Human Factors in Software Development
CS 4753/PSY 4753
Fall 1998
Instructor: Morgan Morris
(morgan.morris@hboc.com)
Office Hours: By Appointment
TA:
Matt Tebbe (gt5308a@prism.gatech.edu)
Office Location: 1st floor study area, CoC
Office Hours: Mon, Wed 10-11am, or by appointment
Announcements
11/5/98 - For the checkpoint for the project, the professor is looking for progress to have been made on all aspects, so it doesn't look like something was just thrown together before class.
11/5/98 - The final exam for the class is Tuesday Dec. 8th, from 11:30-2:50 (exam period 5)
10/19/98 - Please e-mail me (Matt) your group members and project but you also must have a hard copy to turn into the professor on the day of the midterm.
10/19/98 - Project Details are now available on the web. I have e-mailed some of the questions you brought up to the professor and will post answers in the newsgroup as I get them.
10/18/98 - Reminder that the midterm is on Oct. 26.
10/18/98 - The project is now available on the web.
10/9/98 - Class notes are now available from the link below.
General Information
Description: HCI (Human-Computer Interaction) is a multidisciplinary subject that draws on concepts and skills from computer science, psychology, sociology, anthropology, industrial and graphic design. Broadly speaking, contributions to the field are made from three camps--technologists, behavioral scientists and designers. Each contributes a unique perspective and set of tools. This course introduces students to the issues and tools that each group brings to the design, development and evaluation of user-centric systems.
Course goals:
- To understand usability and usefulness of a computer system from the user's perspective.
- To gain awareness of human capabilities/limitations and how they impact interaction.
- To gain experience critiquing, analyzing and redesigning interfaces based on principles of user-centered design.
Meeting Time: Mon., 4:30-7:30pm
Meeting Place: College of Computing, Room101
Textbook: Newman, W. & Lamming, M. (1996) Interactive System Design, Addison Wesley: Reading, MA.
Additional Resources
Printed
references
- ACM SIGCHI -
http://www.acm.org/sigchi/
The premier professional organization for academics and industry folks working in HCI. Publishes a huge number of magazines, journals, books and conference proceedings on HCI. Many are available on the web. Many conference proceedings are available in the GVU conference room library or from Colleen.
Human Factors & Ergonomics Society - http://hfes.org/
Another large and well-know professional society with lots of publications. Has a broader scope than SIGCHI in some ways, since it's not specifically focused on computers. Some publications are available in the GVU conference room library.
CHI-Atlanta - http://www.ratio.com/chi-atlanta/
A local affiliate of SIGCHI. A great way to meet people in the field, find out about jobs in Atlanta, and see what practicing HCI professionals do. Meets about once a month.
The HCI Bibliography - http://www.hcibib.org/
A large database with bibliographic entries for books, articles, conferences, etc. Sometimes just a citation, but often includes an abstract. Does not contain full text articles.
Usable Web - http://www.usableweb.com/
A large index of web resources. If it's on the web and related to HCI, it's probably listed here.
HCI Journal - http://www.parc.xerox.com/istl/projects/HCI/
A well-known journal for HCI practitioners. This site has archives of past issues.
Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox Column - http://www.useit.com/alertbox/
A twice-monthly column about current issues in web usability. Extremely interesting reading, especially for anyone who will be designing web pages or web technolgies (e.g. browsers).
HCI Theses-In-Progress - http://www.dcs.napier.ac.uk/hci/tip/
Students who are currently working on a PhD or Masters thesis in HCI often list their projects here. A good place to see what HCI "research" really means.
Past HCI Courses - http://www.cc.gatech.edu/classes/
Web pages from past offerings of CS4753, CS6751 and CS6752 are listed on this page. They've been taught by many different professors, but it might be useful to see what other students have done in the past. Many contain slides, lecture notes, references to websites and students' projects. Note that these projects were assigned by different professors who had different requirements for the projects. Do not assume that these projects meet all the requirements for this quarter's projects.