MSc AISD/ISRDE course 2010

Keith Chevrest and Alan Dix

Keith home: http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/computing/staff/kc/
Alan home: http://www.hcibook.com/alan/
Alan blog:http://www.alandix.com/
HCI Book: http://www.hcibook.com/e3/

 

organisation

timetable (approx!)
Mon – intro, people, usability and design
Tues– evaluation and use
Wed – case studies and coursework
Thur– mobile HCI and intelligence
Fri – presentations and physicality

resources

general resources
try the search engine for the HCI book ... sorry only second edition available yet :-(
there are also chapter-by-chapter links
and you can look at previous year's courses for 2000/2001, 2001/2002, 2002/2003, 2003/2004, 2004/2005, 2005/2006, 2006/2007 and 2007/2008
assignments
group assignment (both AISD and ISRDE)
(see extract of chap 21 slides on web architecture for examples of level of detail)
deadlines (Fri 3pm): group draft – week 5; group final – week 6;
individual assignment (AISD)
deadline (all Fri 3pm): individual – week 8
examples, mini case studies, ...
see the HCI book online! materials for various case studies, examples etc.
if we talked through an example in class and it doesn't appear here, please tell us and we'll write something down and add it here.

day 1

introduction
design and scenarios
chapter 5, sections 5.2 to 5.5
download chapter 5 (extract)slides (PDF, 452K)
see hcibook online! on cultural probes
see power plant scenario (high level) and phone scenario (low level)
aQtive technical documentation for onCue - uses rich scenario for describing architecture

day 2

task analysis (overnight reading, not in class)
focused on Hierarchical Task Analysis (HTA)
see chapter 15, section 15.3
download extract of chapter 15 slides (PDF, 245K)
plus extra slides
also of course Diaper and Stanton task analysis collection.
rich work ecologies
see chapter 18, section 18.3
download extract of chapter 18 slides on rich work ecologies (PDF, 554K)
this was based on a keynote "Managing the Ecology of Interaction" that Alan did at the Tamodia conference in 2002, and grapefruit example was from another keynote Tasks = data + action + context: automated task assistance through data-oriented analysis, at Engineering Interactive Systems in Pisa 2008,
there is a whole chapter on triggers in Diaper and Stanton
evaluation and peak experience
see chapter 9 of HCI Book
slides used in lecture on evaluation and peak experience (PDF, xxK)
also see slides from previous year on evaluation (PDF, 68K)
adoption and appropriation
not in HCI book ... yet!
 download slides used in lecture (PDF, 208K)
 see appropriation paper from HCI2007 conference and notes on adoption (PDF, xxK)
draft sections for next edition of HCI book on adoption (PDF, 56K) - note this is a draft, lots of incomplete references etc.
designing for value, a timetabling example (PDF, 39K)
the e3/online case study 'hcibook search - designing value' includes a link to the "lattice of value" about designing complimentary products to encourage market growth
related to this is an article Alan wrote for "interfaces" magazine artefact + marketing = product
some of the onCue functionality is now available in Snip!t (plus more too!)
case study - vfridge
slides from lectures on why vfridge failed (PDF, 115K)
the original Web Sharer Vision (white paper, aQtive 1999)
... try out vfridge yourself - remember facsimile of web app from 2000!
blog post "Phoenix rises – vfridge online again" about the re-implementation of vfridge
Guardian Saturday 13th Oct 2010: "30% of the UK population have no internet access at home"
although internet use is growing according to a June report

day 3 & 4

Case studies
GUIDE (PDF, 690K)to be added
Hermes, SPAM and Wray (PDF, 2M)
Principles and Techniques
UCD and PD (PDF, 86K)
Proactive and Adaptive Systems (PDF, 351K)
Norman, D. A. and Nielsen, J. 2010. Gestural interfaces: a step backward in usability. interactions 17, 5 (Sep. 2010), 46-49. DOI: 10.1145/1836216.1836228

day 5

physicality
see slides used in lecture (PDF, 6.5Mb)
see notes (link labelled "full text") on "Touching-Technology"
also TouchIT book draft (partial)
physicality.org web site
brain size!
A. Dix (2005). the brain and the web - a quick backup in case of accidents. Interfaces, 65, pp. 6-7. Winter 2005.
also the ultimate interface and the sums of life? an earlier Interfaces article about the memory needed to store and audio-video transcript of your entire life
the internet archive and the wayback machine
public screens and mobile devices
L. Terrenghi, A. Quigley and A. Dix (2009)
A taxonomy for and analysis of multi-person-display ecosystems. Journal Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, Springer, 13(8): 583-598. DOI (online) 10.1007/s00779-009-0244-5
A. Dix and C. Sas (2009) Mobile Personal Devices meet Situated Public Displays: Synergies and Opportunities.
A. Dix (2005). Small meets Large: research issues for using personal devices to interact with public displays. internal discussion paper, Lancaster University, January 2005.

week 3 - lit review (ISRDE)

slides used in seminar
 
other things ...

plus ...

things not covered in lectures (or just mentioned), but maybe useful

navigation & layout
chapter 5, sections 5.6 and 5.7
see chapter 5 slides above
implementation and architecture
see chapter 8, section 8.3, 8.4, 8.5
new text for chapter (PDF, 535K) (ready for 4th ed!)
download extract of chapter 8 slides (PDF, 299K) for Seeheim, MVC etc.
web architectures
see chapter 21, section 21.6
download extract of chap 21 slides on web architecture (PDF, 176K)
server-side programming in PHP - introductory tutorial
web form - testing and experimenting with web forms
examples (use view source to see code) ...
dancing histograms - Java applet using data embedded into the page
(also described in a paper 'starting simple' given at AVI'98)
coin race - client-side JavaScript
Professor Alan's square - JavaScript for puzzle
JS also to enable 'syndicated content' (use view source on my home page)
make your own pages use server-side CGI scripts written in PHP
Query-by-Browsing - uses PHP generated pages accessing a MySQL database
the 'heavy' computation is written in C and called from the PHP
Snip!t - PHP backend with little bits of AJAX
see also Alan's chapter Network-Based Interaction in the Jacko and Seers handbook
experience and fun :-)
see chapter 3, section 3.9
also e3/online case study: 'absolutely crackers'
download slides (PDF, 104K)
send a virtual cracker!
see my chapter in the funology book about crackers and other aspects of experience design!
'intelligent' interfaces
hmm surprisingly little in the HCI book except bits mentioned above for adaptive help and for low-intertion interaction ... perhaps the 4th edition??
download slides on intelligent' interaction and exploration (PDF, 770K)
experiment with Query-by-Browsing
some of the onCue functionality is now available in Snip!ts (plus more too!)
time
various points in HCI book, but no single treatment
my chapter in the Jacko and Seers HCI handbook hits on some of these issues
download slides on timing matters (PDF, 201K) which includes the kicking example and why you should design your interfaces so that a caveman could use them
see also my topic page on time

 

books

Human-Computer Interaction third edition. A. Dix, J. Finlay, G. Abowd and R. Beale. Prentice Hall, 2004.
Main course text. Referred to simply as 'HCI' above. Book website at www.hcibook.com/e3 includes some web links and also a full on-line search facility for the book.
Interaction Design, J. Preece, Y. Rogers and H. Sharp. Wiley, 2002
The successor to the original Preece et al. (see below) The OU had the copyright to the original Preece, but by the time a second edition was due, Jenny and Co. had left the OU. The author team weren't allowed to compete, so they produced a slightly different kind of book!
Designing the User Interface: Strategies for Effective Human-Computer Interaction, Third Edition. Ben Shneiderman. Adisson Wesley, 1997.
Less broad then either Dix et al. or the original Preece, but especially strong in more 'how to do it' information and also visualisation - Ben's main research area.
Human-Computer Interaction. J. Preece, Y. Rogers, H. Sharp, D. Benyon, S. Holland and T. Carey. Addison Wesley, 1994.
Yes the same name ... well what else do you call it!
Used to be our arch rival ... but very good despite that - darn! Interviews are really fun. Harder to find things than in our book, but with more in-depth discursive treatment of some topics. Lots more piccies than we have as well.

edited collections

Human-Computer Interaction Handbook, J. Jacko and A. Sears. Lawrence Erlbaum, 2003.
Enormous tome. Chapters by experts in all sorts fo areas of HCI but laregly missing out more implementation focused areas.
<@ book web site>
HCI Models, Theories, and Frameworks: Toward an Interdisciplinary Science. J. Carroll. Morgan Kaufmann.
Chapters by experts in different theoretical areas contributing to HCI
Funology: From Usability to Enjoyment. M. Blythe, A. Monk and P. Wright. Kluwer, 2003.
Making interfaces that not only do work but make you feel good!
The Handbook of Task Analysis for Human-Computer Interaction. D. Diaper & N. Stanton (eds.). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2003.
Long awaited! Dan's previous collection has been out of print for ages and theree has been no good reference about different task analysis techniques. This book covers a wiide range of topics and methods in task analysis and is also comparatively cheap.
Perspectives on HCI, A. Monk and N.Gilbert, Academic Press, 1995
Now hard to get hold of, but still well worth a read. Chapters by individual experts, writing aimed at a mixed audience. Includes chapters on formal methods (by me!), task analysis, cognitive modelling etc.