Introduction to HCI

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Introduction to HCI

• Thursday, January 15th

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For today . . .

• Logistics
• A bad design
• Design of Everyday Thingschapters 1-3
• In-class design exercise
• Team Time

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Logistics

• Any new people here?
• Any problems with forming groups?
• Any left-over questions?

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A Bad Design
And we see it so often on the web.
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Design of Everyday Things

• The first three chapters

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Chapter 1. The Psychopathology of Everyday Things

• You would need an engineering degree to figure
  this out.

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The Frustration of Everyday Life

• Doors
• Slide projectors
• Telephones
• Overly complex appliances

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Principles of Design for Understandability and
Usability

• Provide a good conceptual model
• Make things visible
• The principle of mapping
• The principle of feedback

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Chapter 2. The Psychology of Everyday Actions

• Falsely blaming yourself
• Misconceptions of everyday life
• Blaming the wrong cause

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• Learned Helplessness
• vs
• Taught Helplessness

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The Seven Stages of Action

• Goals
• Form the goal
• Execution
• Form intention
• Specify action
• Execute action

• Evaluation
• Perceive the state of the world
• Interpret the state of the world
• Evaluate the outcome

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The Gulfs of Execution and Evaluation

• Gulf of Execution Difference between intentions
  and allowable actions
• Gulf of Evaluation A amount of effort needed to
  interpret the physical state of the system and to
  determine how well expectations and intentions
  have been met.

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Chapter 3. Knowledge in the Head and in the World

• Precise behavior can emerge from imprecise
  knowledge
• 1. Information is in the world.
• 2. Great precision is not required.
• 3. Natural constraints are present.
• 4. Cultural constraints are present.

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Memory is knowledge in the head

• Memory for arbitrary things
• Memory for meaningful relationships
• Memory through explanation

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Memory is also knowledge in the world

• Reminding
• Natural mappings

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In-class Design Exercise

• (First Part)

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A Better ATM

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Form into groups than can stay together for a few
classes(maybe people sitting at a table)

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We all know how to use them . . .

• . . . but could we design them to be easier to
  use?

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Were going to start with a blank machine

• No buttons
• No menus
• No options
• No particular shape

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Lets not start with the machine . . .

• . . . Lets start with the people.

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Decide on the audience for your ATM. (where
will it be located, who will be using it,
anything special about their use?)

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2. What tasks will people be doing? What tasks
will your ATM support?

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3. Are there any special needs that you will
support? Any that you will intentionally not
support?

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4. Are there any special environmental
considerations that you must account for?

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Lets see what we can come up with

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Team Time!

• Getting set of the semester-long project.
• A chance for organizing, planning, maybe even
  doing.

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Before you go . . .

• . . . Sign up for an Atomic Chef presentation pot.

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Go forth

• . . . and get set for the semester!
• See you next Thursday!