Human Computer Interaction
(Master TICMA, Josep Blat)
Course
objectives
The overall goal of this course is to provide an introduction to Human
Computer Interaction at a postgraduate level, that is, an introduction
to the research issues in the field. As the name of the field
indicates, we deal with three aspects: humans, computers, and
interaction; in what follows we provide more detail on what we mean by
this. On the other hand, a key aspect for a sound approach to HCI
is understanding users/people: they behave very differently from what
one assumes they do. In order to achieve this understanding, the
students will design and evaluate a prototye of a system, essentially,
a mock-up interface of the system. This will be done following some
specific assignments.
The Computer Human Interaction field is somehow reflected in the
following image, taken from Hewett, Baecker, Card, Carey,
Gasen, Mantei, Perlman, Strong and Verplank, ACM SIGCHI Curricula
for Human-Computer Interaction, 1992, 1996; we try to deal with
each aspect (albeit very shortly) during this course.
Contents:
topics and lab assignments
The list of research topics related to Humans, Computers, and
Interaction we shall be dealing with is (provisionally):
The process of developing interactive
systems
1 Design and evaluation
2 Considering Work Contexts in Design
(3 Development Tools)
Interacting with computers
4 Vision, graphic design, and visual display
5 Touch, gesture and marking
6 Speech, Language and Audition
Psychology and Human Factors
7 Human Information Processing
8 Designing to fit human capabilities
Other aspects
9 CSCW
(10 Context and intelligent agents)
This list covers a variety of issues, with a structure following an
important reference: Ronald M Baecker et al: Readings in
Human-Computer
Interaction (Toward the Year 2000), Morgan Kauffman, 1995
(Signatura: QA76.9.H85 R43 1995).
Material
on
the
different
topics
presented by
2010 students
Topics 1 & 2 (Design and evaluation & Considering Work Contexts
in Design)
Tomás Estrada, Design
Lene Burkhard, Universal
design and evaluation
Pratyush,
Ethnography
Joan Mora,
Context-awareness
(Plus some material extracted from elsewhere
Examples based presentation of
Contextual Design methodology
Presentation on use of ethnography
and contextual design in recent research
Some reports on papers dealing with
context (ethnography, ...) in research)
Topic 4
Álvaro
Sarasúa, Visual perception
Jonathan Chacón,
Typography
Oriol Galimany,
Information Visualisation
Jorge García-Martín, 3D
Displays
Josep M. Comajuncosas,
Pictures, symbols, signs, icons & animations
Jesús Sánchez, GUIs
Topic 5
Juan Pablo Carrascal: Non-speech
audio
Sergio Bromberg:
Touch, gesture, marking
Sergio Bromberg: Speech,
language
Ruth García-Gavilanes:
Speech recognition
Oriol Galimany: Haptic interfaces
Topic 6
Jorge
García-Martín: Speech, Gestures & Multimodal
Interaction
Tomás Estrada: Gesture
(Non-haptic input!)
Topic 7
Silvana Churruca: Human
Information Processing
Ruth García-Gavilanes:
Emotions in the web
Topic 8
Silvana Churruca: Designing
for error
Joan Mora: Design for learning
Jesús Gómez: Haptics
for spectial needs users
Jens Nirme:
Design for special needs - disabilities
Topic 9
Lilia Villafuerte:
(Asynchronous) groupware & Computer Supported Collaborative Work
Jens Nirme:
Synchronous groupware
Josep M Comajuncosas: Groupware
and social dynamics: challenges for developers
Jonathan Chacón:
Why CSCW Applications Fail: Problems in Design and Evaluation of
Organizational interfaces
Other topics
Juan Pablo
Carrascal: User generated interfaces
Lilia Villafuerte:
Intelligent Agents
As indicated earlier, a strong orientation towards users/people is
essential to a good approach to HCI. In this course this is achieved
through a series of assignments,
which
make
up
a
lab:
Designing and
evaluating an interface
prototype:
Assignment 1 - Selection of
topic, paper prototyping and users characterisation
Assignment 2 - Development of a
User Questionnaire
Assignment 3 - Keystroke Model
of Proposed Design
Assignment 4 - Written
Evaluation of Similar User Interface
Assignment 5 - Interactive
System Design Exercise
Assignment 6 - Design Evaluation
Optional assignments for this lab are: Contextual inquiry; Usage
centered design methodology
Schedule
of topics and assignments
Each student will have to:
- Develop completely the 6 lab assignments, which include the written
reports, and oral presentations
- Develop fully one research topic: presentation of the topic, and a
couple of research papers, with a written and oral presentation
- Develop a second research topic (written report and one paper) on the
basis of the course presentations
- Take part actively in the presentations - having read the summary of
the different research topics
Examples of alternative major and minor topics chosen by students in
2009 are:
Major: Interactive
Models
(R_Eakin); Autistic
persons
in
a
musictherapy
context
(O_Lalonde)
Minor: Innovative
interaction
(S_Alcaraz);
Games:
Interfaces
(G_Acosta); Usability
and
familiarity
of
the
interface
(C_Aker);
Politics
and
HCI:
C_Codrean;
Emotion
and
empathy
(D_Romero);
Design
for
specific
cultures
(E_Tsaoussi);
Interaction
design
for
public
spaces
(O_Lalonde);
Eye/
mouse tracking; S_Ferreira
A presentation of topic 3 (tools) from a 2009 student: D_Martin
Competencies
The competencies expected to be achieved by the end of the course could
be classified into general and specific. We provide them below.
General competencies
- The students will be expected to be able to introduce themselves into
a research topic, guided by identification of the basic literature
which is grounding the state of the art, and by the identification of
interesting research issues
- The students will be expected to increase their practical
understanding of scientific research methodologies in the aspect of
formulating hypotheses, identifying suitable methods for evaluating
them, and extracting the lessons from evaluation
- The students will be expected to increase their level of
communicating and sharing research activity
Specific competencies
As indicated above, a key aspect for the field HCI is an
understanding of the users/people, and this skill is expected to be
achieved trhough the lab assignments. The same assignments will help
students to be performant in the iterative design-prototype-evaluation
process for HCI.
Students will be expected to grasp the interrelated issues of the
field, which deals with Humans, Computers, and Interaction. They should
gain basic understanding of research issues in:
- The process of developing interactive systems, mainly: Design and
evaluation; and Considering Work Contexts in Design
- Interacting with computers, mainly in the aspects of: Vision, graphic
design, and visual display; Touch, gesture and marking; and Speech,
Language and Audition
- Psychology and Human Factors, mainly: Human Information Processing,
and Designing to fit human capabilities
Students should identify and explore a specific other aspect of HCI
which is interesting for their research objectives.
Assessment
Lab assignments will account for 40% of the overall mark; the
assessment criteria for the assignments are included in the assignment
descriptions. While each assignment will be evaluated individually, the
overall mark will take into account the progress in the building up of
the work, and the final one.
The evaluation of the students' other work (which will account for 60%
of the overall mark) will be based on the written reports, oral
presentations, and participation in the debates. The assessment
criteria will be based on the achievements in the skills identified
previously.
Prerequisites
While it would be an advantage to have followed an undergraduate
course on Human Computer Interaction
(or related topics, such as User
Interface Design, Usability
Engineering, ...) the course will be largely self-contained, as
it will be providing both grounding work on HCI and an introduction to
major research issues in the field.
Contact
with the lecturer
Preferably by e-mail (josep.blat at upf.edu)
References
The main source for references on Human Computer
Interaction is the bibliography supplied and maintained by the SIGCHI
(Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction) of the ACM: http://www.hcibib.org
is the link for this bibliography. The link for the SIGCHI is http://sigchi.org/.
The main references for this course are:
Ronald M Baecker et al: Readings in Human-Computer
Interaction (Toward the Year 2000), Morgan Kauffman, 1995
(Signatura: QA76.9.H85 R43 1995).
(One can look at the previous Readings also available at the
library, as the interesection of both books is very litte, Signatura:
QA76.9.I58 B34 1987).
Dix, Alan J. et al.: Human-computer
interaction, 3rd edition, Pearson Education, Harlow,
England, 2004 (Signatura: QA76.9.H85 H86 2004).
Jacko, Julie A.; Sears, Andrew, editors: The Human-computer interaction handbook
fundamentals, evolving technologies and emerging applications,
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, N.J., 2003 (Signatura: QA76.9.H85
H859 2003)
Preece, J., et al.: Human-Computer Interaction, Addison-Wesley,
Harlow, England, 1994 (Signatura: QA76.9.H85 P74 1994).
Other interesting books are:
Apple Computer Inc.: Macintosh Human Interface Guidelines,
Addison Wesley, Reading, Massachusetts, 1992.
Tim Berners-Lee (with Mark Fischetti): Weaving the Web. The Original Design and
Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web by its Inventor, Harper,
San Francisco, 1999.
Hugh Beyer, Karen Holtzblatt: Contextual Design. Defining
Customer-Centered Systems, Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco, 1998.
Stuart K. Card, Thomas P. Moran, Allen Newell: The Psychology of
Human-Computer Interaction, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers,
Hillsdale, New Jersey, 1983.
John M. Carroll (editor): HCI
models, theories, and frameworks toward a multidisciplinary science,
Morgan
Kaufmann,
San
Francisco,
2003.
Larry L. Constantine, Lucy A. D. Lockwood: Software for use. A
practical guide to the models and methods of Usage-Centered design,
Addison Wesley, Reading, Massachusetts, 1999.
James D Foley, Andries van Dam, Steven K Feiner, John F Hughes: Computer
Graphics:
Principles
and
Practice (Chapters 8, 9, 10),
Addison Wesley Systems Programming Series, Reading, Massachusetts,
1990.
Mark van Harmelen (edited): Object Modeling and User Interface
Design, Addison-Wesley, Boston, 2001.
Helander, Martin (editor): Handbook
of human-computer interaction, 2nd ed, North-Holland, Amsterdam,
1991.
Jakob Nielsen: Usability Engineering, Academic Press, Boston,
1993.
Jakob Nielsen: Usabilidad. Diseño de sitios web,
Prentice Hall, Madrid, 2000.
Don A Norman: The Psychology of Everyday Things, Basic Books,
New York, 1988. (published under the name The Design of Everyday
Things too)
Don A Norman: The Invisible Computer (Why Good Products Can Fail,
the Personal Computer Is So Complex and Information Appliances Are the
Solution), The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1998.
Jeffrey Rubin: Handbook of Usability Testing. How to plan, design,
and conduct effective tests, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1994.
Ben Shneiderman: Designing the User Interface (Strategies for
Human-Computer Interaction), 3rd edition, Addison Wesley, Reading,
Massachusetts.