CSE491 HumanComputer Interaction

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CSE491Human-Computer Interaction

• Eileen Kraemer
• kraemere_at_cse.msu.edu
• 8/28/07

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Course content

• Design, implementation, evaluation of user
  interfaces for computer systems
• Take into account
• human factors
• usability
• design process
• Topics include
• effects of human capabilities and limitations on
  interaction with computer systems
• Ethics and rules for working with human subjects
• Experimental design and statistical analysis
• New topics in HCI

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Projects ..

• Students will apply these concepts to the design
  and implementation of graphical user interfaces.
• Java will be used for UI design guidelines for
  such use will be discussed

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What do you already know? Folk HCI

• Folk theories (e.g. folk psychology, folk
  physics) help in everyday explanations (e.g. why
  people do things, what will happen to cartoon
  character when he runs off cliff)
• Folk HCI Our intuitive knowledge about usability
  and explanations

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However .

• Folk theories are often wrong w.r.t.
  scientific/engineering analyses

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Folk definitions of usability

• Speed of response
• Regularity of response
• Intuitiveness
• Familiarity
• Legibility
• Navigability
• Freedom from error

• Expected feedback
• Absence of visual clutter
• Clear what to pay attention to ..
• All good ideas, but
• What do they really mean?
• How do we achieve them?

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Understanding humans

• Humans sensory processors
• Sensory psych., EE CS systems
• Humans interpreters/predictors
• Cog. Psych and AI
• Humans actors in environments
• Activity theory, ethnograpy, ecological
  psychology
• Question How much and how rapidly do humans
  change?

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What makes a system usable?

• Humans sensory processors
• Usability fit with human limits
• Humans interpreters/predictors
• Usability fit with knowledge
• Humans actors in environment
• Usability fit with task and social context

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Two views of interaction

• Interaction with
• Software system is tool or machine
• Interface is a usability-engineered membrane
• Human-as-processor and interpreter model
• Interaction through
• Software is a medium used to interact with task
  objects or other people
• Software must make affordance visible
• Human-as-interpreter -actor models

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Broadening the Cognitive Framework

• Recent developments in cognitive psychology
• From human factors to human actors
• Cognition and action as socialVygotsky
• Distributed cognition
• Use of artifacts as external memoriesHutchins

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Affordances

• What sort of operations and manipulations can be
  done to a particular object Norman
• Examples
• Handles
• Scroll bars
• Other virtual affordances such as icons

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Good resources ..

• The HCI Bibliography
• ACM SIGCHI Curriculum for HCI
• First Principles of Human-Computer Interaction
• Online article
• PPT presentation

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The ideal order of coverage

• Design
• Implementation
• Evaluation
• but that would push implementation too late in
  the semester for you to have time to accomplish
  much ..

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Our order of coverage

• Implementation
• Design
• Evaluation
• on Thursday well begin a rapid-fire coverage
  of Java. Much is quite similar to C so well
  be able to move quickly.