CSE 510 - Advanced Topics in Human-Computer Interaction

Time and Location:

Winter 2009

Tuesday and Thursday, 12:00 to 1:20

CSE 403

Course Description:

Provides an introduction to several major areas of HCI research. This course is a combination of readings, small labs at the beginning of the term, and a term project.

The reading component of this course will require preparing brief reports on a combination of historical and recent papers. This is intended to help you examine what the HCI community considers to be a meaningful contribution across a variety of problems, preparing you to make contributions in these areas.

This course is explicitly not focused on the methods used in HCI practice. The initial labs will introduce heuristic evaluation, but the course material does not assume a strong background in HCI (there is no prerequisite) and the focus of this course is on research.

The project component of this course will require hands-on experience with HCI research. You can choose to design and implement a new piece of HCI technology or to design and execute an appropriately compelling study with HCI research implications.

Workload:

There are several (sometimes long) research papers to be read for each day of class. This course will be based on those readings, several small labs, and a term project.

Class discussions should be informal and enjoyable, as it is important that everybody feel comfortable commenting and offering their insight. The participation component of grading in this course will be based on active participation in discussion throughout the course.

Grading will roughly correspond to 50% project, 25% reading reports, 15% labs, and 10% class participation.

Reading Reports:

I will expect you to have read and thought carefully about each reading. To help you out, I will require participation in a reading report forum.

Unless otherwise noted, you must post 300 to 500 words related to the readings for each day of class, in the appropriate part of this forum:

https://catalysttools.washington.edu/gopost/board/jaf1978/8655/

You can start a new discussion, participate in an existing discussion, or do a bit of both. You can discuss all of the assigned readings, or focus on a portion of the reading that you found most interesting. You can put all of your 300 to 500 words in one post, or spread them out across several.

The important part is that we can see an intellectual effort in your forum participation, not just simple summaries of papers. Your participation in each day's forum discussion will be graded on a scale from 0 to 3. You get a 0 if you do not participate. You get 1 if your participation seems weak and does not convince us that you understood the readings. Most grades will be 2, if your participation shows that you clearly read and understood the papers and had something interesting to say. 3 is reserved for especially insightful participation.

In discussing readings, note that it is generally easy to find something to criticize in any piece of research, but that focusing exclusively on this is typically not productive. You will generally find it more intellectually worthwhile to focus on what aspects of a piece of work are particularly well done, what new ideas are prompted by a piece of work, or what you might have done differently if you conducted the research. This will also lead to much more valuable discussions.

Potential topics for discussion are:

Participation will only "count" if posted by 3:00 AM before each class meeting. This ensures that the day's discussion coordinator has ample time to review discussion the next morning. Feel free to continue a discussion thread after this time (and even after class), but know that you need to post before then in order to get discussion credit.

Labs:

There will be several short labs at the beginning of the term. The first will focus on designing and prototyping an interface, the second will focus on evaluating an interface made by somebody else, and the third will focus on a simple regression analysis.

Term Projects:

Term projects will be conducted in groups of two to three students. I will be adding more detail to this page regarding projects.

Anonymous Feedback:

I encourage you to feel comfortable discussing any aspects of this class with both myself and the TA. I am also happy to provide a mechanism for anonymous feedback:

https://catalysttools.washington.edu/umail/form/jaf1978/2591

Calendar:

Date

Reading

Presenter

Due

January 6

[slides]

Overview I

Optional Paper Prototyping Information:

Rettig, Marc. (1994). Prototyping for Tiny Fingers. Communications of the ACM (CACM), 37(4), 21-27. [local pdf]

Nielsen Norman Group. Paper Prototyping: A How-To Video. [local video]

This video requires the DivX Codec available at http://download.divx.com/divx/DivXInstaller.exe. I'd strongly encourage you install only the codec, not the player or anything else that comes with it (uncheck the boxes in the custom install settings, and uncheck the install Yahoo toolbar stuff). If you have trouble playing the video because of the need to authenticate, try downloading it instead (by right clicking to access the popup menu).

[Lab 1 Out]

January 8

[slides]

Overview II

Bush, V. (1945). As We May Think. Atlantic Monthly. [available online]

Lab 1 Due

[Lab 2 Out]

January 13

[slides]

Design of Everyday Things

Chapters 1, 2, 3

Lab 2 Due

January 15

[slides]

Design of Everyday Things

Chapters 4, 5, 6, 7

January 20

[slides]

Experimental Design and Statistics

Optional Useful Resource:

Wobbrock, J.O. Using JMP and SPSS for Analysis of Human-Computer Interaction Studies. [local pdf]

Project Groups Due

[Lab 3 Out]

January 22

[slides]

On Appropriate Evaluation

Greenberg, S. and Buxton, B. (2008). Usability Evaluation Considered Harmful (Some of the Time). Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2008), pp. 111-120. [local pdf]

Olsen, D.R. (2007). Evaluating User Interface Systems Research. Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST 2007), pp. 251-258. [local pdf]

January 27

[slides]

Human Performance

MacKenzie, I.S. (1992). Fitts' Law as a Research and Design Tool in Human-Computer Interaction. Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), 7(1), pp. 91-139. [local pdf]

Zhai, S., Hunter, M., and Smith, B.A. (2002). Performance Optimization of Virtual Keyboards. Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), 17(2&3), pp. 229-270. [local pdf]

Optional Additional Material:

Fitts, P.M. (1954). The information capacity of the human motor system in controlling the amplitude of movement. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 47(6), pp. 381-391. [local pdf]

Jacob Wobbrock, iSchool

Project Proposal Due

January 29

[slides]

Software Design

Perry, D.E., N.A. Staudenmayer, L.G. Votta (1994). People, Organizations and Process Improvement. IEEE Software, July, pp. 36-45. [local pdf]

Ko, A. J. DeLine, R., Venolia, G. (2007). Information Needs in Collocated Software Development Teams. Proceedings of the International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2007), pp. 344-353. [local pdf]

Andy Ko, iSchool

February 3

[slides]

CSCW

Grudin, J. (1994). Groupware and Social Dynamics: Eight Challenges for Developers. Communications of the ACM (CACM), 37(1), pp. 92-105. [local pdf]

Pawar, U.S., Pal, J., Gupta, R., and Toyama, K. (2007). Multiple Mice for Retention Tasks in Disadvantaged Schools. Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2007), pp. 1581-1590. [local pdf]

Merrie Morris, Microsoft Research

Lab 3 Due

February 5

[pd slides]

[vsd slides]

Participatory Design

Bødker, S., Grønbæk, K., and Kyng, M. (1995). Cooperative Design: Techniques and Experiences from the Scandanavian Scene. In Readings in Human Computer Interaction: Toward the Year 2000, Baecker et al. (eds.), pp. 215-224. [local pdf]

Friedman, B., Kahn, P., and Borning, A. (2006). Value Sensitive Design and Information Systems. In Human-Computer Interaction in Management Information Systems: Foundations, P. Zhang and D. Galletta (eds.). [local pdf]

Optional Additional Material:

Borning, A., Friedman, B., Davis, J., and Lin, P. (2005). Informing Public Deliberation: Value Sensitive Design of Indicators for a Large-Scale Urban Simulation. Proceedings of the European Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (ECSCW 2005), pp. 449-468. [local pdf]

Friedman, B., Borning, A., Davis, J., Gill, B., Kahn, P., Kriplean, T., and Lin, P. (2008). Laying the Foundations for Public Participation and Value Advocacy: Interaction Design for a Large Scale Urban Simulation. Proceedings of the International Conference on Digital Government Research, pp. 305-314. [local pdf]

Alan Borning, CSE

February 10

[slides]

Physiological Computing

Wolpaw, J.R., Birbaumer, N., Heetderks, W.J., McFarland, D.J., Peckham, P.H., Schalk, G., Donchin, E., Quatrano, L.A., Robinson, C.J., and Vaughan, T.M. (2000). Brain-Computer Interface Technology: A Review of the First International Meeting. IEEE Transactions on Rehabilitation Engineering, 8(2), pp. 164-173. [local pdf]

Lebedev, M.A. and Nicolelis, M.A.L. (2006). Brain-Machine Interfaces: Past, Present, and Future. Trends in Neurosciences, 29(9), pp. 536-546. [local pdf]

Desney Tan, Microsoft Research

February 12

Ubiquitous Computing

Weiser, M. (1991). The Computer for the 21st Century. Scientific American, 265(3), pp. 94-104. [local pdf]

Philipose, M., Fishkin, K.P., Perkowitz, M., Patterson, D.J., Fox, D. Kautz, H., and Hahnel, D. (2004). Inferring Activities from Interactions with Objects. IEEE Pervasive Computing, 3(4), pp. 50-57. [local pdf]

Optional Additional Material:

Tolmie, P., Pycock, J., Diggins, T., MacLean, A., and Karsenty, A. (2002). Unremarkable Computing. Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2002), pp. 399-406. [local pdf]

Daniel Avrahami, Intel Research

February 17

[slides]

Multi-Touch

Ullmer, B. and Ishii, Hiroshi (1997). The metaDESK: Models and Prototypes for Tangible User Interfaces. Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST 1997), pp. 223-232. [local pdf]

Igarashi, T., Moscovich, T., and Hughes, J.F. (2005). As-Rigid-As-Possible Shape Manipulation. ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG), 24(3), pp. 1134-1141. [local pdf]

Daniel Wigdor, Microsoft Surface

February 19

In-Progress Project Presentations

In-Progress Project Presentations Due

February 24

[slides]

Accessibility

Bigham, J.P., Cavender, A.C., Brudvik, J.T., Wobbrock, J.O., and Ladner, R.E. (2007). WebinSitu: A Comparative Analysis of Blind and Sighted Browsing Behavior. Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2007), 51-58. [local pdf]

A. Cavender, S. Trewin, V. Hanson. General Writing Guidelines for Technology and People with Disabilities [available online]

Richard Ladner, CSE

February 26

Design and Prototyping Tools

Lin, J., Newman, M., Hong, J.I., and Landay, J.A. (2000). DENIM: Finding a Tighter Fit Betweens Tools and Practice for Web Site Design. Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2000), pp. 510-517. [local pdf]

Li, Y. and Landay, J.A. (2008). Activity-Based Prototyping of UbiComp Applications for Long-Lived, Everyday Human Activities. Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2008), pp. 1303-1312. [local pdf]

James Landay, CSE

March 3

Sensing and Interaction

Wellner, P. (1993). Interacting with Paper on the DigitalDesk. Communications of the ACM (CACM), 36(7), pp. 87-96. [local pdf]

Wilson, A.D. (2005). PlayAnywhere: A Compact Interactive Tabletop Projection-Vision System. Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST 2005), pp. 83-92. [local pdf]

Andy Wilson, Microsoft Research

March 5

[slides]

Direct Manipulation

Hutchins, E.L., Hollan, J.D., Norman, D.A. (1985). Direct Manipulation Interfaces. Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), 1(4), pp. 311-338. [local pdf]

Dragicevic, P., Ramos, G., Bibliowitcz, J., Nowrouzezahrai, D., Balakrishnan, R., and Singh, K. (2008). Video Browsing by Direct Manipulation. Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2008), pp. 237-246. [local pdf]

Gonzalo Ramos, Microsoft Live Labs

March 10

[slides]

User Interface Toolkits

Myers, B., Hudson, S.E., and Pausch, R. (2000). Past, Present, and Future of User Interface Software Tools. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI), 7(1), pp. 3-28. [local pdf]

Bellotti, V., Back, M., Edwards, K.E., Grinter, R.E., Henderson, A. and Lopes, C. (2002). Making Sense of Sensing Systems: Five Questions for Designers and Researchers. Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2002), pp. 415-422. [local pdf]

March 12

Final Project Presentations

Final Project Presentations Due

March 19

Final Project Report Due