Book Reading #17 - HCI Remixed

Chapter 6: A Creative Programming Environment

Summary

In this chapter, the author Henry Leiberman addresses the paper - “Pygmalion: A Creative Programming Environment”. He talks about the creator of the icon based user interface. This person worked at the Xerox corporation. He set the trends for our interaction with computers using icons and drag-n-drop.. Icons are the way we interact with computers today. The idea was later incorporated in Macintosh.

Discussion

The author appreciates Smith's work. No one thought back then that it would be a big thing. I personally think that the idea of using icons was brilliant and it deserves much more credit than Smith received for his revolutionary work.

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

Summary:

In this chapter, Sara Bly talks about the Red Book used by the Xerox Corporation. The Red Book instructed the design process and set the design standards at Xerox. It was primarily divided into two parts - document creation and document management. The author mentions that the Red Book is important because it focussed on the interface design. The Red book laid importance on consistency of design. Lastly, she mentions that the Red Book offered a conceptual model.

Discussion:

I thought this chapter was very interesting. I look at the Red Book as the book to success that Xerox Corporation used wisely. It had the secret ingredients to the right design. This was probably why Xerox was a big thing back then and everybody in the field of computing wanted to work for Xerox research.

Chapter 9: The Disappearing Computer

Summary:

In this chapter, Streitz talks about "disappearing of the computer" by which he implies incorporation of technology in our everyday lives to such an extent that we stop realizing that we are using technology anymore. Technology will become so commonplace that there will be nothing special about it.

Discussion:

I think Streitz indeed saw the future. Today, we use technology for everything we do. Everyone carries a cellphone that is as powerful as a decade old computer. Laptops and tablets have become commonplace. Cars, kitchens and garages have computers. Thus, we can see that his metaphor has turned out to be true.

Chapter 10: It Really Is All About Location!

Summary:

The author of the essay Anind Dey talks about a paper titled "The Active Badge Location System". This paper talked about a system in which people could wear badges that helped other people in locating them and which later was used to increase work efficiency. Today, location based services, maps and other software based on GPS have a big market. The paper talks about the importance of such services.

Discussion:

The motive of describing the Active Badge Location System was to describe the origins of location based services. Today, location based services are indeed a huge business. People use Google maps for getting directions instead of traditional maps. GPS technology is used for tracking pets and every car has a built in navigation system.

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

Summary:

In this essay, the author Kate Ehrlich talks about the book - The psychology of Human-Computer interaction and the influence it had on her. The book describes how people form mental models about computers. She goes on to explain how these mental models helped the developers to develop and design new systems.

Discussion:

I think it was interesting to read about the difference in the thought process of common users, psychologists and computer programmers. Somethings that the programmers find obvious might not be very self intuitive for the end user. It's important to keep this notion is in mind while developing software systems and other technology related products.

Chapter 47: A Most Fitting Law

Summary:

In this essay, Olson mentions mathematical formula that can be used in the field if Human Computer Interaction, especially in designing user interfaces. In general, the area has no mathematical rules. It is driven by aesthetics, user reactions and to some extent human psychology. The mathematical law he mentions is the Fitt's law MT=a+b lg(2A/W) where MT=movement time, and b are constants, A is the distance of the movement and W is the width of the target.

Discussion:

I thought that the mathematical formula did make sense. However, any interface designer would consider the inconvenience the user might have if two buttons having similar functions or some connection (undo and redo, back and forward) are placed very far from each other, say on the opposite sides of the screen. Fitt proved this point mathematically.

Book Reading #4: HCI Remixed

Reference:
HCI Remixed: Reflections on Works that have Influenced the HCI Community
Thomas Erickson and David W. McDonald
MIT. 2008

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 chapter, the author Chris Schmandt talks about some early research in the field of speech recognition in the 1980s. IBM researchers were trying to develop algorithms that would recognize the spoken words. This could be used for dictation. It was a thrill to control the computer with one's voice. However, the high cost of the equipment hindered the research. The prime focus of the research was on developing the algorithm. Small vocabulary and discrete speech input were the limitations of the algorithm.
'Wizard of Oz' as mentioned in the paper was an evaluation technique used my John Gould to evaluate speech recognition algorithm. The 'Wizard of Oz' technique involved masquerading of human as computer system, i.e. there would be a human on the other side who would be listening to the speaker and typing in words.

Discussion:
I really liked the 'Wizard of Oz' evaluation technique and it was a good idea to compare the results from the algorithm with the results obtained from this technique. Secondly, it was interesting to know about the development of the speech recognition techniques in its early days. Today, we see that speech recognition is very commonly used, especially in the telecom industry where the operators are usually speech recognizers.
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CHAPTER 25: Seeing the Hole in Space

Summary:
In this paper, Steve Harrison talks about the two artists - Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz and about their video called 'Hole in space'. Initially, the author wasn't very willing to meet the artists, however, when they met, he was surprised by their ingenuity. The artists projected images of Lincoln Center to people in New York and Century City images to people in Los Angeles. Crowds gathered quickly once the artwork was projected. People walking on the streets actually stopped and were curious about what was going on. This was the first time when people were interacting in real time with other people from across the country. 'Hole in Space' showed that media space might be a way to engage and constitute community differently.

Discussion:
I think 'Hole in Space' experiment was jaw-dropping. I was surprised that they were actually able to project images from the other side of the country in real time and this was when technologies like internet didn't exist. I realize the importance of this experiment on the development of computer supported cooperative work and collaboration.
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CHAPTER 26: Edward Tufte’s 1 + 1 = 3

Summary:
The author talks about his experience in an elevator and how he pressed the close-doors button instead of the open-doors button making him feel mortified. He soon realized that there was a design flaw in the buttons. Further, he goes on and suggests better designs for the buttons, with a wider open-door button marked with green color. It also used an icon of a person getting into the elevator that suggested the purpose. The close door button was smaller, marked in red and had an icon of closed doors on it. This design was clearly self-explanatory and did not demand a lot of thought. Further, the author talks about eliminating the choice altogether, thus solving the cognitive clutter problem. Not having a close door button won't do any harm.

Discussion:
I found this paper to be extremely interesting and very convincing. This paper was a bit similar to the articles in Don Norman's book - 'Design of Everyday things'. The elevator incident has happened with me before and it's truly disappointing. Such experiences directly point to the need of creative and self-intuitive designs. I agree with the author when he talks about reducing the complexity of the confusing elevator buttons by adding color scheme or by removing the choice altogether.
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CHAPTER 27: Typographic Space: A Fusion of Design and Technology
Summary:
In his essay, the author talks about the works on early day typography softwares. Author talks bout Muriel Cooper from MIT, who was one of the first people to suggest the use of technology in typography. She was researching on a typographic system which allowed th euser to lay out text in three dimensional space. After Cooper passed away in 1994, her graduate students carried on her work. Initially they faced issues like distortion, type size and problems with sense of space. Ishizaki, one of Cooper's graduate students propsed the idea of kinetic typography i.e. moving text, which is extensively used today in advertising and in movies.

Discussion:
It never occurred to me that moving text would have taken so much research. However, it was a creative idea and converting this idea into a reality did take a lot of effort. Projecting text in 3D space and adding text effects has tremendously helped graphic designers. It is because of these efforts that we can easily rotate and twist text in MsWord and Photoshop.

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CHAPTER 28: Making Sense of Sense Making

Summary:
Author Steve Whitaker talks about Alison Kidd's paper - "The marks are on the knowledge worker". The paper talks about two ideas:

• Memory Prosthesis: Computers are mainly used for storing passive information which not particularly useful.
• Sense Making: Computers aren't very good at making sense of the information they store.

Kidd claims that there is little value to the passively stored information because information is useful only during the act of informing. Once understood and integrated into the user's mental structures, it has little value and is seldom accessed. We need know more about exactly when and why long term information is accessed.
Kidd also claims that arranging information in the form of folders is confusing and makes information difficult to access. Folders hide information and it becomes very difficult to dig old information. Sense making implies a cognitive act of imposing understanding on information, creating new relations between formerly unconnected information. Task management instead demands a more lightweight form of organization, requiring information to be available and invoked at appropriate time.
Some of the issues Kidd claims are clearly wrong, for example, her opinion that digital memories are useless is clearly wrong. Digital memories are most prevalent in the market today. However, some issues pose a valid point.

Discussion:
I agree with the author's opinion about proper arrangement and classification of information. Arranging all the information in folders, at times does get confusing. I believe that we should learn from our surroundings and apply physics simulations to our GUI systems. For example we pin important documents to the wall. We pile up books and keep the most accessed book on the top, etc. It doesn't matter how this is done internally at the operating system level, but the user should get a visual experience that helps him to remember where the information is stored. This is somewhat implemented in GUI interface called bumptop, a video of which can be found here.

Book Reading #3: HCI Remixed

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
J.K. Pulfer, 1971: "Man-Machine Interaction in Creative Applications"

Chapter Summary:
This chapter was about a musician's first experience of developing music using a computer. He was never interested or intrigued by computers. However, when he did use computer for making music for the first time, he was completely impressed by it and how it was very easy to use. The author wants to emphasize that since a non technical person from a non computer science background was able to use it with complete ease, the software and design of the computer was really a masterpiece of the early day HCI.
Discussion:
The incidence mentioned in the essay was the beginning of the computers being used in various different fields. The aim was to make it really easy to use, understand and learn for users who had never used a computer before and the designers were successful. This shows the significance of good design in the field of HCI.

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Chapter 4: Drawing on SketchPad: Reflections on Computer Science and HCI
Joseph A. Konstan. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota
I. Sutherland, 1963: "SketchPad: A Man-Machine Graphical Communication System"

Chapter Summary:
In the essay, the author describes the features of the SketchPad. He believes it was the birth of the computer-aided drawing programs like CAD. Furthermore, the author also expresses that the field of computer science has greatly advanced today because HCI was a part of computer science field. Without HCI computer would have applications limited to computation.
Discussion:
I completely agree with the author about HCI being the part of the computer science area. I also agree that today computers are so common and have various applications due to advancement in HCI, without which there would be a barrier between people ad the computers and only a selected few would be able to use it.

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Chapter 5: The Mouse, the Demo, and the Big Idea
Wendy Ju. Standford University, Standford, California.
D. Englebart, 1968: "The oNLine System (NLS) Demo"

Chapter Summary:
In this essay, the author talks about the invention of the mouse. She talks about how it changed the way people interacted with computers. Furthermore, she explains the importance of demonstrations and how it can impact the audience. The audience can not grasp the idea and may not welcome it unless they actually see a demo. To emphasize the effect that demos have on the people, she states that it was the demo of the mouse that led the author to make a vital career decision.
Discussion:
Demos indeed can change perspectives of the people and what they think. Many people might have great ideas, but demos serve as a proof that idea can be converted into something that works. Demos instantly convince the audience. Demos help the audience to measure the "awesomeness" of the idea. Something that can't be measured, doesn't exist at all.
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Chapter 18: Observing Collaboration: Group-Centered Design
Saul Greenberg. University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada.
J. Tang, 1989: "Listing, Drawing, and Gesturing in Design: A Study of the Use of Shared Workspaces by Design Teams."

Chapter Summary:
The author talks about the idea of virtual white boards, how people in a group can draw and write information on their personal touch screen tablets and share it with everyone else in the group. He talks about the early research and studies in this area and how people reacted to such ideas. The essay talks about the impact these notions had on the evolution of shared workspace.
Discussion:
I believe this was a giant leap forward in the field of HCI. It was because of this research that we have online white boards and other conferencing tools that help us interact and work on shared workspaces even though the people are thousands of miles apart. This concept has a major contribution to make the idea of "work-from-home" a reality.
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Chapter 20: Taking Articulation Work Seriously
Geraldine Fitzpatrick. University of Sussex, Brighton, U.K.
K. Schmidt, and L. Bannon, 1992: "Taking CSCW Seriously: Supporting Articulation Work."

Chapter Summary:
The author talks about the importance of articulation work in the area of Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW). This was one of the early ideas of usage of technology to support people in their work. The author states that the idea of articulation work came from Anslem Strauss.
Discussion:
I thought the essay was a bit ambiguous to understand. It was probably too technical and lacked examples. I could understand what the essay tried to convey, but I would've been more convinced with the author's opinion if it was put in a more lucid way and had some examples.
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Chapter 23: Video, Toys, and Beyond Being There
Brian K. Smith. The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania.
J. Hollan and S. Stornetta, 1992: "Beyond Being There."

Chapter Summary:
By the words "being there", the author refers to the communication via teleconferencing. Even though the people are thousands of miles apart, they can talk as if they are talking face to face. It is interesting how computers have bridged the gap and has brought the world close together. Due to such communication tools, the authors mother was able to spend time with her granddaughter, even when the author's mother was in chemotherapy.
Discussion:
The main point of the essay is to explain the application of the technology to improve human experience, to make communication faster and easier. In the essay, the grandmother could actually see her granddaughter's birth and her her grand daughter playing with her doll, which definitely made the grandmother happy.
Even though the communication technology made this possible, I don't believe that the technological experience will be anywhere close to an actual meeting. Personal relationships can not be developed without meeting a person face to face. Thus, I believe that the author's idea of "beyond being there" has limitations that can't be broken.