CSC 484: Human-Computer Interaction
Gene Fisher (gfisher@calpoly.edu)
Office: 14-210
Office Hours: MWF 2-3PM, Tu 9-11AM, and by appointment
The general subject matter of this course is how human beings interact with designed artifacts. The artifacts can range from candy machines to web-based multi-player games. There are certain general principles of interaction that apply to these, and any other form of interactive device.
Given the background of most class members, the type of engineered artifacts we deal with are predominantly computer-based. While we will study general principles of human interaction, we will focus more specifically on principles of human-computer interaction (HCI). HCI is equivalently referred as computer- human interaction (CHI). A related sub-discipline is called "human factors in computing". The human factors side of things focuses more on the social and psychological aspects of HCI. The "other" side is more technological, focusing on tools and techniques for HCI.
For our purposes in 484, the over-arching term "HCI" will work fine, despite what subtle differences the alternate names may connote. In terms of catalog descriptions, this year's version of CSC 484 will include some material from the related course CSC 483. The official titles are:
The course objectives are the following:
CSC 307 or 308, and junior or senior standing.
You will pursue the following activities, in teams of approximately five people:
The text book is
The book contains many references to additional reading, and has an accompanying website with further material and links. The site is http://id-book.com/
There is a CSC 484 course website at
~gfisher/classes/484.
There is a variety of material on the site, organized into the following
directories:
Like almost all course texts, ours is not perfect, nor does it provide complete in-depth coverage of all course material. It does contain many useful references, as do the websites for the book and course. The positive aspects of the textbook are these:
There will be a total of three assignments, covering project-related topics. Some of the work you do in the assignments may be reusable in your class project, but the assignments will have separate and specific deliverable dates from the project.
The assignment topics are as follows:
Insofar as possible, class projects will be based on the interests and expertise of class members. During the first lab, you will fill out a brief questionnaire that will provide some data to be used in project selection and team formation.
As noted in Activities above, all projects will involve some form of usability study. Depending on the size and scope of the study, it may form the basis for the entire project. My preference is for all teams do at least some prototype development for the project. Given this, here are the three acceptable structures for project work:
The different assignments and project focus on different types of work, and so may lend themselves to different team compositions. You may choose whether to stay with them same set of classmates on one team throughout the quarter. This one team will work on all of the assignments, the project, and the debates. Alternatively, you can change team membership, based on the tasks at hand, and the interests of other class members.
In other words, you will be a member of following logical teams, whose physical membership may be the same, or may vary from team to team:
Teams will give a number of presentations of their work, both on the assignments and for the projects. Presentation scheduling details will be determined by the end of the second week of class.
I will post weekly research papers that all class members are required to read. Owing to the short first week, the first paper will be for both weeks 1 and 2. The papers will be on topics related to the assignments and projects. This week's paper is called "Investigating attractiveness in web user interfaces", by Hartmann, Sutcliffe, and De Angeli, from the University of Manchester.
More so than with many computing disciples, HCI research papers are quite accessible to a general readership. There is little use of sophisticated mathematics or algorithmic reasoning, that would require a particular technical background. There is use of terminology with which you may not be familiar, in particular from the fields of psychology and sociology. (Pseudo- scientists often like to use gratuitously specialized vocabulary, to afford there research a sense of depth.) When you come across such terminology, you should look it up. I can even live with Wikipedia for such look ups.
In many cases, the papers will be available at the ACM digital library. The digital library is a subscription-based service. As a Cal Poly student, you can use the campus-wide subscription to gain full access to all the digital library holdings. The most important part of full access is that you can download PDF versions of full articles. Without a subscription, you can only access the abstracts and bibliographies.
If you follow paper the link from a browser running on a campus machine, you
will automatically gain full access to the digital library. For example, the
screen for this week's paper looks like this:
From off campus, you can gain full access to the ACM digital library through the Poly portal. Click on the "Library Services" link and select "All Article Databases." You will see the ACM and IEEE digital libraries.
If you access the digital library without a subscription, you can still search for articles, read the abstracts, and see the full bibliographies. However you cannot access the full text of the articles.
A great way to have guaranteed full library access, as well as other benefits, is to become a student member of the ACM. See http://www.acm.org/membership/student/student-toc.
There will be a total of five quizzes. They will be held in lab, on Fridays of the even weeks of class. The quiz duration will be 20 to 30 minutes each. The majority of quiz questions will be based on material from the required research paper readings. I will provide an overview of quiz topics on the Wednesday before each quiz. The quizzes may be open-note or closed-note, depending on the subject matter.
During the last week or two of class, labs will be devoted to formal debates on pointed topics. "Pointed" means thought provoking and controversial. Each team will argue one side of the debate, following established debating rules and procedures.
Here are some possible topics:
The labs will be used for the various activities described above:
For the most part, all members of a team will receive the same grade on team- based deliverables. There will be some aspects of the assignments and projects that are individual responsibilities, for which you will receive individual grades. The assignment and project writeups will provide precise grading breakdowns.
A high level grading breakdown is as follows
Assignments (3): 40%Further grading details will be given with the assignment and project writeups.
Project (4 milestones): 45%
Quizzes (5): 15%
The standard grading breakdown is 90% = A, 80% = B, 70% = C, 60% = D, below 60% = F. I may lower the curve, but not raise it. E.g., if you receive >= 90% of the possible points on all graded work, you are guaranteed an A or A- in the class.
A detailed activity schedule will be made available by the second week of
class, once the the number and size of teams is established. Scheduling
details will be subject to refinement as necessary throughout the quarter.
Date Page Description 2 April First distribution, paper copies handed out in class. 23 May 5
- Adjusted high-level grading breakdown:
- Debate is replaced with an Assignment 4.
- There are 4 quizzes instead of 5; Quizzes 1-3 worth 35 each; Quiz 4 worth 6%.
- Final exam is replaced with final project presentations.