CSPSY 6750 HumanComputer Interaction

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CS/PSY 6750 Human-Computer Interaction

• John Stasko
• Fall 2002

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Agenda

• Introductions
• Course Administratia
• HCI Overview
• Objectives
• Principles
• Semester project preview

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Introductions

• Instructor
• John Stasko
• Computing GVU
• HCI -Info. Interfaces
• Info. visualization
• Peripheral awareness
• Software agents
• Software visualization

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Introductions

• TA
• Jeremy Goecks
• HCI PhD student

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Introductions

• Instructor for other section
• Bruce Walker
• Psychology GVU

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Introductions

• Your turn
• Demographics

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Course Information

• Books
• Web
• Syllabus
• Assignments
• Co-web
• HCI resources
• Related courses

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Course Information

• Grading
• Mid-term final exams (32)
• Group project, 4 parts (40)
• More to come next time...
• Homeworks (21)
• One week to do, likely 3
• Short Homeworks (4)
• One day to do, likely 4
• Participation (3)
• Class involvement and peer review

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Advice

• Learn from and use the past
• Look to previous courses, courses elsewhere, info
  on the web,
• Content, lectures, projects,
• Go further
• Move beyond lectures book
• Further courses
• Step into research

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Why We Are Here

• Look at human factors that affect software design
  and development
• Central Topic User interface design
• Not just a software interface on a desktop
  monitor!

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HCI

• What is it?
• Can you define/describe it?

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HCI

• What happens when a human and a computer get
  together to perform a task
• task - write document, calculate budget, solve
  equation, learn about Bosnia, drive home,...

Overly simple... but not bad
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Why is this important?

• 1. Computers (in one way or another) now affect
  every person in society
• Increasing utilize computers in work
• 2. Product success may depend on ease of use, not
  necessarily power

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Course Aims

• 1. Consciousness raising
• Make you aware of these issues
• 2. Design critic
• Question bad design

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Goals of HCI

• Allow users to carry out tasks
• Safely
• Effectively
• Efficiently
• Enjoyably

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Usability

• Important issue
• Combination of
• Ease of learning
• High speed of user task performance
• Low user error rate
• Subjective user satisfaction
• User retention over time

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Key Historical Event (Personal)

• Grad school in 84
• John Sculley, Mac

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Moving Forward

• How do we improve interfaces?
• 1. Change attitude of software professional
• 2. Draw upon fast accumulating body of knowledge
  regarding H-C interface design
• 3. Integrate UI design methods techniques into
  standard software development methodologies now
  in place

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Improving Interfaces

• Know the User!
• Physical abilities
• Cognitive abilities
• Personality differences
• Skill differences
• Cultural diversity
• Motivation
• Special needs

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Two Crucial Errors

• Assume all users are alike
• Assume all users are like the designer

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Course Overview

• Human abilities
• Evaluation (without users)
• Design
• Dialog interaction
• Evaluation (with users)
• Special topics
• CSCW, InfoVis, Ubicomp, Agents

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Group Project

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

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Details

• Part 0 - Topic definition
• Identify team topic, create web notebook
• Part 1 - Understanding the problem
• Describe tasks, users, environment, social
  context
• What are implications for design?

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Details

• Part 2 - Design alternatives
• Storyboards, mock-ups for multiple different
  designs
• Explain decisions
• Part 3 - System prototype eval plan
• Semi-working interface functionality
• Plan for conducting evaluation

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Details

• Part 4 - Evaluation
• Conduct evaluation with example users
• Characterize whats working and whats not

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Project Teams

• 4 people
• You decide
• Diverse is best!
• Consider schedules
• Cool name
• Help getting members on Monday

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Presentations

• Informal poster session
• Feedback on ideas, both class periods
• After part 2
• Other students and expert gallery
• Formal project presentation
• Final week of classes
• 10-15 minute summary

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Project Topics

• Set of possibilities
• Max of 2 teams per topic
• First-come, first-served
• By next Wednesday
• Set up web notebook
• Real client

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Topic Ideas
(Old ones)

• Mobile/handheld (cars, tour guides, etc.)
• Wedding planner
• GIS
• Calendar agent (speech)
• Audio / Web sites
• Domain that you know well
• Browse old projects for more ideas...

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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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Upcoming

• History of HCI
• Also project info
• Video on HCI history
• Start reading...