NEWS NOTES:

  • BULLETINS --
  • NOTE/NOTE/NOTE:
    1. The third last class lecture time (Tuesday, 30nov10 at 11:30 in TB-13/127) is reserved for review of this year's mid-term via marking scheme and solutions. Therefore any questions concerning mid-term marks,and assignment marking will occur at this time. This will be the last time that any changes in marks will be accommodated (with the exception of the last assignment (6)) so please consult Avenue to Learn to check recorded marks.
    2. The second last class lecture time (Thursday, 02dec10 at 11:30 in TB-13/127) is reserved for review of last year's final examination via solutions and marking schemes. Neither that final nor this year's mid-term solutions will be posted so please attend these lectures.
    3. The last class lecture time (Friday, 03dec10) is cancelled; however, during this class time I will be in my office (ITB-121) for any one-on-one discussions. There will be no early office hours for that day (09:30-10:30).
  • NOTE:
    The final examination for this course will occur on Wednesday 15dec2010 at 19:30-21:30 in T-28 -- wfsp:31oct10/15:00. See registrar's notice at http://registrar.mcmaster.ca/scheduling/examfinalb.php
  • NOTE/NOTE: Final Examination covers old Lectures 1-33 inclusive with
    the exception of the first half of lecture 10 (L10-10 onwards).
  • For hand-back materials: within tutorials and lectures are the normal mechanism.
    If these papers are not obtained as above, then all remaining papers are placed in an appropriately labelled box in the CAS Drop-in-Centre (ITB-101). At this stage, they are returned on an honour system and this instructor is not responsible for missing documents that subsequently may occur. -- wfsp:02sep09/14:00.
  • Check Avenue to Learn(A2L) for your individual marks as they are posted there. WFSP:09oct09/10:00

Designing human-computer interfaces

The course SFWR ENG 4D03, Design of Human Computer Interfaces, and the course COMP SCI 4HC3, Human-Computer Interaction, will cover the following topics and subjects in various degrees of extent, detail and depth.

Overview

  • Importance of considering first the goals and needs arising from the application and the human users (and the technical possibilities only secondarily) when designing human-computer interfaces;
  • Guidelines and techniques for solving problems arising in the design of human-computer interfaces;
  • Selected examples and small case studies of both good and bad human-computer interfaces HCI design principles.

Mission

Too many human computer interfaces (HCI) are designed by computer specialists and, unintentionally, for computer specialists. Although the computer specialist designers often consciously try to design the human computer interfaces for other categories of users, it is very difficult for computer specialists to "jump out of their own skins" and realize how others will use and interact with the systems they design. The designers all too often cannot imagine the often very different attitudes, background, psychology, knowledge and expectations of the ultimate users of the systems they design. The designer usually implicitly assumes that the user will form the same mental model of the system that the designer had in mind. Often, however, the user forms a very different mental model of the system. Different users form quite different mental models.

It is, of course, necessary to consider technical possibilities and limitations when designing a human computer interface, but this is never sufficient. Many technically good system designs have been rejected in practice because they do not adequately cater for the users' subjective as well as objective needs, desires and limitations. Also, software issues (e.g. testing, maintainability, etc.) arising from the human computer interface design must be considered in practice.

The mission of this course is, therefore, to make the student aware of:

  • relevant aspects of human psychology,
  • the variety of uses (intended and unintended) to which the systems they design might be put,
  • the variety of ways users might interact with those systems,
  • the impossibility of predicting how the various types of users will understand and view the system and what they will expect of it,
  • the need for obtaining information, views and feedback from representatives of all intended and expected types of users when designing human computer interfaces as well as
  • hardware and software for implementing human computer interfaces and their advantages, limitations and implications.

Objectives

After completing this course students will:

  • be familiar with human psychological characteristics of relevance to the human computer interface (e.g. characteristics and limits of sensory perception, sources of frustration and distraction),
  • be aware of the psychological and other differences between various categories of users,
  • know how to obtain the relevant information about the users of the system to be designed,
  • be able to critically evaluate human computer interfaces,
  • know how to design human computer interfaces for effective and easy operation in practice, taking into due account the above considerations as well as the technical possibilities and limitations of HCI hardware and software,
  • be familiar with the typical building blocks and elements of human computer interfaces (e.g. VDU, keyboard, pointing devices, windows, icons, the several types of menus, buttons, radio buttons, sounds, sliders, text panels, scroll bars, etc.),
  • learn about some of the tools currently available to support designing human computer interfaces and
  • understand how issues of reliability, maintainability, testing, debugging, etc. influence the design of practical human computer interfaces.

Interesting Things