CS 3750 Human Computer Interaction

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CS 3750Human Computer Interaction

• Jim Foley
• foley_at_cc.gatech.edu

This material has been developed by Georgia Tech
HCI faculty, and continues to evolve.
Contributors include Gregory Abowd, Jim Foley,
Elizabeth Mynatt, Jeff Pierce, Colin Potts, Chris
Shaw, John Stasko, and Bruce Walker. Comments
directed to foley_at_cc.gatech.edu are encouraged.
Permission is granted to use with acknowledgement
for non-profit purposes. Last revision May
2007.
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Agenda for Today

• Introductions
• Course Information
• A little about HCI
• Project Information
• Homework

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Introductions - Jim Foley

• Founded GVU Center _at_ GT in 1991
• Industry and consulting and education
• Research Interests
• HCI - now focused on technology in education
• Computer Graphics Information Visualization
• Office hours
• I can meet with you most days before or after
  class by prior email arrangement -
  foley_at_cc.gatech.edu

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Introductions Erika Shehan

• CS HCC PhD Student
• erika_at_cc.gatech.edu
• Hours arranged by email

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Books

• Interaction Design, Second Edition, by Preece,
  Rogers and Sharp. Wiley, 2007
• The Design of Everyday Things, by Donald Norman.
  Currency/Doubleday, 1990.

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Course Information

• Grading
• Mid-term 20
• Final exam 20
• Homework 20
• Group project (4 parts) 40
• 10 per part
• Attendance counts (lack of attendance hurts)!

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Policies

• No late homework accepted without documented
  personal issues (serious illness, family
  emergency, etc)
• Two unexcused class absences
• Individual HWs and LHWs done individually
• Group projects are the work of your group alone
• Good to talk to others for feedback and look at
  other systems for ideas group synthesizes an
  original design
• Georgia Tech Academic Integrity Policy

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Web Site

• Syllabus/dates/readings/lectures/assignment
• http//www-static.cc.gatech.edu/classes/AY2007/cs3
  750rba_summer/

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Course Aims

• Consciousness raising
• Make you aware of HCI issues
• Critique and evaluate UI designs
• Question bad HCI design - of existing or proposed
  UI
• Develop design skills
• Exploring design alternatives
• Learn Design Process
• Multiple steps involved in the design process

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Course Overview

• Requirements Gathering
• Human abilities
• Design
• Evaluation (without users)
• Evaluation (with users)
• Dialog interaction
• Special topics - such as
• CSCW, InfoVis, Ubicomp, 3D Interaction, Adaptive
  Interfaces

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Homework - Due after break

• (Not for summer 2007) Put up on the class Swiki
• A paragraph about yourself
• Something most people dont know about you
• Your picture if available, or a link to your home
  page if you have one
• One-paragraph description of a project idea

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And were off!

• What is Human Computer Interaction
• Can you define / describe it?

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HCI

• HCI is at the interface between a human and a
  computer performing a task
• Task - write document, calculate budget, solve
  equation, learn about Bosnia, drive home, ...
• Task might be work, play, learning,
  communicating, etc etc
• Essential user activities
• Express task (execution)
• Interpret results (evaluation)
• Not just on the desktop!
• How many computers in your family home?

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Why should we care?

• Computers (in one way or another) now affect
  every person in our society
• Increasing utilize computers at work and home
• Tonight - count how many in your home/apt/room
• Goal increase satisfaction, utility,
  efficiency, and safety
• Product success may depend on ease of use, not
  necessarily power
• But not always Macintosh OS vs. Microsoft
  Windows

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Goals of HCI

• Allow users to carry out tasks
• Safely (Three-mile Island, ATC)
• Effectively
• Efficiently
• Enjoyably
• Bottom line
• Lives or dollars or intangibles

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What is difference between

• User-friendly interfaces
• and
• Programmer-friendly interfaces?

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Famous Quotations

• It is easy to make things hard. It is hard to
  make things easy. (Al Chapanis, 1982)
• Learning to use a computer system is like
  learning to use a parachute if a person fails
  on the first try, odds are he wont try again.
  (anonymous)

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Key Historical Event

• Design of the first Mac 1983-1984
• The computer for the rest of us

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How Improve User Interfaces?

• Educate software professionals
• Do NOT wait til the end
• Good UI can not be pasted on top of
  poorly-designed functionality
• Integrate UI design methods, techniques and
  knowledge into standard software development
  methodologies

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UI Design / Develop Process

• User-Centered Design
• Analyze users goals tasks
• Create design alternatives
• Evaluate options
• Implement prototype
• Test
• Refine
• IMPLEMENT THE REAL SYSTEM
• Be prepared for further iterative refinement
• NOT waterfall development

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Know Thy Users!

• Physical cognitive abilities special needs
• Personality culture
• Knowledge skills
• Motivation
• Two Fatal Mistakes
• Assume all users are alike
• Assume all users are like you
• Please leave your ego at the door

You Are Here
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User Expectations (1)

• Some users expect the computer-based system to be
  just like the old system.

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User Expectations (2)

• Other users expect the system to work magic..

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Design Evaluation

• Both subjective and objective metrics
• Some things we can measure
• Time to learn
• Speed of performance
• Rate of errors by user
• Retention over time
• Subjective satisfaction

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And now more about that project
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Project Structure

• Design and evaluate an interface
• 0 - Team formation topic choice
• 1 - Understand the problem
• 2 - Design alternatives
• 3 - Prototype evaluation plan
• 4 - Evaluation
• Parts 1-4 count 10 each

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Project Details

• Part 0 - Topic definition
• Identify team topic, create web notebook
• Part 1 - Understanding the problem
• Describe tasks, users, environment, social context

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Project Details

• Part 2 - Design alternatives
• Storyboards, mock-ups for multiple different
  designs
• Explain decisions
• Poster session in class that day
• Part 3 - System prototype eval plan
• Semi-working interface functionality - enough to
  evaluate
• Plan for conducting evaluation

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Project Details

• Part 4
• Conduct evaluation with example users
• Characterize pros and cons of the UI
• Fix the easy to fix UI problems
• Present results to class - last week of classes

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Project Groups

• 4 people
• You decide
• Diverse is best!
• Consider schedules
• Cool name
• Some time available at next class for recruiting
  members

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Project Presentations

• Informal poster session
• Feedback on ideas
• Other students and expert gallery
• Formal project presentation
• Final week of classes
• 15 minute summary

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Previous Project Topics

• Automobile navigator
• Improved cell phone UI
• Wardrobe planner
• Teacher-parent communicator
• Tourist guide
• Self-service restaurant ordering system
• Basketball scoring system
• Shopping list creator and store guide
• Roommate task management system
• Calendar agent (speech)
• Audio / Web sites
• Domain that you know well
• Other ideas
• http//swiki.cc.gatech.edu8080/cs4750/1241

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What Makes a Good Project

• Access to domain experts users
• Real clients
• Interesting human issues
• Rich domain for design

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Introductions - You

• Name, major, area of specialization
• Previous HCI experience
• An interesting fact about yourself
• Project idea (optional)

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Next class

• Sit where you expect to sit for rest of semester
• Helps me associate names and faces