University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

School of Information and Library Science

 

INLS 357

Human Computer Interaction Seminar

Fall 2005

Syllabus

 

Time and Place                                                     Instructor: Gary Marchionini            

12:30-3:15 Wednesdays.                                     Email: march@ils.unc.edu                   www.ils.unc.edu/~march

Room 304 Manning Hall                                     Office 203 Manning Hall

Phone (919) 966-3611

 

Brief Course Description

 

This seminar will address research and development issues related to the design and evaluation of user interfaces that support information seeking and information use.  The seminar will investigate the nature of interactivity, user needs assessment, universal access and alternative interfaces, query and browse interactions, iterative design and maintenance, and usability testing.  Participants will read/view and discuss documents (text and video), compare and critique user interfaces for information retrieval, and work in a team to develop and evaluate an interface prototype or conduct a usability study of an existing interface.

The Fall 2005 seminar is problem-based, rooted in ongoing work and specific research interests.  Ongoing work relates to the nature of interactivity, browsing and interactive search, learning and explanation, and digital libraries.  Case studies of past projects related to these themes will be used to illustrate principles and skills. Some themes and problem areas this semester will include: personal health record usability, video retrieval and annotation, impact of interactive interfaces for retrieval and understanding, structured data annotation, and biometric data collection and measures.  Research projects underway for 2006-06 include overviews and previews for digital libraries and large web sites, especially video retrieval and browsing; physiological and affective indicators of human interaction, especially with personal health records; and statistical data annotation, understanding and usage.  Ongoing development of systems (e.g., Relation Browser) related to the concept of interface servers will be linked to the information resources in the research projects above.

 

Course Materials

No textbook is required.  Required readings/viewings are online.  Laptops are required for some class sessions (with wireless card and/or CD or DVD drive).

 

Assignments and Evaluation

Term Project: class defined design and implementation or formal usability study (40%)

Critique (10%), user study outline (10%), mini problem synthesis  (15%)

Readings/viewings, Interface “Tours”, and Class Participation (25%)

 

Tentative Schedule

 

Session                  Topic                                                                     

 

Week 1 Aug. 31   Introduction: Information Interaction Perspective

Day 1 Notes

Introduction to course

HCI as augmentation of the intellect

Interface as manifestation of the embodied mind

Information retrieval and information experience as HCI applications: Toward HCIR

 

Review of Software Design Processes

                (waterfalls and spirals)

                people in the process (programmers, managers, end-users)

The SILS perspective

                problem context, user needs assessment, prototypes, usability tests, iteration

 

Optional readings/viewings (only if you need to brush up or want to focus on design process):

                Curtis, B., Krasner, H., & Iscoe, N. (1988).  A field study of the software design process for large systems.  CACM, 31(11), 1268-1287.  (online in ACM DL).  Case study for many different large projects and importance of cognitive, social, and organizational processes.

                Brooks, F. (1982). (reprinted from original 1975 edition).  The mythical man-month: Essays on software engineering.  Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.  The classic work on how people matter in large scale projects

                Mayhew, D. (1999). The usability engineering lifecycle: A practitioner’s handbook for user interface design. San Francisco, Morgan-Kaufmann.  Practical examples of iterative design.

                Shneiderman, B & Plaisant. C. (2004 4rd Ed.).  Designing the user interface.  Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.  The three pillars of interface development: guidelines documents and process; user interface software tools; expert reviews and usability testing.

                Koyani, S., Bailey, R., & Nall, J. (2003). Research-based web design & usability guidelines.  Washington, DC: National Cancer Institute, NIH Publication  No. 03-5424

                Kreitzberg’s LUCID framework: http://www.cognetics.com/lucid/index.html  (see e.g., 10 Steps to Creating the Perfect Web Site paper)

                Nielsen’s Alertbox: www.useit.com/alertbox

 

Resources Tour: Interaction Design Lab www.ils.unc.edu/idl

Resources Tour : HCI Bibliography : http://www.hcibib.org/

Resources Tour: UMD HCIL http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/

 

Assignment:  Term Project

 

Readings/viewings for next meeting:

A vision of augmentation of the intellect: Read Engelbart http://www.bootstrap.org/augdocs/friedewald030402/augmentinghumanintellect/ahi62index.html

Interfaces for IR: Hearst (book chapter) http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/%7Ehearst/irbook/10/chap10.html

Experience: Jain (ACM DL) Experiential computing.  CACM, 46(7), 48-55

 

Optional: HCI evolution: read Marchionini & Komlodi http://ils.unc.edu/~march/arist.pdf

Optional: an important side effect: Read Meister

Optional: the roots of HCI: Shackel

Optional: Requirements for search: Shneiderman et al. http://www.dlib.org/dlib/january97/retrieval/01shneiderman.html  (DLIB)

 

Week 2 September 7 The Problem of Information Seeking

Day 2 Notes

Discuss readings/viewings

Engelbart

Marchionini & Kolmlodi

Hearst

Jain

Bring laptops:  Introduction to ISEE and installation on laptops

View The Knowledge Navigator as a visionary personal assistant interface (ISEE presentation)

 

Readings/viewings for next meeting:

SILS perspective: Read Marchionini, Geisler, & Brunk http://ils.unc.edu/~march/agileviews/Agileviews.pdf

Overviews and previews: read Greene et al. http://ils.unc.edu/~march/jasis_ovpv.pdf  (also ASIST online w/o color)

View TileBars using ISEE (CHI 96 video) (use chat window for personal notes)

 

Optional

View Filmfinder (HCIL 2000 video)

 

Week 3 Sept. 14  Information Seeking (continued) and the Agile Views Design Framework           

Day 3 Notes

Guest: Professor Sri Kalyanaraman

Information seeking framework (slides)

 

Introduction to Agile views

Geisler dissertation example

 

Brainstorm term project(s)

 

Case #1 BLS and Fedstats designs: the genesis of RB+

 

Discuss readings/viewings:

Greene et al

Marchionini et al

Hearst (TileBars video)

                Content

                ISEE as a viewing tool

 

Readings/viewings for next meeting:

Hyperbolic browser: Read Lamping & Rao  (ACM DL)

WebBook and Forager (CHI 96 video)

 

Optional

Semantic maps: read Lin (ASIST online)

Spotfire: read Ahlberg & Shneiderman  (ACM DL)

Eick, S. (2001). Visualizing online activity (ACM DL)

 

Week 4 Sept. 21 Representations and Mechanisms #1: Overviews and Previews

Day 4 Notes

In class discussion of Hyperbolic Browser using ISEE (bring laptops) Compare reading the paper vs the video.

 

Readings/viewings for next meeting:

Fisheye views: Furnas (ACM DL)

View Pad++ (HCIL 2000 video)

View PhotoMesa (HCIL 2000 video)

View a Taxonomy of See Through Tools (CHI 95 video)

 

Optional

WebToc: Read Nation et al. ftp://ftp.cs.umd.edu/pub/hcil/Demos/WebTOC/Paper/WebTOC.html

The promise and problems of SUIs: read Yanlelovich et al.  (ACM DL)

Evaluating text tasks: read Karat et al. (ACM DL)

 

Week 5. Sept 28  Representations and Mechanisms #2: Manipulation

Day 5 Notes

Keystokes, mouseactions, gestures, & speech inputs

Discuss readings/viewings:

                Furnas

                Zuis

                Magic lenses

 

Case#2: Library of Congress NDL designs

Design Challenge: Beyond access to contribution: The Sharium concept

 

Discuss Pros and cons of Zuis using ISEE (groups in class)

                               

Readings/viewings for next meeting:

Marshall, & Bly (2005).  Saving and using encountered information: Implications for electronic periodicals

Efron et al. (ils.unc.edu/govstat)

Marchionini, G. & Brunk, B. (2003).  Toward a General Relation Browser: A GUI for Information Architects.  Journal of Digital Information, 4(1), http://jodi.ecs.soton.ac.uk/Articles/v04/i01/Marchionini/

View Browsing anatomical image databases—the visible human (CHI 96 video)

 

Week 6 October 5. Information Architecture Behind the Interface

Day 6 Notes

Guest: Cathy Marshall

The problem of metadata

Discuss visible human---what needs to get to the client-side interface?

Categorization to support browsing

Automatic approaches to categorization

Discuss Efron et al.

 

The Interface Server concept

Discuss Marchionini & Brunk

 

Readings/viewings for next week

Evaluating interaction: Read Koenemann & Belkin (ACM DL)

Evaluating video skims: Read Christel et al. (ACM DL)

                             

Week 7 October 12 Usability

Day 7 Notes

Term Project updates

User-centered design

                User needs assessment

                Participatory design and discount testing

 

Discuss readings/viewings

Koenemann & Belkin

Christel et al.

 

Readings/viewings for next meeting:

Learning from eye movements: read Jacob (ACM DL)

Biometrics: read Pankanti, Bolle, & Jain   http://www.research.ibm.com/ecvg/pubs/sharat-future.pdf

Anttonen & Surakka (ACM DL)

 

Optional

Marchionini & Mu . http://ils.unc.edu/~march/IPM_tablebrowser_studies_submission.pdf

Bolle, R., Connell, J., Pankanti, S., Ratha, N., & Senior, A. (2002). Biometrics 101.  IBM Research Report, Computer Science, RC22481, June 2002. http://www.research.ibm.com/ecvg/pubs/ruud-bio101.html

 

Week 8 October 19  Physiological data collection: Eye Tracking & Biometrics

Day 8 Notes

Guest: Xia Lin

 

Eye tracking in IDL

Discuss readings/viewings:

                Jacob

                Pankanti et al

 

Assignment: Outline a study design that incorporates physiological data (due next week)

 

Readings/viewings for next meeting:

Universal access: Read Chisholm, Vanderheiden, & Jacobs (ACM DL)

Becker (ACM DL)

View Talking to the Ceiling (CHI 99 video)

 

Optional reading: Raman (ACM DL)

 

Week 10  October 26 Universal Access        

Day 9 Notes

Review study outlines

 

Discuss Chisholm et al

Discuss talking to the ceiling

Update on audio maps (Ancient World Mapping Center)

 

Readings/viewings for next meeting:

IRB packages for studies (URLs to be provided)

 

Week 11.  Nov. 2.  No Class (ASIST conference)

 

Week 12 Nov. 9 IDL User Studies

Day 10 Notes

Case #4: Open Video redesign

Fast Forward study

TREC study

Integration of surrogates study

RB+ study

               

Readings/viewings for next meeting :

White, Ruthven & Rose (ACM DL)

Dominick et al.  Portal Help: http://ils.unc.edu/ils/research/reports/TR-2003-01.pdf

View Ambient rooms (CHI 98 video)

View Digital jewelry (CHI 01 video)

 

Optional: Carroll & Rosson

 

Week 13  Nov 16. Help

Day 11 Notes

Guest: Ryen White

Readings/viewings for next meeting:

Ubiquitous (calm) computing: read Weiser & Brown http://www.ubiq.com/hypertext/weiser/calmtech/calmtech.htm

Location aware devices: Want & Schilit http://seattleweb.intel-research.net/people/schilit/Want-Computer-2001.pdf

Aesthetics: Norman (ACM DL)

 

Week 14. Nov. 23 No Class (Thanksgiving)

 

Week 15 Nov 30  Interaction Trends

Day 13 Notes

 

Discuss readings/viewings:

                Weiser

                Want & Schilit

                Norman

                Jain (revisited)

Discuss Alternative and Multiple I/O

PDAs, sensors, and location awareness

VR, AR

 

Week 16 Dec 7 Project Presentations