, technology, tasks, and environment. Task analysis deals with the third of these. Task analysis might do two things a) lay bare the 'logic' of a task (establishing what needs to be done to succeed with activity-- constraints, pre-requisites, efficiencies, etc.) and b) look at the cognition of a task (how people conceive of what they do).
Readings

 

  • Preece Chapters 20 and 21
  • http://www.acm.org/~perlman/uidesign.html This link is a scripted web page for accessing individual sections of a shareware ftp-able textbook on Task Centered User Interface Design

12: More on design, including prototyping

 

There are formal or semi-formal approach to design-- both for analysis of system (and evaluation of need) and design. Places design within a framework. The problem with structured design does not help you with that spark of creativity needed to produce good designs. Some suggestions have been made on this. Additionally, design can be guided by principles or rules of thumb and needs to the guided by standards. There are a variety of techniques for prototyping.
Readings

 

13: Individuals and their Differences

 

We are all different. But there are certain predictors relating to human task performance on computers. And if a designer is aware of the target Users, some accommodations can be made. There are also issues involving children and Users with disabilities.
Readings<need more>

 

  • Martin Helander (ed.), [1988], Handbook of Human-Computer Interaction, see Section III

14: Evaluation

 

Evaluation or testing is vital during the design and for ensuring that the end product performs as it should. There are many and varied techniques for testing.
Readings<need more>

 

Preece [1994] Part VI.

15: Hypertext and Hypermedia

 

Explanation of hypertext. History.Why do hypertext? Basic Elements of Hypertext .The Architecture of Hypertext Systems. Current Systems. Internet Systems With Hypertext or Hypermedia. Applications of Hypertext. Navigating Large Information Spaces. Multimedia. Usability and Intelligent Hypertext
Readings

 

Some of

  • Bush, Vannevar. [1945]. 'As we may think' Or 'As we may think'. in Kochen Manfred. The Growth of Knowledge: Readings on Organization and Retrieval of Information. New York, NY: Wiley (Reprinted from the Atlantic Monthly, 176(1), July 1945, pp. 101-108); 1967:209-15.
  • Baecker, R. M., Grudin, J., Buxton, W. A. S., & Greenberg, S. (1995). Readings in human-computer interaction: Toward the year 2000. San Francisco: Morgan Kaufman. Especially Chapter 13
  • McKnight, C., Dillon, A., & Richardson, J. [1991]. Hypertext in context. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
  • McKnight, C., Dillon, A., & Richardson, J. (Eds.). [1993]. Hypertext-- A psychological perspective. Chichester, UK: Horwood.
  • McAleese, Ray; ed. [1989]. Hypertext: Theory into practice. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Corporation.
  • McAleese, Ray; and Green, Catherine; eds. [1990]. Hypertext: State of the art. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Corporation.
  • Nielsen, Jakob. [1990]. Hypertext and Hypermedia. Boston: Academic Press, Inc.
  • Rada, Roy. [1991]. Hypertext: From text to expertext. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company.
  • Ventura C.A. [1988], 'Why switch from paper to electronic manuals?', Proc. ACM Conf. Document Processing Systems (Santa Fe, NM, 5-9 Dec 1988), pp.111-116

16: Web Technologies and their interfaces

 

  • pages and page editors
  • HTML XML
  • stylesheets
  • Dynamic HTML
  • sites and site editors
  • CGI and scripts
  • server side includes
  • push technologies
  • sound, video, and animation
  • Java, ActiveX, and componentware
Readings<need more>

 

17: Web Site Design

 

Philosophy. Interface Design. Site Design. Page Design. Web Graphics. Web Multimedia and Animation. The law.
Readings

 

18: Information Design

Readings

 

  • Senechal, Ann, 'It's all in the Process', Adobe Magazine, 8(4), 1997, pp.34-40

19. Information Architecture

 

check Jakob Nielsen's Usability Engineering

http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/members/bshneiderman/umlpapers/articles.html