Book Reading #17 - HCI Remixed



Book Author: Thomas Erickson

CHAPTER 6: A Creative Programming Environment 

 Henry Lieberman
MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.A.

Summary

In this paper, Henry Lieberman recounts how he got introduced to David Canfield Smith's 1975 thesis paper: "Pygmalion: A Creative Programming Environment." Lieberman beleives this  paper was very much innovative, and introduced what we know today as the "icon". He also credits the paper for conceiving of programming as a process of animation using successive states of the graphic display to represent successive states of the program. Most importantly, this paper introduces the idea of programming by example. This paper has been instrumental in shaping the author's focus of research.

The author uses this example from his life to give us advice on how we show go about doing research. Indeed, Smith's paper was not particularly well known, however, we can now appreciate its impact, and importance. Once must have the courage to pursue his/her ideas whether they are popular or not to the academic community.

Discussion

This paper illustrates once again how a researcher worked on innovative, and ground-breaking research but did not receive much attention. The author uses this example to encourage us to pursue our endeavours, as we never know how much contributions we could be making.

CHAPTER 7: Fundamentals in HCI: Learning the Value of Consistency and User Models

Sara Bly
Sara Bly Consulting, Oregon, U.S.A.

Summary

In this paper,  Sara Bly  discusses the Xerox Red Book, a functional specification that details the user interface for the first Xerox Star workstation built in the 1980's.  She explains how this document has been influencial to her, and goes on to describe three main ideas that are discussed in the book: 

1. User Interface Specification: the UI was specified before the development of the workstation hardware and software; the UI was considered of primary importance to the design
2. Consistency: the UI incorporated the notion of selection and action. An object was first selected and then an action was performed always giving the user the option to or not to perform an action.
3. Desktop Metaphor:  It offered the user a conceptual model upon which to understand the use and functionality of the system.

The author then goes to point out how some of the UI design models layed out in the Xerox Red Book are still relevenat today, and useful.

Discussion

This paper introduces the Xerox Red Book as an important document for UI design. Though only accessible through the Xerox Archive or PARC library, many papers have been written about it that can be used to learn about UI design.

CHAPTER 9: The Disappearing Computer

Norbert A. Streitz

Fraunhofer IPSI, Darmstadt, Germany

Summary

In this paper, Norbert Streitz introduces us to Mark Weiser, and his September 1991 paper "The Computer for the 21st Century" published in Scientific America. This document talks about how the role of computers would change once computers were made available in a ubiquitous fashion. Streitz has been greatly influenced by this paper, and recounts some of his work with Xerox's "LiveBoard", an interactive display. He mentions his attempt to employ Weiser's idea of making the computer disappear, and providing the user with the information hs/she wants. Two types of disappearances are mentioned.

• Physical disappearance: integration of devices in other everyday artifacts.
• Mental disappearance: the situation in which artifacts are not seen as computers but rather as ordinary objects.

Streitz then details two concepts that stem from Weiser's paper:

• System-Oriented, Importnate Smartness
• People-Oriented, Empowering Smartness

Though Weiser did not live long enough to witness the "revival" of his work on ubiquitous computing, the notion is an important one that is talked about a lot today.

Discussion

This paper was interesting to read. It gave a good account of the origins of the notion of ubiquitous computing. It is a  term we often here today, but in fact Weiser had talked about it since the early 1990's.

CHAPTER 10: It Really Is All About Location!

Anin K. Dey
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.

Summary

As mentioned in the previous summary, we attribute to Mark Weiser the notion of ubiquitous computers. In this paper, Anin Dey talks about a paper entitled: "The Active Badge Location System" written in 1992. The authors were Roy Want, Andy Hopper, Veronica Falcao, and Jon Gibbons. This is an example of how researchers attempted to apply ubiquitous computing. The Active Badge System was an indoor positioning system developed at Olivetti Research. it was the first location-based system. The way the system works is that users, in an indoor facility, wear a badge that relays via sensors their location to a receptionist who can then use their location to route calls, and messages. The system also explored transferring a user's terminal screen from one place to another based on the user's location. The author explains that the Active Badge System has laid the foundation for a lot of today's location based services such a GPS systems, google maps, etc...
Dey also explains how this system influenced his work on context-aware systems.

Discussion

This paper was a good read, and gave a concrete example of how one can apply ubiquitous computing. We can easily see how  location based systems are widely used today especially in GPS, and mobile phone.

CHAPTER 46: The Essential Role of Mental Models in HCI: Card, Moran, and Newell

Kate Ehrlich
IBM Research, Cambridge, Massachussetts, U.S.A.

Summary

This paper examines a concept of mental models put forward by Card, Moran, and Newell in 1983 in their book, "The Psychology of Human-Computer Interaction", and its impact on HCI. The book is important as it provided the field of HCI testable theory that bridged the gap between psychological theories of human processing, and the emerging discipline of interface design.
The author also describes the GOMS model:

• Goals: set of things the user wants to do
• Operators: actions that belong in a user's repertoire
• Methods: sequence of subgoals and operators to achieve the goals
• Selectional Rules: having the choice of using the mouse or the keyboard to perform a task.

The author finally discusses the influence of Card, Moran, and Newell's theory. Although there are shortcomings, it does provide a systematic and principled set of quantitative and qualitative predictions about the ease of use of a particualr interface design.
The GOMS system also provided tools for building models of human behavior.
The author finally explains how there exists tension between, computer scientists, engineers, and psychologists in establishing a link between science and design. Are those two seperate ntions?

Discussion

In my opinion mental models are what allow users to use computers without having to think too much about what's going on "under the hood of the machine". Mental models can be useful, especially when design UI.

CHAPTER 47:  A Most Fitting Law

Gary M. Olson
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S.A.

Summary

HCI is mostly based on qualitative methods. The practice of doing user-centered designe relies mostly on heuristics, checklists, surveys, interviews and iterative testing. Laws are not really established in HCI except for Fitt's law which Gary Olson explains to us. This well known law was published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology in 1954. The paper in question relates three experiments which provided data for a formulation of the mathematical expression  of th law.

The law is: MT=a+b log2(2A/W) where MT is movement time, and a and b are empirically determined constants. A is the distance of movement, and W is the width of the target. This law has led to a number of interface innovations. Design ideas based on this law are:

• pop-up menus
• Fittsizing a menu
• Organization of walking menus
• Expanding items as you move toward them (MAC)

The author then explains the influence of Fitt on his own life, and work.

Discussion

This paper was a good read, and gave insightful information on what we take today as granted, such as pop-up menus, and fittsizing menus.

Book Reading 4: HCI Remixed



Book Author: Thomas Erickson

CHAPTER 24: A Simulated Listening Typewriter: John Gould Plays Wizard of Oz  

Chris Schmandt

MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.A.

Summary

In this paper, Chris Schmandt relates his work on some of the very first speech-based conversational human interfaces in the 1980s. He explains how the high cost of speech recognition equipment was hindered HCI researcher and how the focus at that time was in algorithm development.  IBM, was building dictation-style systems that were supposed to be able to create text documents from speech, without keyboard input. Out  of that lab most importantly was John Gould.  Schmandt goes on to describe the technique John Gould developed as a way of evaluating speech recognizers. Today  it is known as “Wizard of Oz” technique. It consists in a person interacting with a computer by speaking into a microphone, and subsequently having the speech being translated into text. The catch is that a human is listening to the speech and typing the text. Before the text is displayed to the user, the text is run through one of the specified algorithm. Schmandt relates the results of the experiment and how it led to the following conclusions:

      
     ·         Vocabulary size is critical.

·         Integration of editing with text input must be addressed.

·         Performance will be critical to acceptance

Schmandt finally explains how Gould’s paper  led to a career in speech recognition, and that one thing he does is when working on a project is to pay attention to the needs of the user in question.  A few of areas where he works is in telephone-based conversational agents and mobile speech interfaces.

Discussion

This paper was insightful. It goes about describing the beginnings of research on speech recognition and the development  of the “Wizard of Oz” technique. I am however noticing a pattern while reading all these essays. It seems that whenever a new technology emerges and is not the main focus of the researachers of the time, it does ntot get attention. Speech recognition nowadays sis a big deal. It is used  in cellphones for dialing contacts, it is used in telephone-based conversational .I always have to talk to a computer system when calling my bank, phone provider, or customer care. 

CHAPTER 25: Seeing the Hole in Space  

Summary

In this paper, Steve Harrison recounts his encounter with artists who created a video called “Hole in Space”. At first he is skeptical about meeting them because they are artists while he is not. He then explains how he was surprised to people’s reactions when the artists projected full-size images of Lincoln Center to people in New York and Century City images to people in Los Angeles. He notes the inquisitive nature of the people and their curiosity to know where the people they were watching were.

Discussion

This paper was quite interesting, and I think it illustrates the importance of multidisciplinary projecsts. One sometimes needs another fields perspective to find solutions. It is common to see this in tech compapanies nowadays. Companies will invite special guests from other fields to make presentations, and ideas can insue from those collaborations.

CHAPTER 26: Edward Tufte’s 1 + 1 = 3 

Summary

In this essay, Scott Jenson explains how a chapter of Edward Tufte’s book called “Envisioning Information” had an impact on his work as an Interaction Designer. He relates his experience in an elevator and how pushing on the  close button instead of the open button makes him realize there is  design flaw. Given two choices that look the same, this creates a clutter situation that can lead to confusion. He also explains the problem that occurs with technologists  where ther e is a focus on implementing  all functionality as opposed to implemeint the functions that are actually necessary. He also reveals how people prefer many functions as opposed

Discussion

The essay  reminded me of the KISS(Keep It Simple S…..) technique. When confronted with two objects, there is a third that forms which is the mental process of choosing.

CHAPTER 27: Typographic Space: A Fusion of Design and Technology   

Summary

In this essay, Jodi Forlizzi discusses how he got to work on kinetic typography.

He starts by talking about Muriel Cooper from MIT who was the first person to study typography in relation to technology. This was in the late 80’s. With her team of graduate students, she put out a paper describing the typographic system which allowed the designer/programmer to lay out text in a three dimensional space. Cooper passed away in 19994. After that, Forlizzi went to work as graduate research students under Cooper’s former student Ishizaki who was now a design faculty at Carnegie Mellon. Forlizzi goes on to describe how further work in the subject led to the understanding of the communicative power of kinetic typography. Kinetic typography or simply “moving text” is used heavily nowadays in opening credits for movies for effect.

Discussion

This paper is the most interesting so far out of the reading assignment. If you have ever watched a movie, you’ve experienced kinetic typography. I think it once again serves to show that multidisciplinary projects are important. I think this essay also serves to show that anything can have a technological spin on it. For example, sound effects with music, books turned into e-books, etc… .

CHAPTER 28: Making Sense of Sense Making   

Summary

In this essay, Steve Whittaker discusses A. Kidd’s paper: “The Marks are on the Knowledge Workers”. The paper makes two principal cases on the use of personal information:

• Memory prosthesis: Computers are primarily used for storage of information
• Sense making: Computers aren’t good at making sense of the information we encounter.

Whittaker explains that Kidd’s work changed his focus in his research from how people organized information to more on what people did.

Kidd’s work is a little outdated, so Whittaker contextualizes, and reframes the claims above.  Some of the questions he thinks we should be asking ourselves are:

• what are the uses of work-oriented memorabilia?
• What are the uses of digital memories?
• How can we help people create useful archives
• What processes are involved in handling working information?

Discussion

The author primarily discusses how his approach to conducting research shifted. The main thing I understand is that Kidd was trying to emphasize in his work the importance of the user’s experience as opposed to the functionalities the user could perform. I liked this paper because it brings up a good point. Eventhough nowadays  we have more storage capacity, it still is tedious to search through. I often get periods during which I can’t find documents, and they are cluttered all over my desktop. I wonder if that indicative of one’s organizational skills.

CHAPTER 34: Revisiting an Ethnocritical Approach to HCI: Verbal Privilege and Translation    

Summary

In this paper by Michael J. Mullard, relates how a book by Arthur Krupat influenced his approach to his HCI work. Krupat’s book primarily deals with the plight of the native Americans in their quest for sovereign status. Mullards understands, that the relation between Indians  and the US government was the same as a company and its customer when politics, ethics, an epistemology interfere. Since reading this book, Mullard has tried to take the approach of an etnohistorian with his work.

Discussion

I thought it was interesting how the author realized the ethical, political and epistemology implication of abuse of the customer.

Book Reading 3: HCI Remixed



Book Author: Thomas Erickson

CHAPTER 1:  My Vision Isn’t My Vision: Making a Career Out of

                          Getting Back to Where I Started

William Buxton
Microsoft Research, Toronto, Canada

Summary
This is the first chapter/essay of the book, and it is written by William Buxton. In it, Buxton describes how he went from being an undergraduate music student to working in the field of Computer Human Interaction. After his music composition professor Istvan Anhalt gives him some incentive and motivation, Buxton resolves to going to the NRC(National Reasearch Council of Canada) to check out a new digital music machine. The next pages describe his first impressions about the machine as he starts to familiarize himself with it. Pretty soon,, as he starts composing music with the machine, he develops an affinity for the machine. After that, he takes the occasion to set the record straight about him being attributed the method of bimanual input to a graphics terminal. He cites the proper people who were already doing this. He then points out the significance of this machine, as it was cleverly desgined for naive users. As it turns out, the machine was done as part of a project to study Human Computer Interaction by KenPulfer and his team. For the rest of the essay, Buxton pays hommage to Pulfer and also explains how Pulfer's paper ("Man-Machine Interaction in Creative Applications")  did not convey the critical implications of the machine, though the machine had a profound influence on Buxton.

Discussion

The choice to begin chapter 1 with this essay is quite appropriate. This first essay places Human Computer Interaction in its historical context. Through this essay we find that (HCI) is a fairly young field. When William Buxton visits the NRC, we are at the beginning of the seventies. Most importantly, we find out that people doing intial research on HCI at the time did not consider it their work as HCI
.

CHAPTER 4:  Drawing on SketchPad: Reflections on Computer Science and HCI

Joseph A. Konstan
University of Minessota, Minneapolis, Minessota,U.S.A.

Summary
In this essay, Konstan discusses Sutherland's 1963 paper:"Sketchpad: A Man-Machine Graphical Communication sytem". He attempts to answer to skeptics: "Why should HCI belong in a computer science program?"Through his presentation of Sutherland's paper, he shows that HCI and advances in Computer Science are intertwined. He proceeds by giving four examples; the first one being about the light pen used as an input device. The major feat of the pen is its complex localization technique. It is important that usage of the pen can provide some precision when used. Konstan also points out Sutherland's awareness of people's natural need to point at things
In the second example, Konstan highlights how Sutherland had devised was aware, and anticipated rendering lines, text, and circles. Though works on algorithms are not found, Sutherland also layed out techniques for drawing circles accurately. Finally, Sutherland had font tables for display of numbers and text.
In the third example, Konstan explains how Sutherland had developed constraints for drawing shapes which is not a trivial task. His constraint language supports a full range of positions, orientations and shapes.
In the final example, Konstan claims that Konstan anticipated Object Oriented programming.
He then summarizes these examples to conclude on the importance of the HCI field in computer science.
Discussion
I think Konstan makes his point across. HCI is intertwined with Computer Science. This essay was mainly on making the apology of HCI. I think our generation takes it for granted nowadays. When a new product is coming out, we focus on the user experience as opposed to the computation power of the device. It does not matter how powerful a computer is if it caters to the wrong target people.

CHAPTER 5:  The Mouse, the Demo, and the Big Idea

Wendy Ju
Stanford University, Stanford, California, U.S.A.

Summary
In this paper, Wendy Ju talks about Doug Engelbart's oNLine System(NLS) demo video introducing the mouse that Engelbart and Bill English invented. Ju mainly discusses how the video had a profound impact on her, and how it was instrumental in determinining her career path. Wendy also describes a period of her life at MIT as a graduate student where she was facing the "demo-or-die" culture. She describes how this lead to her doubting herself, doubting her project, and growing weary of the "demo culture". That's where she recalls Engelbart's demo and watches it again. She then talks about how Engelbart's demo was no longer popular soon after its presentation because at the time, the mouse was not one of the "hot topic" areas during that period. Ju also explains how Engelbart was really trying to present a new approach to augmented reality, but did not receive approbation. Ju finally draws a conclusion.
Discussion
My main take from reading this essay is the importance of throwing out one's ideas out there regardless of whether academia in on the same page. I was surprised to find out about how the mouse did not initially get support. It is quite shocking considering that a computer is not a computer if it does not have a mouth.

CHAPTER 18:  Observing Collaboration: Group-Centered Design

Saul Greenberg
University of Calgary,Calgary,Canada

Summary
In this essay, Saul Greenberg mainly presents a paper by John Tang named: "Listening, Drawing, and Gesturing in Design: A Study of the Use of Shared Workspaces by  Design Teams". Greenberg goes through a set of examples to illustrate how his view of groupware design changed radically. He also talks about his introduction to the notion of "group-centered" design. Greeenberg also presents some observations performed by Sara Bly. Bly's observations eventually lea to an understanding of how interaction through a drawing surface could influence a group's productivity, effectiveness, and attention. Building on this, John Tang made studies of his own on small  design groups.  He observes differences  based on orientation of table-top group paper, proximity of individuals, simultaneous access, and system building.

Discussion
This essay reminded me of chapter 4. Indeed, we see how John Tang's method of observing group collaboration via groupware led to aiding Greenberg in establishing his own methodology, and coming up with  his publications.

CHAPTER 20:   Taking Articulation Work Seriously
Geraldine Fitzpatrick
University fo Sussex, Brighton, U.K.

Summary

In her essay,Geraldine Fitzpatrick introduces the paper called: "Taking CSCW seriously: Supporting Articulation Work" written by Schmidt and Bannon. She presents this paper as a the point of emergence of CSCW (computer-supportied cooperative work). Due to the diverse interpretation and conceptualization of the field, Fitzpatrick explains Schmidt and Bannon pursue of defining CSCW under one conceptualization: "cooperative work". She then talks about Anslem Strauss from whom the notion of "Articulation Work" emerged. She then relates how Schmidt and Bannon's work relates to the notion of ubiquitous computing.

Discussion

This essay was a bit more technical to read. In it, Fitzpatrick walks us through her proces of better understanding CSCW. The main individuals she metions are Schmidt and Bannon and Strauss.

CHAPTER 23:  Video, Toys, and Beyond Being There 
Brian K. Smith
The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.

Summary
In this paper, Brian Smith recounts the final moments of his mother's life. Constrained to staying in the hospital, his mother's only method of seeing his newborn daughter was via pictures and videos sent. Smith also talks  about how visits between his mother and his daugther were enhanced because of his daughter's sing-along doll. He uses these two illustrations to emphasize the emotional dimension of interaction with technology. He also talks about the paper called: "Beyond being there" by Holland and Stornetta.

Discussion


I am in agreement with the writer's claim of an emotional aspect to technology. I can relate to a certain extent to his story. In the late nineties my sibling was born, and at the time I was halfway across the world. The only way I could see her was via a picture sent in an e-mail. Though only a picture, the reaction of the rest of the family when we first opened the picture was very special. I still have vivid memory of that moment.