CS 3724: Introduction to Human Computer Interaction Chris North Regis Kopper

WELCOME TO THE NEXT LEVEL

“Toto, I don’t think we’re in CS2604 anymore.” Class discussion, participation HWs/Projects: open-ended Group project Student presentations

Course Overview Lectures and activities Individual homework assignments Readings Tests Hall of Fame / Hall of Shame Design project

Textbook Mary Beth Rosson and John M. Carroll, Usability Engineering: Scenario- Based Development of HCI (required) Visual C#.NET, Step-by-Step by Sharp&Jagger or Core Ref by Williams (optional)

The Project Team-based Topic: Intelligence Analysis –Information vizualization Problem seeking / problem solving Understand users & problem, prototype, interim review presentation, evaluate, revise, final presentation C# language?

Grading Breakdown Presentation (hall of fame/shame) 5% Homework (4 x 5%) 20% Mid term 10% Design project50% Team formation 0% Requirements10% Formative analysis & design20% Interim presentation 5% Prototype implementation10% Summative Evaluation20% Final presentation 5% Final implementation30% Final15%

Policies  Homework due in class Thurs. Late = 0  No early exams, make up by advance arrangement  Signed request with rationale  Reminder of VT Honor Code  Specifically, tests and homeworks are individual  Students with special needs see me ASAP

Web Page courses.cs.vt.edu/~cs3724 contains syllabus, lecture notes, assignments, and related materials

Adminstrivia Force-adds and prerequisite forms –CRN is / –Prerequisite is CS 2604 or 2606, REQUIRED –Everyone must complete the forms TODAY –Must attend today –Add decisions by next meeting

HCI ??? 1.What is it? 2.Who cares? 3.Why is it hard? 4.What will I learn?

1. What is HCI?

Human-Computer Interaction

1. What is HCI? Human-Computer Interaction “Human-computer interaction is a discipline concerned with the design, evaluation and implementation of interactive computing systems for human use, and with the study of major phenomena surrounding them." -ACM SIGCHI

Huh? An example: HomeFinder

Apartments.com

Hit List

HomeFinder

The Goal of HCI Usability People are trying to accomplish their tasks in life. (system independent) Introduce a system, User Interface should maximize their ability. task system person

Usability Engineering Reqs Analysis Evaluate Design Develop A process for HCI production to ensure usability goals are met

Usability Engineering Reqs Analysis Evaluate many iterations Design Develop

2. Who Cares? Everyone, because: 1.Everything is a User Interface

Doors

More Doors

Communication Channels System to human: Human to system: system, world

2. Who Cares? Everyone, because: 1.Everything is a User Interface 2.The User Interface is Everything

Florida Cares! Human error: Who’s fault is it?

3. Why is it so hard?

Usability is hard People (users) are all different People are unpredictable Design skill isn’t enough Evaluation with users is required Designer’s pride New ways to think, break out of the box

Usability is hard People (users) are all different People are unpredictable Design skill isn’t enough Evaluation with users is required Designer’s pride New ways to think, break out of the box Programmers stink at Usability

don’t think like ‘normal’ people know the software internals, technology first enjoy systems more than people arrogant (my software!) Usability is hard

4. What will I learn? Activity design Information design Interaction design GUI programming Widgets, graphics, animation C# Reqs Analysis Evaluate Design Develop Task analysis Ethnography Usability studies Controlled experiments

A Method: Scenario-Based Usability Engineering Stories of people and their activities Typical elements of the story are: –A setting –One or more actors or agents –An orienting or motivating goal or objective –Mental activity, plans or evaluation of behavior –A “storyline” sequenced by actions and events Emphasis on use, i.e., people’s needs, expectations, actions, and reactions

Problem scenarios summative evaluation Information scenarios claims about current practice analysis of stakeholders, field studies Usability specifications Activity scenarios Interaction scenarios iterative analysis of usability claims and re-design metaphors, information technology, HCI theory, guidelines formative evaluation DESIGN ANALYZE PROTOTYPE & EVALUATE Scenario-Based Design

Grander Goals?  Get angry! (about crummy user interfaces)  Mental shift:  From system-centered design to user-centered design  Design: Break out of the box  Think: HCI is science and engineering

Goals of Course (official version)  Survey of human-computer interaction concepts, theory, and practice.  Interdisciplinary underpinnings.  Informed and critical evaluation of computer- based technology.  User-oriented perspective, rather than system- oriented, with two thrusts: human (cognitive, social) and technological (input/output, interactions styles, devices).  Design guidelines, evaluation methods, participatory design, communication between users and system developers.

Goals of Course (Alternate version)  Learn that HCI topic is both wide and deep.  HCI is essentially about design and design involves asking good questions  Convince some of you that HCI is phat / cool  Convince the rest of you that HCI expertise is needed in most computer projects  HCI is science and engineering

Before you Leave… Prerequisites form!

Assignment Project step 1: make teams of 4 students Read: Chapter 1 See: website, syllabus