Jan 13
1. Course Introduction ; Why are Interfaces Important, and Why are they Hard To Design and Implement?
- Required Readings:
-
- Nielsen Text: Chapters 1, 2
-
Brad A. Myers. "Challenges of HCI Design and Implementation," ACM
Interactions. vol. 1, no. 1. January, 1994. pp. 73-83. ACM
DL Reference.
Discusses why user interfaces are important, and why they are hard to design and implement.
Jan 15
Overview of VB .Net 1
Presented by TAs
Powerpoint slides for tutorial
Visual Basic quick reference
Files from the demo
- HW 1 given out: VB Warm-up:
-
- Assign1-VBwarmup.doc
- if you are using VB version 6: sortdown.vb6.zip
- if you are using VB .net: sortdown.vbnet.zip
Jan 20
Overview of VB .Net 2
Note: This class will meet in the computer cluster in Wean 5202/5204
presented by TAs
Jan 22
2. What is design?
- Required Readings:
-
- Norman book (all chapters)
HW 1 due
HW 2 given out: Use all the widgets:
see Assign2-VBuseallClockElev.doc
Jan 27
3. How to design a good user study
- Required Readings:
-
- Nielsen's text, chapters 6, 7
- Kathleen Gomoll, "Some Techniques for Observing Users," From The Art of Human-Computer Interface Design, Brenda Laurel, ed. New York: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc., 1992. Pp. 85- 90. PDF
- Marc Rettig, "Prototyping for tiny fingers", Communications of the ACM, Volume 37 , Issue 4 (April 1994), Pages: 21 - 27. PDF
Jan 29
How to design a good user study, continued
Feb 3
4. Usability Engineering Design Process
- Required Readings:
- Nielsen Text: Chapter 4
- Recommended Readings:
- John D. Gould and Clayton Lewis. "Designing for usability: key principles and what designers think," Communications of the ACM. Volume 28 , Issue 3 (March 1985), pp. 300 - 311. ACM DL PDF
Feb 5
Brad away: HCIC Conference
Guest lecture: David Bishop, Human Sciences Director/Senior Interaction Designer for Maya Design
PowerPoint Slides for Guest Lecture
- HW 2 due.
HW 3 given out: Iteratively Design and User Test a Photocopier:
Feb 10
5. UI Design: UI Guidelines, Heuristic Analysis
- Required Readings:
- Nielsen Text: Chapter 5
- Recommended Readings:
- Nielsen Text: Chapter 8
Feb 12
Heuristic Analysis, cont.
HW 3 first user test and preliminary implementation due
Feb 17
Examples of Good and Bad User Interfaces
Each student needs to send 2 examples: one of a good UI feature and one bad:
Feb 19
In-class student presentations for HW 3
HW 3 final due
HW 4 handed out: Iteratively Design and User Test a Device
Feb 24
6. Overview of UI Software and Tools (Basic Organization of UI Software)
- Required Readings:
-
- Brad A. Myers. "User Interface Software Tools," ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction. vol. 2, no. 1, March, 1995. pp. 64-103. ACM DL Reference
- Brad A. Myers. "A Brief History of Human Computer Interaction Technology." ACM interactions. Vol. 5, no. 2, March, 1998. ACM DL Reference. (A previous version appeared as CS TR CMU-CS-96-163 and HCII TR CMU-HCII-96-103: html)
HW 4: Which device you are doing due
Feb 26
6. Overview of UI Software and Tools (Basic Organization of UI Software), cont.
Andy's Task Design slides, from February 26th, 2004, in PowerPoint and pdf
Mar 2
In-class midterm
Mar 4
7. UI Styles, Dimensions of UI Variability
- Required Readings:
-
- Nielsen Text: Chapter 3
- Recommended Readings:
- Nielsen Text: Chapter 10
Mar 9
Mar 11
Mar 16
UI Styles, cont.
HW 4: First part due (note: new due date)
HW5: Start
Heuristic Analysis of each other's systems
Mar 18
8. Toolkits and Widgets (different kinds of widgets, how to choose, how to program)
Mar 23
9. Basic Computer Graphics for UIs (screen sizes, pixels, colors, anti-aliasing, object-oriented graphics vs. paint)
HW 5: Heuristic Analysis of each other's systems due
Mar 25
Overview of Flash MX
Given by the TAs (in the usual classroom)
Mar 30
In-class student presentations for HW 4 & 5
(will use NSH 1305 and NSH 1507)
- HW 6: Flash warm-up handed out:
Apr 1
10. Programming animation and time and sound
PowerPoint Slides for Topic 10
HW 4: final report due
Apr 6
11. Design for International Audiences
PowerPoint Slides for Topic 11
- Required Readings:
- Nielsen Text: Chapter 9
- HW 7: A Kiosk Implemented in Flash given out:
Apr 8
12. Software Organization: MVC, Object-Oriented Programming for UIs
PowerPoint Slides for Topic 12
HW 6: Flash warm-up due
HW 7: Ideas due by email
Apr 13
13. Research topics in UI Software: Demonstrational Interface Builders
PowerPoint Slides for Topic 13
- Recommended Readings:
- Brad Myers, Richard McDaniel and David Wolber. "Intelligence in Demonstrational Interfaces," Communications of the ACM. March, 2000. vol. 43, no. 3. pp. 82-89. pdf
Apr 15
No class; day before carnival
Apr 20
14. Research topics in UI Software: Natural Programming
PowerPoint Slides for Topic 14
Andrew Ko's talk as a
Quicktime movie (18 megabytes)
- Recommended Readings:
- Natural Programming project web site.
- B. A. Myers, J. F. Pane and A. Ko. "Natural Programming Languages and Environments." To appear in Communications of the ACM. [pdf]
- Ko, A. J. and Myers, B. A. (2004). "Designing the Whyline: A Debugging Interface for Asking Questions About Program Failures." To appear at CHI 2004 in Vienna, Austria. [pdf]
- J.F. Pane, B.A. Myers, and L.B. Miller, Using HCI Techniques to Design a More Usable Programming System, Proceedings of IEEE 2002 Symposia on Human Centric Computing Languages and Environments (HCC 2002), Arlington, VA, September 3-6, 2002, pp 198-206.
Apr 22
In-class student presentations for HW 7
(will use NSH 1305 and NSH 1507)
Apr 27
No class; during CHI'2004
Apr 29