Computer Science E6174-001
Interaction Design: A Perceptual Approach

The short description

An advanced seminar on interaction design. Introduction to relevant topics in psychophysics, cognitive psychology, psycholinguistics and related fields. Application of key attention-directing techniques from fine arts, graphic arts, and illustration. Guest lectures from leaders in these fields. hands-on experience developing skills for participatory design, low-fidelity prototyping, and implementation of custom widgets.

A pictorial description

What do these interfaces have in common?

Text analysis	Sales trader's blotter	NYSE wireless handheld	Knowledge management
Physical interfaces	Ubiquitous computing	Toys / perceptual probes	Fine art

Each one developed the interaction from the ground up, directly addressing user needs; going so far as to invent new widgets and modes of interaction. But those new interaction techniques were only new to computers--they were designed to be familiar to the users, tapping into the way they think about their work. Finally, they were designed with an understanding of the mechanisms of perception, which were engaged using techniques gleaned from artists.

Each was developed with the instructor in the role of lead designer.

We will be studying how to figure out what the user needs, how to develop new interaction techniques when necessary, and how to design them for maximum utility.

A longer description

Required Books

• Palmer: Vision Science: Photons to Phenomenology
  

• Lakoff and Johnson: Metaphors we live by
  
• Anderson: Cognitive Science and its Implications
  
• Bringhurst: The Elements of Typographic Style
  
• Card, Mackinlay, Shneiderman: Information Visualization; Using Vision to Think
  
• Harris: Information Graphics; A Comprehensive Illustrated Reference
  
• Norman: Things That Make Us Smart: Defending Human Attributes in the Age of the Machine
  

Course plan

What follows is a sketch of the class, week by week. It may be rearranged and changed as we go along; based on speaker availability, class feedback, and emerging topics that we all feel are worth pursuing.

Date	Topic	Assignment	Guest speaker
31-Jan-05	Introduction	#0: Make a WebPage introducing yourself.
7-Feb-05	Scope: choosing a project	#2: Find a scope for your term project
14-Feb-05	Observing & interviewing	#3: Interview a user; develop goals/tasks, entities/attributes, states/behaviors chart
21-Feb-05	Low-fidelity prototyping	#4: Draw & fill boxes, windows, scatter plot, bar chart
28-Feb-05	Illustration	#5: Find illustrations, graphs, metaphors, explanations relating to your project
7-Mar-05	Scoping & presentation of term projects, review of areas covered by all class projects	#6: Tuned term project (version-2): resubmit (again)
4-Apr-05	Reading	#7: Readings/Articles
18-Apr-05	Reading	#8: "Local Expert" Readings

Content notes

Introduction, Case Studies

• Lesson plan
• What are illustrative interfaces?
• What are they good for?
• What are their drawbacks?
• A perceptual approach to interaction design

• A (simplified) knowledge-acquisition pipeline:
  Almost everything we care about in this class takes place in less than a second
  • Sensory processing
  • Perceptual processing
  • Cognitive processing
  • Symbolic processing
  • Linguistic processing
  • Semantic/Mnemonic processing
• Beyond the pipeline
  • Behavioral issues
  • Emotional issues
  • Social issues

• General Approach: using design and art techniques to feed perception well
• Things to avoid
• Things to leverage
• Concrete (vs. abstract) data
• Entity/attribute breakdown: making the objects
• State/transition flow: supporting the operations
• Directing attention
• Tools vs. agents
• Model/View/Controller paradigm
• Views: generally, one for each thought process

• Set up an uninterruptible meeting
• Respect the user
• Create an environment for free collaboration
• Provide some structure
• Avoid Whiteboards
• Use physical props
• Do social reinforcement

• Goals
• Preparation: study the existing system & documentation
• Interview all stakeholders
• Interviewing techniques
• Observation
• What to watch for
• Training/first-hand use