University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
School of Information and Library Science
INLS 818
Human Computer Interaction Seminar
Fall 2006
Syllabus
5:30-8:00 Thursdays. Email: march@ils.unc.edu www.ils.unc.edu/~march
Phone (919) 966-3611
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 2006 seminar is problem-based, rooted in ongoing work and specific research interests. Ongoing work relates to the nature of interactivity, browsing and interactive search, personal identity in cyberspace, and digital libraries. Case studies of past and current 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 with emphasis on audio surrogates, structured data annotation, and biometric data collection and measures. Research projects underway for 2006-07 include overviews and previews and faceted interfaces for digital libraries and large web sites, especially video retrieval and browsing; and physiological and affective indicators of human interaction, especially with personal health records. Ongoing development of systems (e.g., Relation Browser, Open Video will be linked to the information resources in the research projects above.
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).
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%)
NOTE: class will not meet Thursday August 24.
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
Assignment: tablet laptop analysis
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)
Bring laptops: Introduction to ISEE and installation on laptops
View The Knowledge Navigator as a visionary personal assistant interface (ISEE presentation)
Discuss readings/viewings
Engelbart
Hearst
Jain
Information seeking framework (slides)
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)
Discussion on stylus input with tablet laptop
Discuss readings/viewings
Greene et al
Marchionini et al
Hearst (TileBars video)
Content
ISEE as a viewing tool
Introduction to Agile views
Geisler dissertation example
Brainstorm term project(s)
Case #1 BLS and Fedstats designs: the genesis of RB+
Readings/viewings for next meeting:
Hyperbolic browser: Read Lamping & Rao (ACM DL)
WebBook and Forager (CHI 96 video)
Large Trees and the Hyperbolic Browser (CHI 96)
Optional
Semantic maps: read Lin (ASIST online)
Spotfire: read Ahlberg & Shneiderman (ACM DL)
Eick, S. (2001). Visualizing online activity (ACM DL)
Week 5 Sept. 28 Representations and Mechanisms #1: Overviews and Previews
Library of Congress National Digital Library Case
In class discussion of Hyperbolic Browser using ISEE (bring laptops) Compare reading the paper vs the video.
The concept of surrogates
Case#2: Library of Congress NDL designs
Design Challenge: Beyond access to contribution: The Sharium concept
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 6. Oct. 5 Representations and Mechanisms #2: Manipulation
Keystokes, mouseactions, gestures, & speech inputs
Discuss readings/viewings:
Furnas
Zuis
Magic lenses
Discuss Pros and cons of Zuis
Readings/viewings for next meeting:
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 7 October 12. Usability; Information Architecture Behind the Interface
Usability testing.
User needs assessment
Participatory design and discount testing
Study design: audio surrogation study as example
Instrumentation. QUIS, Adoption, Flow, sense of presence, cognitive load
I-school conference preview
IA
The problem of metadata and surrogation
Faceted web design (discuss the facet study running fall 06)
approaches to metadata discovery
machine learning, clustering: Discuss Efron et al. [slides on text mining tool kit]
knowledge based heuristics
human indexing
social tagging
The Interface Server concept
Discuss Marchionini & Brunk
Assignment: Outline a study design that incorporates physiological data (due Oct. 31)
Readings/viewings for next week
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 Fall Break, no class
Week 9 October 26 (no class: Multimedia Conference)
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 Nov. 2 Universal Access
Discuss Chisholm et al
Discuss talking to the ceiling
Update on audio maps (Ancient World Mapping Center)
Readings/viewings for next meeting:
Week 11. Nov. 9. No Class (ASIST conference/NLM BLIRC)
Week 12 Nov. 16 IDL User Studies
Case #3: 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. 23 No Class (Thanksgiving)
Week 14 Nov 30. Help
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 15 Dec 7 Interaction Trends
Discuss readings/viewings:
Weiser
Want & Schilit
Norman
Discuss Alternative and Multiple I/O
PDAs, sensors, and location awareness
VR, AR
Week 16 Dec 14 Project Presentations