CS 407 Software Interface Design

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CS 407Software Interface Design

• Human-Computer Interaction
• User Interface Design
• Restoring Sanity

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Agenda

• Introductions, Roll Call
• Motivation
• Course contents
• Administrative stuff

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Quiz

• Get paper and pencil ready
• In 30 seconds
• Draw a computer
• What did you draw?
• What does this tell you?

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Programmer vs. User

• Know thy user, for she is not thyself!
• Homo Logicus vs. Homo Sapiens
• Task-oriented vs. Goal-oriented
• Implementation model vs. Mental model
• Computer vs. Human

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Difficulty of HCI

• Harold Thimbleby
• Psychologists have enough trouble understanding
  people even when they are not using computers
• Computers scientists have enough trouble getting
  programs to work even when they are not being
  used by people.
• Blend these two perspectives?
• Partition and interface these two perspectives?

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User Friendly!?

• Define it

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User Friendly!?

• Measure it
• Time to learn
• Speed of performance
• Error rate
• Retention over time
• Subjective satisfaction
• others?

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User Friendly!!

• Design it!

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Course Topics

• Theories, models
• User diversity
• Goal-directed design
• Usage-centered design
• Task analysis
• Usability
• Interaction technologies
• Interaction design
• Managing the process

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Methods

• Projects
• Evaluation
• Construction
• Homework
• Discussion
• Exams
• Mid-term
• Final

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Logistics

• Course web site
• http//cs.ua.edu/407
• (currently under construction)
• Use the discussion forum!
• Me
• J. Scott Hawker
• 101K Houser Hall
• 348-1667
• hawker_at_cs.ua.edu
• Office hours Monday and Thursday, 10-11 am
• or appointment or drop-in
• Pre-requisites
• CS 325, CS 357, ECE 383
• Academic policy

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Texts, References

• Alan Cooper
• Powerful, fun
• Opinionated, but not always right
• Father of Visual Basic
• The Inmates are Running the Asylum
• Why high-tech products drive us crazy and how to
  restore the sanity
• About Face The essentials of user interface
  design
• Other references
• Ben Schneiderman, Designing the User Interface
• Larry Constantine and Lucy Lockwood, Software
  for Use
• ACM SIGCHI

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Administrative Stuff

• Announcements
• The FE Exam Registration Deadline is August 26.
• Forms must be in Montgomery by that date
• Forms and notarizations are available in 130 MIB.
• Students wanting to interview for full time jobs
  or internships should register for an orientation
  session with ECS before Labor Day
• Students already registered don't have to go
  through this process again
• But you must go in and renew your forms
• The orientation session will cover everything a
  student needs to know about how to use the ECS
  office and what services are offered

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• UPE/CS Dept/ACM present
• Welcome (back) to
• CS Party!
• Open to all CS majors
• Wednesday, August 28th, 500pm
• Presidential Pavilion
• Food, fun, etc.
• Come and meet other CS majors

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Homework

• Read Inmates chapters 1 and 2
• For Tuesday, August 27
• May be a reading quiz!

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Thank You!