ITIS 6400/8400Principles of Human Computer Interaction

Dr. Heather Richter Lipford

Heather.Lipford@uncc.edu

Agenda

Course Info & Syllabus Course Overview Introductions HCI Overview IDEO Video Some history

Course Information

Books Human Computer Interaction, 3rd edition, by Dix, Finlay,

Abowd, Beale. (DFAB) The Design of Everyday Things, by Donald Norman, 2002.

(DOET) Web

http://www.sis.uncc.edu/~richter/classes/2008/6400/index.html Overview Grading and Policies Syllabus and Lectures Assignments Wiki: http://hci.sis.uncc.edu:8080/itis6400-spring08/

Course Information

Grading for 6400 10 points Participation 10 points Assignments 50 points Project

More details to come…

15 points Midterm 15 points Final

Course Information

Grading for 8400 10 points Participation 20 points Assignments 50 points Project

More details to come…

15 points Midterm 15 points Final

Assignments

Design critique and advice Evaluation analysis

8400: additional topic research and presentation

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

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

Course Aims

Consciousness raising 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

Course Overview

Requirements Gathering 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

How to do well

Time and effort 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

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:

Email preferred, put 6400 or 8400 in title Office: 305E Woodward

Office Hours: Wednesday 5:30-6:30pm, Thursday 11am-12pm By appointment

TA- Sahiba Dugal

Current Masters student in Computer Science Computer Engineering undergraduate degree Office hours – by appointment Email: sdugal@uncc.edu Office: 330A Woodward

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

Now let’s get started

What is Human-Computer Interaction?

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!

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

Goals of HCI

Allow users to carry out tasks Safely

Effectively

Efficiently

Enjoyably

Usability

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

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

UI Design / Develop Process

User-Centered Design Analyze user’s goals & tasks Create design alternatives Evaluate options Implement prototype Test Refine IMPLEMENT

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

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

Some inspiration: IDEO

http://www.ideo.com/

A brief history

Vannevar Bush, As We May Think, 1945

Innovator: Vannevar Bush

Faculty at MIT Director of Office of Scientific Research &

Development Coordinate WWII effort with 6,000 scientists

“As We May Think” - 1945 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)

http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/flashbks/computer/bushf.htm

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?

The basic timeline…

Time

Use

r P

rodu

ctiv

ity

Batch

Command Line

WIMP(Windows)

1940s – 1950s 1980s - Present1960s – 1970s

?

?

In the Beginning –Computing in 1945

Harvard Mark I Picture from http://piano.dsi.uminho.pt/museuv/indexmark.htm

55 feet long, 8 feet high, 5 tons

Jason Hong / James Landay, UC Berkeley,

Picture from http://piano.dsi.uminho.pt

/museuv/indexmark.htm

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

Paradigm: Networks & time-sharing (1960’s) Command line teletype

increased accessibility interactive systems, not jobs text processing, editing email, shared file system

Need for HCI in the design of programming languages

The Ubiquitous Glass Teletype

Source: http://www.columbia.edu/acis/history/vt100.html

24 x 80 characters Up to 19,200 bps

(Wow - was big stuff!)

Innovator: Ivan Sutherland

Technological advance: Video display units

SketchPad - 1963 PhD thesis at MIT Hierarchy - pictures & subpictures Constraints Icons Copying Light pen input device Recursive operations

Innovator: Douglas Englebart

Landmark system/demo:

hierarchical hypertext, multimedia, mouse, high-res display, windows, shared files, electronic messaging, groupware, teleconferencing, ...

Invented the mouse

http://sloan.stanford.edu/MouseSite/1968Demo.html

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)

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

PCs with GUIs

Xerox PARC - mid 1970’s Alto

local processor, bitmap display, mouse

Precursor to modern GUI,windows, menus, scrollbars

LAN - Ethernet

Xerox Star - 1981

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

Xerox Star - 1981

Commercial flop $15k cost closed architecture lacking key functionality

(spreadsheet)

Apple Macintosh - 1984

Aggressive pricing - $2500 Not trailblazer, smart copier Good interface guidelines 3rd party applications High quality graphics and

laser printer

“The computer for the rest of us”

Paradigm: Hypertext

Think of information not as linear flow but as interconnected nodes

Non-linear browsingstructure

Around since the 1960’s

Paradigm: WWW

Two Key Components URL Browser

Tim Brenners-Lee did both1991 first text-based browser

Marc Andreesen created Mosaic (first graphic browser, 1993)

(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

(Some of the) key people & events

People Vannevar Bush Douglas Engelbart Ivan Sutherland J.C.R. Licklider Alan Kay Ted Nelson Mark Weiser

Events Founding of Xerox

PARC Lisa / Macintosh

What Next?

What are the next paradigm shifts? What are the next technical innovations?

Who knows?

Maybe you do

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?

Paradigm?: VR & 3D Interaction

Create immersion by Realistic appearance, interaction, behavior

Draw on spatial memory, two-handed interaction

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

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

Next time

Skim Chapter 4 in DFAB for paradigm info Design process and project information

Read DFAB 5.1-5.4 and chapter 6 Come prepared to do project brainstorming