CSE 590H - Human Computer Interaction Seminar

Winter 1998
Seminar coordinators: Alan Borning and Jonathan Grudin
Wednesdays 3:30-4:20
Loew 117

During the first half of the quarter we'll read papers on HCI and the web, including usability testing for web sites, richer node structures for the web, search and navigation issues, metaphor and how it affects web software design, and HCI issues arising from multiple browsers and platforms. In the second half we'll read papers on CSCW (compter-supported cooperative work).

Mailing List

The seminar mailing list is set up. To subscribe send a message to majordomo@cs with no subject and with subscribe cse590h in the body.

Hypermail archive

HCI Overview

Chapter 1 of "Readings in Human-Computer Interaction: Toward the Year 2000" by R. Baeker, J. Grudin, W. Buxton, and S. Greenberg, gives an overview of HCI. (Also available in RTF format: Chapter 1 - rtf.)

Current Schedule and Links

Jan 7: organization

How to read HCI papers, and how to write for an HCI audience (such as the CHI program committee)

Jan 14: Doing Usability Testing on the web; Design Guidelines

Steve Wolfman and Ed Hong

testing on the cheap vs. full scale testing
various Jakob Nielsen papers:
Usability Heuristics for the Web by Keith Instone
Designing information-abundant web sites: issues and recommendations by Ben Shneiderman.
Accessible Web Page Design (UW DO-IT Program)
Engineering vs. Evolution: Building a Case for Web Site Design Conventions (interview with Jakob Nielsen)

Jan 21: Applying Usability Testing to Some Local Webs

Jan 28: Search and Navigation

Rachel Pottinger, Brian Michalowski, and Jeff Samarziya

How People Use WWW Bookmarks by David Abrams and Ron Baecker
How people revisit web pages: empirical findings and implications for the design of history systems by Linda Tauscher and Saul Greenberg
The Tyranny of the Page: Continued Lack of Decent Navigation Support in Version 4 by Jakob Nielsen

Feb 4: Metaphor and the Web

Tessa Lau and Craig Kaplan

Do Metaphors Make Web Browsers Easier to Use? by Elissa D. Smilowitz
The Telephone is the Best Metaphor for the Web by Jakob Nielsen
Metaphors and the Net
See Section 4.2.1 of Designing information-abundant web sites: issues and recommendations by Ben Shneiderman.
(Jonathan also has some observations to include in this session)

Feb 11: Research Discussion: Strudel, Constraints, CSS[2] Extensions

Alon Levy and Alan Borning

Cascading Style Sheets, Level 2

Feb 18: CSCW Overview

"CSCW: History and Focus" by Jonathan Grudin

Feb 25: CSCW: Computer Support for Face-to-Face Collaboration

Kori Inkpen and Lauren Bricker.

Papers:

Inkpen, K., Booth, K.S., Klawe, M., and Upitis, R. (1995). Playing together beats playing apart, especially for girls. Proceedings of Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) '95. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 177-181.
Inkpen, K., McGrenere, J., Booth, K.S., and Klawe, M. (1997). Turn-Taking Protocols for Mouse-Driven Collaborative Environments. Proceedings of Graphics Interface '97, Kelowna, BC.

There are links to both papers (HTML and Postscript) from http://www.cs.sfu.ca/~inkpen/publications.html.

March 4: Research Discussion: Compression Algorithms for Web Applications

Richard Anderson

Leftovers -- Other possibilities:

Richer Node structures: frames, composite nodes, typed nodes, nodes with multiple views, etc.
- Why Frames Suck (Most of the Time) by Jakob Nielsen
- Frames Redux (from Pantos, All Things Web)
- A Case for Frames by Catherine Ashworth and David Hamilton
Cascaded Style Sheets
Usability issues arising from multiple browsers, platforms, choice of font, different user abilities, etc.

Other Web/HCI References

useit.com: Usable Information Technology (Jakob Nielsen's site)
Usable Web
Pantos: All Things Web
Designing for the Web: Empirical Studies (October 1996 conference ... mostly copies of overheads)
International Journal of Human-Computer Studies: Special Issue World Wide Web Usability