Computing technology is radically changing the manner in which we work, play, shop, 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 (including cognition, perception, personality, learning, motivation, social, developmental, abnormal and educational). 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 learning to author web pages following appropriate HCI design guidelines.

1)  Geek Speak - At the beginning of selected days students will take turns giving a 5 - 10 minute oral presentation on some arcane computer acronym, terminology or technology relevant to the current topic.  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 web page) to give the class.

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

3) For a Final Project, each student will conduct an individual exploration of computer resources on the internet for a specific topic, create a web site, and evaluate several class members web sites. 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 for treating phobias, wearable computers, intelligent agents, and MUD's are other possible topics.

4) There will also be several group projects throughout the term involving small teams working together.  One project may involve working with either Senior Citizens or School Children who will be taking a field trip to the lab. Other projects are still evolving at the time of this posting!

Course Schedule - The class web page is the definitive location for upcoming class topics and assignments. The class topics will evolve and change depending on new developments in the field and student and faculty interest. I will promise to give you at least one weeks advance notice on readings and assignments.

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).

At times during the semester a significant amount of out of class time will be needed to work on projects. 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 - Tuesday, Thursday 1 - 2 p.m. ---  Bio/Psych #236.  Office Phone: x-7657 (leave voice mail here), HCI Lab phone: x-7656. I have an open door policy.  Feel free to drop in at other times.  If my door is open, I am available to chat. If it is closed, I am either gone or working on a project with a deadline.  Leave a message on my white board or with the departmental administrative assistant.

Day & Date	Topic
W Jan. 23	Introductions, Acronym Game, Techno Personality Test, Computing History Treasure Hunt (Using the following Search Engines) Google AlltheWeb Kartoo Gigablast Dogpile Clusty The whiteboard: the joy of sex psychology, Daryle Gardner-Bonneau, Pages 19 - 22, Interactions, Vol. 8, No. 1 (2001) For Class Discussion - Can you think of any habitual or "superstitious" behavior that you (or people you know ;^) engage in when using a computer? Reflect on your own experience and ask some friends! Try to come up with several poorly designed, difficult to use computer tools that could benefit from a little psychological analysis! Interesting Wiki Page on Perceptual Affordances and HCI And a humorous video of affordances gone very very wrong! The Norwegian Book Interface Video I sent you back in December! An honest to goodness "cutting edge" book interface project in 2007!
W Jan. 30	A Brief History of Human Computer Interaction Technology .  Brad A.Myers; interactions 5, 2 (Mar.1998), Pages 44 - 54.  Pre-Reaction Paper (due by Monday, Jan. 28th at 5 p.m.) Write a 2 - 3 paragraph entry on the class moodle page containing (1) something you learned from this reading and (2) an unfamiliar concept that needs further explanation. (3) Where did most of the early development take place and who was funding it? Were you surprised by the timelines for some of the technologies? DING DING DING! The clear winner of the unfamiliar concept needing explanation question is "Interface". Here is a valiant stab at defining it and it's cousin the "user interface" User Technology: From Pointing to Pondering, Stuart Card and Thomas Moran (1986), Proc. ACM conference on history of personal workstations, Palo Alto, ACM 183-198. Reaction Paper (due by class time, posted up on the moodle) This paper, written by two of the researchers who helped create the field of HCI gives an early view of the positive role that scientific psychology can play in the development of usable computers. Summarize their arguments in several paragraphs. Do you find their arguments to be persuasive? What areas of psychology are the authors focusing on? Finally, take your best shot at describing what is going on in the Model Human Processor (Mr. BubbleHead) shown on page 186! All together this should be a 1 1/2 - 2 page reaction paper. Psychology as a Mother of Invention. Thomas K. Landauer. CHI '87 Conference Proceedings Paper, 333-335.  For class discussion and small group work- Consider the list of "intellectual tasks" that Landauer presents in the last page of this article as being ripe for development in 1987. Which of these are now in existence in 2008? What other "cognitive computer tools" have emerged in the ensuing 20 years? Come up with at least 3 new items you would add to the list for developments in the future?  We will create Personal Web pages tonight using Macromedia Dreamweaver Software. Be sure to bring your flash drive!
W Feb. 6	Field Trip to CHIFOO meeting to hear Brenda Laurel talk about Design Research: Process and Provocations We will meet at 6 as usual and carpool to Beaverton for the talk. We will be back no later than 9:00 and probably a bit earlier. read a couple of her recent thought pieces and speeches before tonight. As We May Think, Vannevar Bush (1996). Interactions, March, 1996, 35 - 46. This is a classic paper written by a visionary thinker whose ideas have inspired many of the people who have shaped the development of computing. Just read it and be ready to begin a discussion in class. For an interesting example that embodies some of "the associative trails of the Memex" take a look at the WikiPedia project. MyLifeBits: A Personal Database for Everything Abundant Storage, Jim Gemmell, Gordon Bell, and RogerLueder.COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM, January 2006, Vol. 49, No. 1 89- 95. Gordon Bell was inspired by the Memex concept of Vannevar Bush to live a Digital Life! Is this a glimpse of the exciting future or a cautionary tale about the loss of privacy and erosion of human memory that technological advances may produce. We will discuss! Bring strong opinions 8^).
Wed. Feb. 13	The Social Psychology of Computer Use -  Are Computers People too!?! Clifford Nass has a radical idea that he has been studying for over a decade, people respond to computers as if they were people too! These 5 articles follow the development of his research program over a 12 year period. 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  Can Computer Personalities Be Human Personalities?Clifford Nass, Youngme Moon, BJ Fogg, Byron Reeves, & Chris Dryer. Pages 228-229, CHI 95 short papers. Does computer-generated speech manifest personality? an experimental test of similarity-attraction. Clifford Nass and Kwan Min Lee, Pages 329 - 336, CHI 00  Thank You, I did not see that: In-car Speech Based Information Systems for Older Adults by Ing-Marie Jonsson, Mary Zajicek, Helen Harris, Clifford Nass. 1953 - 1956. CHI 2005, Late Breaking Results. Electronic Helping Behavior: The Virtual Presence of Others Makes a Difference.Carrie A. Blair, Lori Foster Thompson, and Karl L. Wuensch. BASIC AND APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, 2005, 27(2), 171–178. Reaction Paper - List the social rules that these papers claim to find evidence for in how people interact with computers? For each one, do you find the results and the authors interpretation compelling? Why or why not? Consider some social psychological finding,theory or social rule other than the ones discussed in the readings, that could be studied using Clifford Nass's Computers are social actors (CASA) research approach to human computer interaction. We will design a study or two in class tonight inspired by the readings.
Wed. Feb. 20	Developmental Psychology Perspective in HCI 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. notes to prepare for 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. The impact of computer use on children's and adolescents' development. (PDF file) Kaveri Subrahmanyam, Patricia Greenfield, Robert Kraut, Elisheva Gross. Applied Developmental Psychology 22 (2001) 7-30. Reaction Paper. read the paper "The Impact of Computer Use on Children's and Adolescents' Development," and make a 3 column table that categorizes the many research findings into the 3 classifications given below. The table can be in any "legible" format, Handwritten, Word, Excel, Web Page Table, etc. (1) Evidence that computers have a positive impact. (2) Evidence that computers have a negative impact. and the largest group (3) More research is needed Give and Take: Children Collaborating on One Computer. (html page) 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. (html page) Andy Cockburn, Saul Greenberg. CHI '96 Conference Proceedings Short Paper, 181- 182. for class discussion What do these two short papers suggest about gender differences in patterns of cooperation and competition among young children using computers together. Web Page Assignment. Due by class time. Search the internet for information regarding computing and the following groups: 1) Senior Citizens (55+), (2) Children (16 and under). - 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. chat rooms, blogs, or discussion forums designed specifically for the age group.  BEST OF collection of Websites for kids and seniors Kids Sites Description Contributor Science world (An interactive website with various games children can play to learn about a variety of topics related to how the human body works. ) Prachi Healthy Computing 4 Kids This website makes us aware of “unhealthy” impacts computing technology might have on children, and provides advice on how to minimize such effects. Dani KidsCom Chat This website has many different types of activities geared to children. This section "Chat & Buzz" allows kids to join various types of chat rooms and forums. Leila SwitchZoo Learn about different animals, and then create your own! Gussie One Laptop Per Child One Laptop Per Child is an organization that seeks to educate children across the world about technology, hardware, software, and the world in general through donating laptops. Check out there site, actually pretty impressive worldwide organization. Brandon Kids.gov Kids.gov is an official site for kids. Parents, there are likely to be no scams on this website. Features on this website include website of the month, and education topics ranging from art all the way to math and social studies! Information for Parents. Sara     Sites for Seniors Description Contributor Senior Computer Learning Center Website for a class in Portland where seniors teach seniors computer skills Celia Ageless Project A site dedicated to proving that "the personal, creative side of the web is diverse" and most importantly ageless. The site provides links to blogs for people of all ages (who are not all senior citizens, though the oldest was born in 1911, while the youngest was born in 1986). The Ageless project seeks people to submit their personal non-commercial and original websites in order to help prove their point that web creativity is not limited to a certain age group! Aubrey Brain Games Article An article reviewing the most successful "brain games" for senior citizens to use to prolong their cognitive function and delay Alzheimer's Disease. These programs have been scientifically-backed and clinically tested. Nicolia Cool Grandma This online community has lots of general information and articles, as well as discussion forums and chat rooms for senior-citizens. (and a great photo) Laurel Senior Friend Finder! This website is devoted to seniors finding online friends. (say no more!) Jordon Seniorocity Seniorocity is a website, an online community as the site states, where adults over the age of 40 can visit and engage in various activities. The site includes a photo gallery, different groups to join, polls, forums with wide ranges of topics, newsclips, advertisements, and various articles appealing to this age group. Farah
Wed. Feb. 27	Pretend Play with Plush Purple Puppets! W hen the interface is a talking dinosaur: learning across media with ActiMates Barney. Erik Strommen, Pages 288 - 295, CHI 98. Emotional Interfaces for Interactive Aardvarks: Designing Affect into Social Interfaces for Children. Erik Strommen, Kristin Alexander, Pages 528 - 535, CHI 99. Reaction Paper. Go to town with this one. 1000 word Free write on the general ideas and specific implementations of this controversial project. Rants welcome, but be ready to discuss and debate the costs and benefits of these projects in class. In Class Debate. I will assign you a position to take and your job is to convince others that (A) Actimates are evil incarnate and their use will lead to the end of civilization as we know it. or (B) Actimates are an amazing tool to enhance the cognitive, emotional and social growth of children and I'll buy them for all of the 2 - 8 year olds that I know! We will also have some guests educating us about kids current use of technology! Be prepared to be immersed in the Webkinz Universe.   Geek Speak Kickoff!
Wed. Mar. 5	OK, today is a "choose your own adventure" style experience. We can take one of two paths! We will vote in class on the 27th at which point 1 of these will disappear!!   Choice A Stagecast Creator is a visual programming language designed for kids. It allows them to move beyond being passive glassy-eyed vidiots playing video games. Kids are empowered to be creative developers of their own interactive stories, games and simulations "in minutes?!" Before class you will go through the tutorial lessons and spend at least 2 hours post tutorial trying out some ideas for "Behaviors" (see below).  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, 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 Mac or Window's version! Programming by example: novice programming comes of age. David Canfield Smith , Allen Cypher , Larry Tesler Communications of the ACM March 2000 Volume 43 Issue 3 (Smith(2000b) on webdisk and sent to you via e-mail on Monday, March 3). Degrees of Comprehension: Children's Understanding of a Visual Programming Environment. Candy Rader, Cathy Brand, and Clayton Lewis. CHI '97 Conference Proceedings, 351 - 357.  (on CD as Rader, 1997.pdf) Before class, you should create a Stagecast Simulation to illustrate various "Behaviors". 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  Save your work and be prepared to build on them during tonights class as we work together to assess the claims of the developers that this is a transformative programming environment that can be learned easily by 5th graders!!! Sample Final Project Web sites Internet Addiction Disorder NeuroProsthetics Teens and the Internet
Wed. Mar. 12	Recommender Systems using Collaborative Filtering Recommender Systems. Resnick, Paul, et al., 1997 Comparing Recommendations Made by Online Systems and Friends. Rashmi Sinha, Kirsten Swearingen. In the Delos-NSF Workshop on "Personalisation and Recommender Systems in Digital Libraries", June 01. User Response to Two Algorithms as a Test of Collaborative Filtering. Adam W. Shearer. CHI '01 Conference Companion Student Poster. Paper sent to you via e-mail <shearer, 2001.doc> Accounting for taste: using profile similarity to improve recommender systems, Bonhard, Philip. 2006 Is seeing believing?: how recommender system interfaces affect users' opinions, Cosley, Dan. 2003 Reaction on Moodle due by Class Time Briefly (1 - 2 paragraphs each) summarize the main conclusions and recommendations (pun intended) for the articles assigned for tonight. Then, share your thoughts about the role that the user interface and process of entering and receiving the recommendations has on the trust and perceived usefulness of recommender systems. Use points drawn from at least 3 of the articles to support your ideas. We will try out the recommender systems shown below during class on Wednesday Join MovieLens before class on Wednesday For Choosing Movies MovieLens For Choosing Books Amazon.com For Finding Funny Jokes!? Jester One Stop Shopping: Music, Books, Movies, Websites! Gnod Wikipedia list of Collaborative Filtering sites to drown in! Post Reaction on Moodle due by Friday 5 p.m. All 4 of the web sites in the above links use a form of social navigation to recommend a product that you might enjoy. Write a reaction paper discussing how usable you found the web site and how useful you found the recommendations that they provided. How do they match up with the systems that are described in the article by Sinha that we read for today.
March 19	Human (and animal) Faces in the Interface 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! Be sure to check out Kismet's "space of emotive facial expressions" and look at the pages concerning social interaction and how Kismet "learns". 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 (due in class) - 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 entitled "Face to interface: facial affect in (hu)man and machine". Is Kismet's modeling of facial expression more similar to Russell or FACS? Using a Human Face in an Interface. Walker, Janet, et al. 1994 Can a virtual cat persuade you?: the role of gender and realism in speaker persuasiveness. Zanbaka, Catherine, et. al . Pages 1153 - 1162. CHI 2006 For Class Discussion. These two papers present some interesting ideas and recommendations concerning the pro's and con's of using faces and human characteristics in interfaces. We will discuss their findings and then go wild brainstorming about how their results could be used for noble and nefarious purposes! FaceDemo to play with Video describing project to help people with Asperger's recognize facial expression of emotion using software developed at MIT   Talking Heads and Avatars are everywhere (for a price!)
March 26	SPRING BREAK
Wed. Apr. 2	Tangible (and just plain odd!) User Interfaces: Moving beyond the keyboard and mouse A sampling of Geek Speaks Novel interfaces across the life span Fell, Harriet, et al. 1993 A Baby Babble Blanket Weinberg, Gili, et al. 1998 The Baby Sense Environment: Enriching and Monitoring Infants’ Experiences and Communication Chung, Hyemin 2006 Lover's cups: drinking interfaces as new communication channels Magnus Nilsson, 2003 Nostalgia: an evocative tangible interface for elderly users Geek Speak part deux Wearing your Computing! Berzowska, Joanna 2005 Memory rich clothing: second skins that communicate physical memory Dobson, Kelly 2005 Wearable body organs: critical cognition becomes (again) somatic Any More Geek Speaking? Moving Experiences (Double entendre intended!) Ishii, Hiroshi, et al. 1999 PingPongPlus: Design of an Athletic-Tangible Interface for Computer-Supported Cooperative Play Mueller,Florian 2003 Exertion interfaces: sports over a distance for social bonding and fun Dan Maynes-Aminzade, 2003 You're in control: a urinary user interface Pär Stenberg, 2003 The toilet entertainment system Enough of the Speaking of Geek already!
April 9	NO CLASS (Erik is away at Western Psychological Association Conference) presenting a HCI related research project entitled Explicit Attitude Change Fostered by Computer Simulation of Middle East Conflict Resolution Turn in Data sheets from Peacemaker Pilot Study by Wednesday in the slot outside Erik's office door.
April 16	Serious Gaming Report and Biological Interfaces! Web sites to visit - Journey to Wild Divine | Serious Games during class PeaceMaker Game Introduction and Purpose | ESP Game (video introduction) Botella, C. 2006 Using an adaptive display for the treatment of emotional disorders: a preliminary analysis of effectiveness Hazlett, Richard 2003 Measurement of user frustration: a biologic approach
April 23	Erik's GOMS Computational Modeling Dog and Pony Show, no advance reading required!
April 30	Yes we do have class! We will use class to talk about issues in web design and usability and also to work on your final projects, specifically dealing with issues of consistency in page layout and navigation. It would be REALLY good for you to have a draft of your website uploaded in time for class. Attendance is VITALLY IMPORTANT as this is our last face to face meeting and you will get you list of peers to evaluate tonight.
FINAL PROJECT	The final project will take place distributed in both time and space! Sometime between Monday, May 5th (at noon) and Wednesday, May 7th (midnight) each of you will conduct a peer evaluation of four of your classmates websites and e-mail the evaluations to them and Erik. You are responsible for reviewing the web sites for the 4 people who follow you alphabetically by first name on the Student Web Pages. If you are at the end of the list, curl around to the beginning. For example Andrew will review (Ashley, Aubrey, Becky and Brandon), Clare will do (Dani, Farah, Gussie, and John) and Sara will do (Theresa, Andrew, Ashely, and Aubrey) Spend approx. 45 minutes looking at each site and giving your feedback. I will send you a template for giving your feedback. The questions and criteria are found on your flash drive in a file entitled webpeerreviewsp08.doc.