Computing technology is radically changing the manner in which we work and communicate. The field of human-computer interaction (HCI) is highly interdisciplinary, bringing together researchers and practitioners from fields such as Psychology, Computer Science & Engineering, Business, Sociology, Linguistics etc. HCI researchers and developers have a common focus of creating and/or evaluating technologies which can expand the frontiers of human capabilities (functionality) while at the same time trying to match these technologies to the abilities of the people who will use them (usability).

This course will include a broad survey of many HCI topics, each studied from a psychological perspective. We will not be using a textbook. The readings will be primarily journal articles from the fields of psychology and computer science. Reading the articles before class and being ready to discuss them and/or apply the knowledge to class projects is very important. Individual writing assignments serve as one way to evaluate your active engagement with the readings. (see below).

Reaction Papers -Before specified class sessions in which we discuss an article, you are to read it and write some comments on the article. This can include a brief summary of the stated purpose of the article, how well the authors fulfilled that purpose, and what methods they used. You can also write any questions about concepts that were either unclear in the article or which need further elaboration. If you find any connection with other articles we have discussed in class or from your own experience, include these insights as well. Each paper should be less than 3 pages and take no more than one hour to write (above and beyond the reading time).  The papers will be used to inform class discussions, and undergo peer and instructor review.

Another component of the course will be using software tools to explore the rapidly growing worldwide computer resources available on the Internet and the World Wide Web (WWW). The course will introduce you to the emerging "Information Superhighway". We will discuss some of the psychological issues raised by this technology, including cognitive, personality, social, and educational. You will also be creating personal and group WWW pages.

1)  Geek Speak - At the beginning of each class students will take turns giving a 5 minute oral presentation on some arcane computer acronym, terminology or technology.  Everyone will be responsible for 1 day and Erik will help you with a topic if necessary.  Along with the presentation you will prepare a 1 - 2 page handout (and Word document) to give the class.

2) In-class group activities including group decision making, brainstorming and collaborative writing. Students will serve as participants, observers, and researchers in evaluating the impact of technology on the group process.

3) Each student will conduct an individual exploration of computer resources on the internet for a specific topic, create a web page, and give an oral class presentation. For example you could study the American with Disabilities Act and design a computer system for a user with a specific type of disability. Virtual reality systems, wearable computers, intelligent agents, and MUD´s are other possible topics.

4) There will also be a group project towards the end of the term involving small teams working together to compare the usability of several computer applications using a variety of techniques we will cover in class.  The class will have input into the form that this project takes.

Course Schedule -
Consistent attendance and active participation in class discussion and activities is vital to the success of the class. Missing more than three class sessions will result in a significant reduction in your course grade (3% for each additional day).

A significant amount of out of class time will be needed to work on the term project and complete other course requirements. Since some of this will use the resources only found in the HCI lab, you will have evening and weekend access to the lab when it is not being used for other purposes.  Strict guidelines will need to be followed in order to maintain the security and safety of both people and the computing equipment.

Erik's Office Hours - M: 1:30 - 2:30    T,Th: 11:15 - 12:15  - I will be in either the HCI lab or Bio/Psych #236.  Office phone x-7657.

All other times: I have an open door policy, if my door is open, come on in. If I have a deadline or project to finish, I'll shut my door. Leave a message or a note with the secretary, or send e-mail to nilsen@lclark.edu. Do not trust my voice-mail for a quick response. I hate the thing and check it only sporadically.

Day & Date	Topic
M Jan. 15	Introduction, Geek Speak, Computer History Treasure Hunt
Th Jan. 18	A Brief History of Human Computer Interaction Technology .  Brad A.Myers; interactions 5, 2 (Mar.1998), Pages 44 - 54.  Pre-Reaction Paper (due by Thursday at noon) Send Erik (nilsen@lclark.edu) a brief e-mail message containing (1) something you learned from this reading and (2) an unfamiliar concept that needs further explanation. Were you surprised by the timelines for some of the technologies?  50 years after "As we may think": the Brown/MIT Vannevar Bush symposium Rosemary Simpson, Allen Renear, Elli Mylonas and Andries van Dam, Pages 47 - 67, Interactions Volume 3, No. 2 (Mar. 1996)  Reaction Paper (due in class) Vannevar Bush wrote this visionary paper As we may think in 1945 before the first digital computer was operational and yet some of his ideas have still not been fully realized! As much as I would like to have you read the original in its entirety, I think that this overview paper written 50 years later is more understandable. Summarize in your own words the impact that his ideas have had on the development of computing since then. What features of his Memex idea can are readily available today? Are any of the ideas still visionary? Of the three themes fleshed out in the article (augmentation, collaboration, coevolution) which one interests you the most? Highlight some of the speakers ideas that stimulate your interest.
M Jan. 22	An Applied Information-Processing Psychology from The Psychology of Human-Computer Interaction, Stuart Card, Thomas Moran, and Allen Newell, Lawrence Earlbaum Associates, 1983. Reaction Paper (due in class) This chapter from one of the seminal books in HCI gives an early view of the positive role that scientific psychology can play in the development of usable computers. Do you find their arguments to be persuasive? What areas of psychology are the authors focusing on and what other areas of psychological research do you think might contribute to our understanding of computer use today? Finally, take your best shot at describing what is going on in the Model Human Processor (Mr. BubbleHead) shown on the last page of the handout! The whiteboard: the joy of sex psychology Daryle Gardner-Bonneau, Pages 19 Û 22, Interactions, Vol. 8, No. 1 (2001) Psychology as a Mother of Invention. (paper handout) Thomas K. Landauer. CHI '87 Conference Proceedings Paper, 333-335.  For Class Discussion. Consider the list of "intellectual tasks" that the author suggests were ripe for development in 1987. Which of these are now in existence in 2000? What new items might you add to the list for new developments?
Th Jan. 25	"Web Sites Begin to Get Organized, on Their Own" New York Times (01/18/01) P. E1; Hafner, Katie (Access to this site is free; however, first-time visitors will need to register.) Self-organizing Web sites are moving the Internet toward "self-consciousness" by employing software that automatically manages content according to collective tastes. Joey Anuff, editor-in-chief of the site Plastic.com, says, "The Web in 1996 didn't need to organize itself. But we have a Web now that's measured in billions of pages and millions of users, so any kind of mechanism that automatically imposes order becomes more useful and important." Several writers' sites are using this technology to create a hierarchy of content imposed by users' ratings. The higher a rating an article receives, the more prominently it is displayed on the site. Eden Muir, co-founder of the VinesNetwork writers' site, says, "[The site is] designed to make the bad stuff disappear. It will be up for a little while, then it will sink like a stone." Although commercial sites such as Amazon.com and Google are now using ranking systems to manage content, more often than not developers use the system to build sites based around the ranking process itself. For example, Everything2.com depends on submissions from users, rating ideas, and information submitted to the site according to traffic patterns and the popularity of specific links within the network. Also, Everything2.com gives veteran users who collect "experience points" more clout to vote on others' postings. Slashdot.com co-founder Jeff Bates notes that such sites have shifted focus to the interests of the people, not those of a small group of editors. For an even more free form and radical example of "the associative trails of the Memex" take a look at the WikiPedia project. Erik has already added some new information, follow the HumanComputerInteraction link (if it is still there!) and do some trail blazing of your own! Reaction Paper (due in class) All four of the web sites in the above links are modern examples that have something of the flavor of the Memex that Vannevar Bush wrote about in 1945. Before class, I want you to visit each of the sites and explore them to determine (1) What is their purpose? (2) How is content entered and evaluated? (3) What incentives are in place to encourage participation and (4) how does the nature of these incentives affect the quantity and quality of the contributions? Write a summary for each web site including the information above as well as your general evaluation of how interesting and successful you find each site to be in achieving their stated goals. Which approach do you like the best and why?
M Jan. 29	The Social Psychology of Computer Use -  Are Computers People too!?! Clifford Nass has a radical idea that he has been studying for almost a decade, people respond to computers as if they were people too! These 3 articles follow the development of his research program over a 7 year program. Read them and be amazed (and maybe a bit incredulous 8^). Computers are social actors. Clifford Nass, Jonathan Steuer and Ellen R. Tauber, Pages 72 - 78, CHI 94  Adaptive agents and personality change: complementarity versus similarity as forms of adaptation. Youngme Moon and Clifford I. Nass, Pages 287 - 288, CHI 96  Does computer-generated speech manifest personality? an experimental test of similarity-attraction. Clifford Nass and Kwan Min Lee, Pages 329 - 336, CHI 00  No reaction paper this time - This is a test of your intrinsic motivation! Read the articles, come ready to discuss them and we'll see how it goes!! Do give some thought to other social psychological studies that could be designed regarding computer use. I want us to try to design a study or two in class inspired by the readings.
TH Feb. 1	Using a human face in an interface. Janet H. Walker, Lee Sproull and R. Subramani, Pages 85 - 91, CHI 94   When my face is the interface: an experimental comparison of interacting with one's own face or someone else's face. Clifford Nass, Eun-Young Kim and Eun-Ju Lee, Pages 148 - 154, CHI 98  Face to interface: facial affect in (hu)man and machine Diane J. Schiano, Sheryl M. Ehrlich, Krisnawan Rahardja and Kyle Sheridan, Pages 193 - 200, CHI 00  Reaction Paper assigned later
M Feb. 5	Kismet is a sociable robot being developed at MIT which uses facial expressiveness as a central feature. Browse around the Kismet web site to get a feel for the goals of the project and what they have accomplished to date! Reaction Paper - Free write on your impression of the Kismet project, summarizing the goals and current state of the technology. Also compare their work with the paper from last Thursday's class entitled "Face to interface: facial affect in (hu)man and machine". In particular, how does the Kismet "space of emotive facial expressions" compare and contrast to the MDS solutions for both the Human and Robot experiment in the paper. Is Kismet's modeling of facial expression more similar to Russell or FACS? If you can get it to work correctly, the Ananova News Service is an intriguing use of both Face and TTS voice to present the news.
TH Feb. 8	Designing Computer Systems For All of Us.  Moving Beyond Office Productivity for 18 - 40 Year Olds Overview Article User Interfaces for Young and Old. Maddy D. Brouwer-Janse, Jane Fulton Suri, Mitchell Yawitz, Govert de Vries, James L. Fozard, Roger Coleman. interactions magazine, march/april 1997, 34 - 46. For In Class Discussion. Each of the authors discuss ways in which designing for the "outliers" is different than designing for office-working adults. Come up with a list of differences which they identify for each age group (old and young). Are there any themes and issues common to both age groups. Feel free to add your own ideas to the lists as well. Web Page Assignment. Search the internet for information regarding computing and the following groups: 1) Senior Citizens (55+), (2) Children (16 and under). Before Monday's class, you should have started your search for materials on the topics below. Save the Web addresses and a brief description of the sites you find along with any images that you may want to include in your web page in a Microsoft Word File in your personal folder on the Class Server for use during Monday's Dreamweaver Training Session. DUE THURSDAY, Feb. 15th - Create a web page (linked from your personal web page) that contains at least 6 annotated sources (link with a sentence or two describing the contents of the linked pages) for each age group (a total of 12 links minimum). Among your links, try to include at least one from each of the following categories; Organization focusing on computing issues related to the age group, software designed and targetted for the age group, a research paper related to computing and the age group.
M Feb. 12	Dreamweaver Training Session  Learn to create your own web pages with an (almost) WYSIWYG HTML Development Environment.
TH Feb. 15	Computing for "Old Folks" - Separating Fact from Fable Comparison of Elderly and Younger Users on Keyboard and Voice Input Computer-Based Composition Tasks. Virginia Ogozalek, John Van Praag. CHI '86 Conference Proceedings, 205 - 211. Reaction Paper. Write out the following predictions before you read the article. 1. Will Older Users prefer the Typing or Voice Input computer? Younger Users? 2. Will Older Users perform better with the Typing or Voice Input computer? Younger Users? 3. How will the older users compare to the younger users on skill at using the computers and how much they like using them in general? Summarize the actual findings and your success at predicting them after you read the article. Are there any surprises? Come on, find at least one and write about it!?  You will also be presenting and discussing your Seniors and Kids Web page that was assigned last Thursday in class.
M Feb. 19	A Comparison of the Use of Text and Multimedia Interfaces to Provide Information to the Elderly. Virginia Ogozalek. CHI '94 Conference Proceedings, 65 - 71.  E-mail Pre-Reaction Paper. Send Erik an e-mail with a paragraph or two reaction BEFORE CLASS to the reported gender differences in the response to the two computer versions of the information. What do you make of the results? Are there any other differences besides gender that might help to explain the results? Making Computers Easier for Older Adults to Use: Area Cursors and Sticky Icons. Aileen Worden, Neff Walker, Krishna Bharat, Scott Hudson. CHI '97 Conference Proceedings. Reaction Paper.
TH Feb. 22	Give and Take: Children Collaborating on One Computer. Kori Inkpen, Kellogg S. Booth, Steven D. Gribble and Maria Klawe. CHI '95 Conference Proceedings Short Paper, 258 - 259. Children's Collaboration Styles in a Newtonian MicroWorld. Andy Cockburn, Saul Greenberg. CHI '96 Conference Proceedings Short Paper, 181- 182. When the interface is a talking dinosaur: learning across media with ActiMates Barney. Erik Strommen, Pages 288 - 295, CHI 98  Reaction Paper. Go to town with this one. Free write on the general ideas and specific implementations of this controversial project. Rants welcome, but be ready to discuss and debate this paper in class We will also be pairing you up with another student to show each other the 6 kid web sites that you found from the Kids and Seniors Web Page Assignment
M Feb. 26	Introduction to Stagecast Creator Internet Authoring for Kids  Build your own interactive web pages,video games, or animated stories! Before class you should go through the tutorial lesson.  You can get to this by opening Stagecast Creator and clicking on the  "Learn Creator" button.  The software is installed on all of the HCI lab machines, the installer files (for Mac) are also on the Class Server and you can download your own evaluation version of the software for home use directly from the company.  You will need to download and install both the Creator and Tutorial files if you want to put it on your own computer. Click here to get with Mac or Window's version! Making Programming Easier for Children. David Canfield Smith, Allen Cypher, Kurt Schmucker. Interactions, September + October 1996, 59 - 67. Degrees of Comprehension: Children's Understanding of a Visual Programming Environment. Candy Rader, Cathy Brand, and Clayton Lewis. CHI '97 Conference Proceedings, 351 - 357.
TH Mar. 1	Stagecast Work Day and "Show and Tell" Before class, you should create at least two Stagecast Simulations to illustrate various "Behaviors" that we discussed in class last Monday. Try programming some of the following: picking up and moving objects  click to change appearance of object  removing objects  reproduction (sexual, asexual)  predator/prey  sleeping  aging (and dying)  tag (you're it)  eating food (with hunger as a variable?)  starvation  click to make a new character appear  adding sound to behavior  ???? be creative  Save your work on your Zip Disk. Be Prepared to demonstrate them in class and improve your skills. Reaction Paper. Two papers you read for last Monday (Making Programming Easier for Children and Degrees of Comprehension: Children's Understanding of a Visual Programming Environment) express very different viewpoints concerning Cocoa's "ease of use". Relate the findings of these articles to your own experience of learning to use Cocoa.
M Mar. 5	Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) & Groupware CSCW: the convergence of two development contexts. Jonathan Grudin, Pages 91 - 97, CHI 91   Reaction Paper. Each person will prepare a1 page "Geek Speakish" handout giving your own personal definition of CSCW based on your reading of the Grudin article and searching for information on the Web.   Include a short paragraph on whether or not you would include e-mail in your definition of a CSCW application and why (or why not).  You will not have to give a speech.  I will give the Geek Speak presentation on my definition. Concurrent Editing: The Groups Interface.  Judith Olson, Lisbeth Mack, Pierre Wellner, Pages 835 - 840, INTERACT '90.
TH Mar. 8	Brainstorming Lab using Aspects Group Editing Software CSCW - "computer-based systems that support groups of people engaged  in a common task (or goal) and that provide an interface to a shared environment." Introduction to Groupware  from an HCI perspective. A Collection of Internet resources related to CSCW, andthe CSCW bibliographic database is maintained by the  Applied Informatics and Distributed Systems Group at Technische Universität München, Germany.
M Mar. 12	Unlocking Brainstorming Through the Use of a Simple Group Editor. Charles Hymes, Gary Olson, pages 99 - 106 CSCW '92 Proceedings. Electronic Brainstorming: Science Meets Technology in the Group Meeting Room. Terry Connolly. pages 263 - 276. Culture on the Internet, 1997. Reaction Paper. Summarize the findings of these papers and discuss the hypothesized benefits of using a program like ASPECTS and the conditions that should lead to the best outcome. Discuss your experience in the 2 conditions you participated in during last Thursday's class and relate it to the readings. How was our mini-experiment different from the Hymes study and do you think the differences in procedure lead to a markedly different outcome?
TH Mar. 15	Guest Speaker - Gregory Kramer is a leading researcher in the area of Auditory Displays(AD) and the use of non-speech audio to convey information. Greg is the editor of one of the most comprehensive books in the field and he was instrumental in organizing a workshop in 1992 that has grown into the primary international conference for AD researchers (ICAD). Here is a recent research article that he presented at the ICAD conference in 1996 entitled Mapping a single data stream to multiple auditory variables: A subjective approach to creating a compelling design. He will be talking to us about how the use sound can enrich our interactions with computers and augment vision which dominates in most computer interfaces today. Please read the 2 articles that I handed out in class on Monday as a warm-up for the talk. No reaction papers this time! Artificial Synesthesia via Sonification: A Wearable Augmented Sensory System. Leonard Foner. MIT extended abstract. An evaluation of Earcons for Use in Auditory Human-Computer Interfaces. Stephen A. Brewster, Peter C. Wright and Alistair D. N. Edwards; Pages 222 - 227, CHI 1993.
M Mar. 19	Web Site Usability Since many of you are working on web pages for your group projects, the topic for the day will be web usability design issues and guidelines. For class I want each of you to search the internet and come up with a list of 10 recommendations for good design practices and a list of 10 bad ideas for web usability. Save your list, annotated with the url's that the specific recommendation on the class server in a MSWord file and bring a printout to class as well.
TH Mar. 22	Guest Speaker - Anthony Hornof is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer and Information Science at the University of Oregon. He is coming to Portland on Wednesday to give a talk to an HCI professional organization and has offered to speak to our class about Current Research in Cognitive Modeling and User Interface Design. Anthony received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1999. Part of his dissertation work involved developing computational models of one of your prof's dissertation experiments! Papers to read in preparation for the talk will be posted on Monday.
M Mar. 26	SPRING BREAK
TH Mar. 29	SPRING BREAK
M Apr. 2	Group Project Progess Check up
TH Apr. 5	Erik is gone to CHI 2001 conference, work on projects
M Apr.9	CHI Trip report!
TH Apr. 12	Wearable Computing 'Smart Clothing': Wearable Multimedia Computing and 'Personal Imaging' to Restore the Technological Balance Between People and Their Environments. Steve Mann. Pages 163 - 174, ACM Multimedia 96. We will use the class time to see how many "body parts" and functions we can find wearable technology for. Your assignment is to create a web page with your wearable finds. We will also consolidate the information and create a new Wearable Computing page for the WikiPedia Project.
M Apr. 16	Recommender Systems using Collaborative Filtering Social Navigation: Techniques for Building More Usable Systems. A Dieberger, P. Dourish, K. Hook, P. Resnick, A. Wexelblat. Pages 37 - 45, interactions magazine November + December 2000. Social Navigation of Food Recipes. Martin Svenson, Kristina Hook, Jarmo Laaksolahti, Annika Waern. Pages 341 - 348, CHI 2001. Here is a recent short Scientific American article on Recommender Systems Before Class, try out at least one of the following recommender systems and send Erik E-mail before class relating your experience using the system. How usable and useful did you find the system? Did the recommendation seem reasonable? For Choosing Movies MovieLens For Choosing Books Sleeper For Finding Funny Jokes!? Jester
TH Apr. 19	In Class Presentations of Group Projects
M Apr. 23	Erik's Research Round-Up and assignment of Final Geek Speak Web Project By Friday, April 27th, 5:00 p.m. each person should have 3 web pages ( Kiddie & Seniors, Wearables, and Geek Speak) completed and uploaded to their L & C account.
Telecommuting Final  T May 1st ,  5 p.m.	E-mail feedback on 3 classmate's Geek Speak Web pages (send e-mail to erik at nilsen@lclark.edu and to the classmates whose pages you review). Details about "who to review" found on the HCI Student Web Pages