CMPUT 301: Lecture 01 Introduction

1. CMPUT 301: Lecture 01Introduction Lecturer: Martin Jagersand Department of Computing Science University of Alberta Notes based on previous courses by Ken Wong, Eleni Stroulia Zach Dodds, Martin Jagersand

2. HCI and program design • Why worry about the user? • People “more expensive” than machines • Errors may be unacceptable • Can’t sell unattractive and hard to learn SW • Design • For the user: Useful, correct, complete, efficient • For the programmer: Portable, changeable, extensible, reusable

3. Course content:How to do User Interfaces • Object Oriented SW eng: • Learn the programming skills • The human: • What perceptual skills support what interaction? • Design and evaluation: • Task analysis, usability, evaluation

4. Example:Interaction and interfaces: • The past? • Text based interaction: If A then end

5. The present: Direct manipulation: • xfig drawing program Icons afford use • Results visible • Direct spatial action-result mapping matlab drawing: • line([10, 20],[30, 85]); • patch([35, 22],[15, 35], C); • % C complex structure • text(70,30,'Kalle'); • % Potentially add font, size, etc

6. The future?Vision and Touch UI • Observe and Interpret Physical Interactions • Make Machines work with Humans • Soon most appliances will have embedded computers

7. Motivation • Clint Eastwood classification: • the good • the bad • the ugly

8. Motivation • The good:

9. Motivation • The bad:

10. Motivation • The ugly:

11. Question • What are some other examples? • In the real world?

12. Why Design? • “Despite the enormous outward success of personal computers, the daily experience of using computers far too often is still fraught with difficulty, pain, and barriers for most people.” • …

13. Why Design? • “The lack of usability of software and the poor design of programs are the secret shame of the industry.”— Mitch Kapor

14. Why Design? • There’s more to developing software than just making it work correctly.

15. Why Design?

16. Software Design • User perspective: • meets needs • increase user satisfaction • reduce frustration • increase productivity • reduce errors • easy to learn • easy to use

17. Software Design • Developer perspective: • manage complexity • reduce maintenance and support costs • increase quality • reduce defects • increase reuse • reduce time-to-market

18. Software Design • Selected goals: • bridging users and technology effectively • marry art and science • evolutionary development(design, implement, evaluate) • integrate expertise across disciplines

19. industrial design graphic design architecture ergonomics cognitive psychology sociology anthropology ethics software engineering computer science visualization experimentation intellectual property arts business … Multiple Disciplines

20. Software Design • Think about the user. • Focus on goals and tasks. • Try it out on the users. • Involve the users. • Iterate.

21. Book: “Human-Computer Interaction” by Alan Dix, Janet Finlay, Gregory Abowd, and Russell Beale, Prentice-Hall, 1998 http://www.hcibook.com/hcibook/

22. Instructor: Martin Jagersand • Office: Athabasca Hall 401 • Office Hours: By appointment • E-mail: jag@ugrad.cs.ualberta.ca • Phone: 780 492 5496

23. Staying in Touch • WWW page: http://ugweb.cs.ualberta.ca/~c301/ • Newsgroup: ualberta.courses.cmput.301 • Emails: • Your section TA, e.g. ayman, trysi etc… • jag@ugrad.cs.ualberta.ca

24. Project • Complex • Components • Integration (early!) • Vague • Talk to users • Evolution • Team effort • Hold regular meetings • Assign tasks • Peer reviews

25. Grading • Assignments: 15% • Midterm Exam: 15% • Project Parts: 40% • Final Exam: 30% Note: All assignments and project parts are due on a Monday at 12 noon. The TAs will explain the submission process in the labs. Late submissions will not be accepted.

26. End • What did I learn today? • What questions do I still have?