Spring Semester 2012: 91.527 Introduction to HCI

newBe prepared to meet in your groups

I am planning a lecture that will not take up the whole class time on 30 April, so you can use the remainder to meet in your groups.

No class on 16 April!

The school is closed in honor of Patriot's Day.

Groups

Aerial Robotics, Inc:

Neal Hagermoser, Katie King, Sean McSheehy, Jwalin Pandya

Rugged Robotics, Inc.:

Christine O’Toole, Elad Shahar, Luke Immes, Jing Xu

Rescue Robotics, Inc.:

Yubin Tong, Puneet Agrawal, Andrew Galeucia, Matt Ouellette

Ready Robotics, Inc.:

Ruchika Yagik, Chunyao Song, Zheng Li

Yet more guidance for homework due 2/6

Remember that you should find at least 2 sets of principles. Also, please tell me whose principles they are, and where you found them (if they exist as a webpage).

Guidance for the next two assignments

There seems to be some confusion regarding the next two assignments because they are both related to principles. Here is some guidance.

For the HOMEWORK, which is due on 6 February, please go onto the web and look for complete sets of principles of HCI (which may also be called usability principles or usability heuristics). An example of a set of usability principles is Nielsen's heuristics, which I showed you in class:

http://www.useit.com/papers/heuristic/heuristic_list.html . (Do not turn in Nielsen's heuristics, since we have already talked about them.) I'm not looking for a single principle: but instead I'm looking for lists of general, high-level, non-application-specific principles created by a researcher or industrial group. Each set should probably have between 5 and 25 items. Any fewer than 5, and it's not really a complete set; and any more than 25 and it is at the wrong level of detail. When you print out the set, circle the items that you believe make up the set. You do not need to explain the principles. This is not intended to be a hard assignment, so don't over-think it. The purpose of this assignment is to expose you to the similarities and differences among sets.

For the individual PRESENTATION, which is due either on the last Monday of this month or the first Monday in March according to what it said on the slip of paper that you drew in class, you will be concentrating on just ONE principle: the one on your slip of paper. Each of you should find three specific examples of applications or website pages that do an especially good job of designing in accordance with that principle. Further, you should find three specific examples in which the principle was violated. Include rationale for why the principle was upheld or violated in each case. In the case of violations, also provide your assessment of how the design should be changed to no longer violate the principle. The examples should not be too similar to each other; try to find a broad set of circumstances that illustrate good and bad uses of the principle. Your findings should be documented in a Powerpoint file that you present during a 15-minute period to me and your classmates. Turn in a hardcopy of the Powerpoint file. You will be graded on the breadth of the examples, the appropriateness of the examples, the accuracy of your interpretation of the principle, the quality of your recommendations for resolving the violations of the principle, and the how clearly you present the information. The purpose of this assignment is to give you practice understanding how to apply the principles to design decisions.

I'd like to know your preferred email address

In some cases I already know what email address you like to use, because you've already emailed me, but I don't know everyone's. If you weren't in class on 1/30, please send me your preferred email address.

Course Description

The purpose of this class is to ground you in the basics of how humans interact with technology, and to introduce you to the breadth of what human-computer interaction (HCI) encompasses. Although it is called HCI, the concepts presented in the course should also help you understand how people use machines (most of which are computer controlled). At the end of the course you will be able to cite basic principles that are relevant to human interaction designs and devise a usability engineering plan to accompany development of new human interfaces. What distinguishes this course from one that is taught at an undergraduate level is the fact that it will emphasize more theoretical constructs and include seminal readings by the original researchers rather than simply textbook descriptions of their work. Also, it will include a project whereby you will design a prototype interface.