Week 6: Interface

Tuesday, February 9th Overview


  • Review of Interactivity assignment: 3:30-4:20

In Groups of 2 try out each other's drawing tools as follows:

Partner 1- Download your partner's drawing tool from the week 5 Github and spend 7 minutes experimenting with it. You are encouraged to talk aloud during this process by asking questions and expressing your reactions.

Partner 2- provide guidance in using the tool only as needed or if your partner directly requests it(it's fine to provide guidance in the installation stage if necessary).

After 7 minutes switch roles (Partner 2 download and try out the tool, Partner 1 observe)

After 14 minutes of trying out each others' software, spend 7 minutes discussing your experiences and observations.

Follow with a joint group discussion focused on the following questions

  • How was your partner's approach to using the tool similar to how you interacted with it? How was it different?

  • After observing your partner use the tool, how if at all would you modify the interaction?

  • How (if at all) could you imagine altering the tool so that no textual descriptions or labels are required to use it? Would this be desirable?

  • Reflect on the process of simultaneously designing a tool and creating images with it. What was enjoyable about this experience? What was challenging?

  • Break: 4:20-4:30

  • Computational Interfaces for Creative Programming 4:30-5:10

  1. Computing Devices

Vannevar Bush's Memex as presented in As We May Think (1945)

Alan Kay's Dynabook (1968)

  1. Graphical User Interfaces and Direct Manipulation

MacPaint- Created by Bill Atkinson (1984)
MacPaint Interview and demonstration with Bill Atkinson at the Computer History Museum

Craig Hickman's Kid Pix (1989)
News Interview demonstrating the features of Kid Pix in 1991


  1. Visual Programming

Data Flow Programming Languages:

Pure Data (for audio)

Grasshopper (for CAD)

Nodebox (for vectors)


Block-based languages:

Scratch
App Inventor
Blockly

  1. Programming and Direct Manipulation

Recursive Drawing from Toby Schachman.

(You can try it out!)


Sticky Lines: Marianela Ciolfi Felice, Nolwenn Maudet, Wendy E. Mackay and Michel Beaudouin-Lafon (2016)
Video Demonstration of Sticky Lines

Data Illustrator: Leo Zhicheng Liu, John Thompson, Alan Wilson, Mira Dontcheva, James Delorey, Sam Grigg, Bernard Kerr, and John Stasko (2018) (link to paper and demo)

Kitty: Sketching Dynamic Illustrations: Rubiat Habib Kazi, Fanny Chevalier, George Fitzmaurice, and Tovi Grossman (2019)

Sketch-n-Sketch: Brian Hempel and Ravi Chugh (2019)



Assignment

  • Reading

  1. User Interface: A Personal View by Alan Kay (1989)

  2. Alternative Programming Interfaces for Alternative Programmers by Toby Schachman (2012)

  3. OPTIONAL READING: Instrumental Interaction: An Interaction Model for Designing Post-WlMP User Interfaces by Michel Beaudouin-Lafon (2000)

  • Complete a reading reflection in the slide deck by Wednesday, 6pm