1. ITIS 6400/8400 Principles of Human Computer Interaction
Dr. Heather Richter Lipford

2. Agenda Course Info & Syllabus Course Overview Introductions
HCI Overview
IDEO Video
Some history

3. Course Information Books Web
Human Computer Interaction, 3rd edition, by Dix, Finlay, Abowd, Beale. (DFAB)
The Design of Everyday Things, by Donald Norman, (DOET)
Web
Overview
Grading and Policies
Syllabus and Lectures
Assignments
Wiki:

4. Course Information Grading for 6400 10 points Participation
10 points Assignments
50 points Project
More details to come…
15 points Midterm
15 points Final

5. Course Information Grading for 8400 10 points Participation
20 points Assignments
50 points Project
More details to come…
15 points Midterm
15 points Final

6. Assignments Design critique and advice Evaluation analysis
8400: additional topic research and presentation

7. 8400 Assignment
Additional reading on a more focused theory or research topic
Teach or present the topic – 30 minutes in class
At least 20 minutes of presentation
2 page (or so) summary and study guide posted to the Swiki
See web pages for suggestions

8. Group project 3-4 people per group, graded as a group
3 parts: requirements, design, evaluation
Original interface design and evaluation
Each part due by class time on the due date
Project notebook on Swiki with each write up
Theme: The environment and sustainability

9. Course Aims Consciousness raising Design critic Learn Design Process
Make you aware of HCI issues
Design critic
Question bad HCI design - of existing or proposed
Learn Design Process
Software interfaces and beyond
Improve your HCI design & evaluation skills
Go forth and do good work!
Introduction to theory and research topics in HCI

10. Course Overview Requirements Gathering Design Evaluation
How do you know what to build?
Human abilities
Design
How do you build the best UI you can?
Evaluation
How do you make sure people can use it?
Also cognitive and contextual models, interface paradigms, design guidelines, web and visual design, and advanced topics

11. How to do well Time and effort Attention to detail Communication
Do the reading and prepare for class
Attend class and participate
Spend time on project
Attention to detail
Communication
Tell me what you learned and why you made decisions

12. Introductions – Dr. Heather Richter Lipford
Ph.D. in C.S. from Georgia Tech in May 2005
HCI, Ubiquitous Computing, and Software Engineering focus
Contact info:
preferred, put 6400 or 8400 in title
Office: 305E Woodward
Office Hours:
Wednesday 5:30-6:30pm,
Thursday 11am-12pm
By appointment

13. TA- Sahiba Dugal Current Masters student in Computer Science
Computer Engineering undergraduate degree
Office hours – by appointment
Office: 330A Woodward

14. Introductions – Your Turn
Name, student status, specialization
Previous HCI/interface experience?
A product/device/application you
Love to use and why
Hate to use and why

15. Now let’s get started
What is Human-Computer Interaction?

16. HCI
The interaction and interface between a human and a computer performing a task
Tasks might be work, play, learning, communicating, etc. etc.
Write a document, calculate monthly budget, learn about places to live in Charlotte, drive home…
…not just desktop computers!

17. Why do we care?
Computers (in one way or another) now affect every person in our society
Tonight - count how many in your home/apt/room
We are surrounded by unusable and ineffective systems!
Its not the user’s fault!!
Product success may depend on ease of use, not necessarily power
You will likely create an interface for someone at some point
Even if its just your personal web page

18. Goals of HCI Allow users to carry out tasks Safely Effectively
Efficiently
Enjoyably

19. Usability Combination of Ease of learning
High speed of user task performance
Low user error rate
Subjective user satisfaction
User retention over time

20. Design Evaluation Both subjective and objective metrics
Some things we can measure
Time to perform a task
Improvement of performance over time
Rate of errors by user
Retention over time
Subjective satisfaction

21. UI Design / Develop Process
User-Centered Design
Analyze user’s goals & tasks
Create design alternatives
Evaluate options
Implement prototype
Test
Refine
IMPLEMENT

22. 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 the designer

23. Design is HARD!
“It is easy to make things hard. It is hard to make things easy.” – Al Chapanis, 1982
Its more difficult than you think
Real world constraints make this even harder

24. Some inspiration: IDEO

25. A brief history Vannevar Bush, As We May Think, 1945
Described in an essay his vision of the future, where he describes a device he names the memex for storing every document, record, and communication a person ever sees. Where it can be quickly retrieved, and annotated. He also envisioned a small camera that could quickly and easily take photos of whatever a person sees.
Vannevar Bush, As We May Think, 1945

26. Innovator: Vannevar Bush
Faculty at MIT
Director of Office of Scientific Research & Development
Coordinate WWII effort with 6,000 scientists
“As We May Think” Atlantic Monthly
Postulated Memex device
Stores all records/articles/communications
Items retrieved by indexing, keywords, cross
references (now called hyperlinks)
(Envisioned as microfilm, not computer)

27. Paradigms Predominant theoretical frameworks or scientific world views
e.g., Aristotelian, Newtonian, Einsteinian (relativistic) paradigms in physics
HCI paradigm shifts
Which are true shifts?
What are the future paradigms?

28. The basic timeline… ? User Productivity ? Time WIMP (Windows)
Command Line
Batch ?
1940s – 1950s
1960s – 1970s
1980s - Present
Time

29. In the Beginning – Computing in 1945
Picture from
Batch processing: sequential, computer had one task at a time
No real interaction once was started on a run
Used punch cards or serial tape to provide instructions
Harvard Mark I
Picture from
55 feet long, 8 feet high, 5 tons
Jason Hong / James Landay, UC Berkeley, Picture from

30. Batch processing Computer had one task, performed sequentially
No “interaction” between operator and computer after starting the run
Punch cards, tapes for input
Serial operations

31. Paradigm: Networks & time-sharing (1960’s)
 Command line  teletype
increased accessibility
interactive systems, not jobs
text processing, editing
, shared file system
Need for HCI in the design of programming languages

32. The Ubiquitous Glass Teletype
24 x 80 characters
Up to 19,200 bps (Wow - was big stuff!)
Construction: Monitor + detachable keyboard
Display: x80 or 14x132 character cells, optional 24x132
Character matrix: x9 with descenders
Screen size: " diagonal (8" x 4.5" active display)
Character set: Complete US ASCII (128 codes)
Keys: keys in ANSI X typewriter layout
Auxiliary keypad: keys (digits, arrows, function keys)
Visual indicators: LEDs
Interface: RS-232/V.24, optional 20mA Current Loop
Flow control: Xon/Xoff
Communication Speeds: 75,110,150,300,600,1200,2400,4800,9600,19200 bps
Dimensions: "x18"14.25" (monitor), 3.5"x18"x8" (keyboard)
Minimum table depth: "
Weight: pounds
Source:

33. Innovator: Ivan Sutherland
Technological advance: Video display units
SketchPad PhD thesis at MIT
Hierarchy - pictures & subpictures
Constraints
Icons
Copying
Light pen input device
Recursive operations
More suitable medium than paper - picture worth a thousand words
Sutherland’s SketchPad as landmark system
Start of Direct Manipulation
Computers used for visualizing and manipulating data

34. Innovator: Douglas Englebart
Landmark system/demo:
hierarchical hypertext, multimedia, mouse, high-res display, windows, shared files, electronic messaging, groupware, teleconferencing, ...
Invented the mouse

35. Paradigm: Personal Computer
Small, powerful machine dedicated to an individual
Importance of networks and time-sharing
Also:
Laser printer (1971, Gary Starkweather)
Ethernet (1973, Bob Metcalfe)

36. Paradigm: WIMP / GUI Windows, Icons, Menus, Pointers
Graphical User Interface
Multitasking – can do several things simultaneously
Has become the familiar GUI interface
Computer as a “dialogue partner”
Xerox Alto, Star; early Apples

37. PCs with GUIs Xerox PARC - mid 1970’s Alto
local processor, bitmap display, mouse
Precursor to modern GUI, windows, menus, scrollbars
LAN - Ethernet

38. Xerox Star
First commercial PC designed for “business professionals”
desktop metaphor, pointing, WYSIWYG, high degree of consistency and simplicity
First system based on usability engineering
Paper prototyping and analysis
Usability testing and iterative refinement

39. Xerox Star - 1981 Commercial flop $15k cost closed architecture
lacking key functionality (spreadsheet)

40. Apple Macintosh - 1984 “The computer for the rest of us”
Aggressive pricing - $2500
Not trailblazer, smart copier
Good interface guidelines
3rd party applications
High quality graphics and laser printer

41. Paradigm: Hypertext
Think of information not as linear flow but as interconnected nodes
Non-linear browsing structure
Around since the 1960’s

42. Paradigm: WWW Two Key Components
URL
Browser
Tim Brenners-Lee did both 1991 first text-based browser
Marc Andreesen created Mosaic (first graphic browser, 1993)

43. (Some of the) key technological advances / paradigm shifts
Time-sharing & networks
Video display units
Programming toolkits
Personal computing
Windows
Metaphors
Direct manipulation
Language vs. action (agents)
Hypertext / WWW
Multi-modality
Ubiquitous computing
Sensor-based & context-aware computing

44. (Some of the) key people & events
Vannevar Bush
Douglas Engelbart
Ivan Sutherland
J.C.R. Licklider
Alan Kay
Ted Nelson
Mark Weiser
Events
Founding of Xerox PARC
Lisa / Macintosh

45. What Next? What are the next paradigm shifts?
What are the next technical innovations?
Who knows?
Maybe you do

46. Paradigm?: Mobile Computing
Devices used in a variety of contexts
Laptop, cell phones, PDAs
How do devices communicate?
How to get information to each device when needed?
How to take advantage of context?

47. Paradigm?: VR & 3D Interaction
Create immersion by
Realistic appearance, interaction, behavior
Draw on spatial memory, two-handed interaction

48. Paradigm?: Ubiquitous Computing
Person is an occupant of a computationally-rich environment
Computers with ourselves, on our walls, in our appliances, etc.
How to do the “right” thing for the people in the environment? Can no longer neglect macro-social aspects

49. Course ReCap To make you notice interfaces, good and bad
You’ll never look at doors the same way again
To help you realize no one gets an interface right on the first try
Yes, even the experts
Design is HARD
To teach you tools and techniques to help you iteratively improve your designs
Because you can eventually get it right

50. Next time Skim Chapter 4 in DFAB for paradigm info
Design process and project information
Read DFAB and chapter 6
Come prepared to do project brainstorming