University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

School of Information and Library Science

INLS 310-89

Human Computer Interaction Seminar

Fall 1999

Syllabus

Time and Place: 3:30-6:00 Mondays. Room 214 Manning Hall

Instructor: Gary Marchionini Email: march@ils.unc.edu Web: www.ils.unc.edu/~march Office: 203 Manning Phone: (919) 966-3611

Brief Course Description

This seminar will address research and development issues related to the design and evaluation of user interfaces that support information seeking. The seminar will investigate the nature of interactivity, user needs assessment, alternative interfaces, query and browse interactions, iterative design and maintenance, and usability testing. Participants will read and discuss documents (paper and electronic), compare and critique interfaces for information retrieval, and work in a team to develop and evaluate an interface prototype.

The Fall 1999 seminar is rooted in ongoing work and specific research interests. Ongoing work relates to the nature of interactivity, browsing and interactive search, learning and explanation, and digital libraries. Case studies of past projects related to these themes will be used to illustrate principles and skills. Research projects underway for 1999-2000 include site maps as overviews for DLs and large web sites; physiological and affective indicators of human interaction; and statistical table understanding and usage. Opportunities for course projects related to these areas will be provided.

Course Materials

No textbook is required. Readings will be on reserve in the SILS Library or online.

Assignments and Evaluation

Reading List

Tentative Schedule

Session Topic

Week 1 Aug. 23 Introduction; Interaction Perspective: Theory #1

The roots of HCI: read Shackel

A vision of augmentation of the intellect: Read Engelbart

An important side effect: Read Meister

Discuss users and tasks: optional reading: Carroll & Rosson

Assignment: Term Project

  • Day One Class Notes

    Week 2 Aug. 30 The Problem of Information Seeking: Theory #2

    Framework for interfaces to support information seeking: Read Marchionini (1992)

    Overviews and previews: read Greene et al.

    Requirements for search; read Shneiderman et al.

  • Day Two Class Notes

  • Day Three Class Notes (note: Sept 13)

    Week 3 Sept. 6 Visualizing Information Applications and Techniques #1: Overviews

    Semantic maps: read Lin

    Spotfire: read Ahlberg & Shneiderman

    Envision: read Fox et al.

  • Day Four Class Notes (note: Sept 13)

    Week 4 Sept. 13 Visualizing Information Applications and Techniques #2: Overviews cont'

    Hyperbolic browser: Read Lamping & Rao

    WebToc: Read Nation et al.

    Optional reading: Furnas

    Case #1 BLS and Fedstats designs

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  • Day Five Class Notes (note: Sept 13)

    Week 5 Sept. 20 Usability

    Evaluating interaction: Read Koenemann & Belkin

    Evaluating video skims: Read Christel et al.

    Assignment: Specify and sketch search facility on paper (due Week 7)

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  • Day Six Class Notes (note: Sept 13)

    Week 6 Sept. 27 [ISDL, no class]

    Week 7 Oct. 4 Interaction Perspective Today: Theory #3

    Roots and Trends: read Marchionini & Komlodi

    Ubiquitous (calm) computing: read Weiser

    Interaction design: read Winograd

    Design session: Search facility (based on our specifications, we will jointly specify a search function for a DL.)

  • Day Seven Class Notes

    Week 8 Oct. 11 Visualizing Information Applications and Techniques #3: Results

    Tilebars: Read Hearst

    Optional reading: Marchionini et al., (1998)

    Case#2: Library of Congress NDL designs

    Assignment: Specify and sketch results facility on paper (due Week 9)

  • Day Eight Class Notes

    Week 9 Oct. 18 Visualizing Information Applications and Techniques #4: Manipulation

    See through tools: read Bier et al

    Table Lens: read Rao & Card

    Optional reading: Hendry & Harper

    Design session: Results facility (based on our specifications, we will jointly specify a results function to accompany the search facility done last week.) Due week 12

  • Day Nine Class Notes

  • User Study Assignment

    Week 10 Oct. 25 Physiological data collection: Eye Tracking

    Eyes as input: read Hutchinson et al.

    Learning from eye movements: read Jacob.

    Assignment: Outline a study design that incorporates physiological data (due Week 13)

  • Day 10 class Notes

    Week 11 Nov 1 [ASIS, no class]

    Week 12 Nov. 8 What about speech?

    The promise and problems of SUIs: read Yanlelovich et al.

    Evaluating text tasks: read Karat et al.

    Optional reading: Raman

    Discuss study designs

    Week 13 Nov 15 Visualizing Information Applications and Techniques #5: Techniques

    Pad++: read Bederson & Hollan

    Data Mountain: read Robertson et al.

    Discuss Alternative and Multiple I/O: optional reading: Jacob et al. (1993)

    Week 14 Nov 22 Designing for Interaction embedded in Real Tasks

    Case Study #3: Baltimore Learning Community

    Week 15 Nov 29 Project Presentations and Discussion

    Week 16 Dec. 6 Project Presentations and Discussion cont'