Introduction to HCI

ITEC 2210-01
January 12, 2009 Opening Day!

For today . . .
See whos in class Look at the textbooks Go over the syllabus Take a look at the semesters projects

OK!
Whos in the class?

Textbooks
Design of Everyday Things, Donald Norman The Atomic Chef, Steven Casey About Face: The Essentials of Interaction Design, Alan Cooper et al

What well be doing

The course is project-based; there are no exams

Interface-Design Project
Proposal for semester project (10%) User analysis and task analysis for semester project (10%) Project plan (5%) First use-case exercise (10%) Second use-case exercise (10%) Working prototype (15%) Team Assessment (10%) Presentation of usability evaluation (10%) Report on The Atomic Chef (5%) Class participation (15%)

Why Study HCI?

Or . . . HCI has been in the news

A Famous Event in Recent Times (The easiest time ever to teach an HCI course)

Some reactions

More reactions

Reactions to reactions

A Possible Solution

Another Possibility

Maybe the Best Solution

Where did things go wrong?

How could it have been prevented?

Dimensions of Usability

Dimensions of Usability
Task dimension Motivation or goal dimension Product dimension Cognitive dimension Interactivity dimension Comfort dimension

Task Dimension
Comfort with task itself Complexity of task Frustration level inherent in task Rewards of task

Motivation or Goal Dimension

Willingness to overcome obstacles Rewards and penalties Immediacy of reward Mental attitude

Product Dimension
Opinion of product Perceived status of product Prior experience with product Experience with similar products

Cognitive Dimension
Demands on long-term and short-term memory Analytic vs spatial thinking Amount of tedium

Interactivity Dimension
Control of dialog Clarity of dialog structure and requirements Amount and pace of interaction Tone of interaction

 Mental comfort Familiarity Degree of certainty

Physical comfort Eye strain Hand motion Complexity of keystrokes

Comfort Dimension

Future Plans . . .
Get the textbooks if you havent already Start doing the readings Start thinking about the semester project

Future Plans . . .
Some readings are due for Thursday: Design of Everyday Things and About Face Monday is a day off from school The first assignment is due the following week.

Gearing up for the semesterlong assignment

The semester-long assignment can be done in groups of 2 or 3

For the project you will design an interactive interface

It could be hardware, software, or a combination of both, that can be web-based or not. By the end of the semester, you should have a working model that you can demonstrate in class and that you can use to conduct usability tests

The interface that you design should be . . .

Of a suitable scope that youll be able to manage in one semester Of sufficient scope and complexity that it will be an interesting project (that is, one that I will find interesting to grade) Sufficiently innovative that it is not something weve seen already

For Assignment 1 (project proposal). Tell me . . .

What the interactive interface is What it does Who would use it What they would use it for What is special and innovative about it Why I should be happy with it and proud of you for doing it

Questions

Go forth !!
and make the world usable !