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SENG 310: Human Computer Interaction

Lecture 1. Introduction Instructor: Alexandra Branzan Albu

Summer 2010

•  industrial design

•  cognitive psychology

•  human perception

•  graphic design

•  ergonomics

•  linguistics

•  sociology

•  anthropology

•  computer science

•  statistics

•  visualization

HCI is an interdisciplinary course covering areas from:

What is HCI about?

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“Human-computer interaction is about designing computer systems that support people so that they can carry out their activities productively”

It is neither the study of humans, nor the study of technology but rather the bridging between these two

  Human-Computer Interaction (HCI): A discipline concerning the design, evaluation and implementation & study of interactive computing systems for human use (Preece, Rogers, and Sharp 2002)

  Interaction Design (ID): The design of spaces for human-computer interaction and communication (Winograd 1997)

Some definitions

Why HCI?

•  Despite the enormous outward success of personal computers, the daily experience of using computers far too often is still fraught with difficulty, pain, and barriers for most people.

•  The lack of usability of software and the poor design of programs are the secret shame of the industry.

•  Kapor, Software Design Manifesto 5

•  Phase 1 applications replace or automate actions done by humans

•  Phase 2 applications help humans think

•  Successes: o  word processors, spreadsheets, accounting systems,

ATMs, airline registration systems

•  Failures: o  US Patent Office, government systems

o  Safety critical systems: Airbus 320, Aegis

The productivity paradox

•  The process of building software that is usable and useful

•  Design according to many constraints, technical, social, and organizational

•  Maximize user satisfaction and/or productivity as measured by repeatable testing methodologies derived from experimental psychology

Goals of HCI

•  HCI has moved beyond designing widgets and graphic design

•  The focus should be on developing tools to support human activities

•  Facilitating user experiences through designing interactions

 Make work effective, efficient and safer

  Improve and enhance learning and training

  Provide enjoyable and exciting entertainment

  Enhance communication and understanding

  Support new forms of creativity and expression

From HCI to interaction design

•  Effective to use

•  Efficient to use

•  Safe to use

•  Have good utility

•  Easy to learn

•  Easy to remember how to use

Usability goals may be…

•  Satisfying - rewarding

•  Fun - support creativity

•  Enjoyable - emotionally fulfilling

•  Entertaining …and more

•  Helpful

•  Motivating

•  Aesthetically pleasing

User experience goals on the other hand are…

•  How do usability goals differ from user experience goals?

•  Are there trade-offs between the two kinds of goals?

o  e.g. can a product be both fun and safe?

•  How easy is it to measure usability versus user experience goals?

Difference between usability goals and user experience goals

•  Overview of mechanics of the course

•  Importance of creativity (and HCI)

•  How to support your learning in this course!

Goals for today

Introductions

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Who Am I? •  Alexandra Branzan Albu •  Associate Professor in Electrical and Computer

Engineering (cross-listed with Computer Science)

Courses taught: UVic 2007: SENG 412 Ergonomics 2006-2007: SENG 310 Human Computer Interaction 2006-2010: CENG 421 Computer Vision 2008-2010: ELEC 310 Digital Signal Processing I Laval (Quebec) 2005: Linear Algebra for Engineers 2005: Introduction to Virtual Reality 2004-2005: Computer Vision

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My research: Computer Vision

Human Motion Analysis

Medical image analysis

My research (cont’d) Perceptual interfaces

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Software visualization

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My expectations

I expect you to: •  read assigned textbook sections in advance •  read any additional assigned reading in advance •  ask questions (both in and outside class) •  engage fully in all course activities: lectures,

assignments and office hours •  complete all assignments on time •  Be a reliable team player (a lot of the course work

will be done in groups) •  behave ethically

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What about you?

•  I would like to hear about your motivation in taking in this course

•  What are your expectations for this course? Please take a few minutes to write them down and hand them to me afterwards.

•  Course website:

www.ece.uvic.ca/~aalbu/seng310.htm

•  Prerequisite: seng 265 (enforced)

•  Course outline and tentative schedule

•  Midterm 1: June 14 (to be confirmed)

Course mechanics

•  The goal of a project-based HCI course is to learn the craft of interface design by doing so

o Need a project to collaborate on that we can experience

o Most probably, we will design software for digital humanities (e-books, professional reading interfaces)

Class project

•  Class and course participation is an important part of this course (worth 15%)

•  Each day we will take attendance, many days there may be short quizzes or activities worth marks

•  Do the readings before class!

Class and course participation

•  Labs will be activities that extend the class

•  Mostly, labs will be a place to work on the project in your groups

•  Grading is based on in-lab, group, and individual activity

•  Since lab sections are a place to work on the project, project groups need to share the same lab section

Lab sections

•  We need groups of 3 or 4

•  All sharing a lab section

•  All ready to agree on a particular subtopic to work on together

•  Will involve programming, design, user testing, and other activities so choose a team with varied strengths

Project groups

•  Requirements analysis, design, user testing, and finally a usability report and presentation

•  Details will be discussed shortly

Project activities

•  Topics can change up through the second lab

•  Should be testable and realistic feature sets

•  Realism in terms of eventual achievability – you need NOT plan to develop your topic ‘for real’

•  Testing can be on a prototype of varied fidelity

Group topic

•  Will be done in your lab!

•  Labs start next week – you need to attend every lab also (attendance is also taken)

Choosing groups

Creativity:

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

A vision of students today: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o

Future of HCI?

•  http://www.ted.com/talks/pattie_maes_demos_the_sixth_sense.html

Next class: History of HCI – how we got here