Book Reading #17 - HCI Remixed

Chapter 6: A Creative Programming Environment
Summary:
This chapter was about the idea of work in the HCI that could profoundly change the field. The example used was Pygmalion and describes how it was innovative and how we can learn from it and it's situation.

Discussion:
I think it's important to always keep in mind the possibility of something new emerging or thinking of something yourself that can have a major impact.

Chapter 7: Fundamentals in HCI: Learning the Value of Consistency and User Models
Summary:
This chapter was about the document 'Xerox Red Book' and it's influence on user interface design. The overall design principles that are described in xerox book are seeing vs. remembering, what you see is what you get(WYSIWYG), universal commands, simplicity, modeless interacton, and user tailorability. This book can still be used as an important grounding for user interface design.

Discussion:
The main point of this was to stress the importance of user interface design. The xerox book can be used as a guide to this kind of design. I think it's important for good references to be availabe for this design because it is usually the most important part of the program because it's how most users will judge the software.

Chapter 9: The Disappearing Computer
Summary:
A computer should essentialy disappear from society because they get woven into our lives. This is what is meant by the phrase 'the disappearing computer'. They can physically disappear or mentally disappear based on how it is designed. Physically technology and hardware can get smaller so it is not noticable. The technology or hardware could also disappear mentally which means it is unoticed in our lives because they seem like ordinary objects. An example of this mental disappearance is the dynawall where people can interact with a wall pretty much. It is also mentioned that the field is called HCI but it is important to note most users don't want to interact with computers but rather with information or other humans, which implies HII or HHI.

Discussion:
This is a good way to think of how we should design projects. Technology is a fundamental part of our society now and things need to be designed to not be a hinderance. The first project the author talks about was the Liveboard which was a big box with an interactive board. This was used as a stepping stone to greater designs that seemed more and more to disappear.

Chapter 10: It Really Is All About Location!
Summary:
Location-based service devices are a huge part of society today. Being able to track locations is extremely useful and important. The first project to use this locatoin-based service was called the Active Badge location system. People could be tracked through an interface by simply wearing a badge. This was the first time somebody could easily be tracked without the person doing anything. This project arguably created context-aware computing.


Discussion:
Because this service is used in so many devices today I think this was interesting to read about. As I was reading I kept thinking about privacy issues and how it would suck to be constantly tracked even if you were doing nothing wrong, the idea just bugged me. The author said though that the privacy issue was addressed and the badge could just be removed.  The interface could also give a probability of where to find somebody if they weren't being tracked, that's interesting.

Chapter 46: The Essential Role of Mental Models in HCI: Card, Moran, and Newell
Summary:
The idea of mental models brought up in the book 'The Psychology of Human-Computer Interaction' and its impact on HCI is discussed in this chapte. This book is important because it provided a testable theory that bridged the gap between pyschological theories of human processing and interface design. Mental models in HCI are used for the user's representation of a system and the design of a system between the user's prospective and the systems construction. The type of model discussed is called GOMS, which stands for Goals, Operators, Methods, and Selection Rules. This work has caused tension in the HCI field between psychologists, computer scientists, engineers, and designers.

Discussion:
I think a user model is very important. In my mind the way the viewer uses the program is the most important part of a project. Having a mental model can help make things easier. I don't care much for the psychology behind it but I do believe that it exists. 

Chapter 47: A Most Fitting Law
Summary:
HCI doesn't have very many laws, most of HCI is based on qualatative methods. Fitts's law is one of the few laws and it can be summarized as MT = a + b logbase2(2A/W). MT is movement time, b is empirically determined constants, A = distance of movement, W = width of the target. The law states a precise prediction about how movement and target characteristics are related. This law became interesting when a windowed interface came about with cursor controled devices.

Discussion:
This was interesting to read because I read the technical paper about Fitts's Law for this class a couple of weeks ago. This law is the only one I've heard about in HCI. It shows how in user interface design this law can be used to help with certain design aspects such as pull down menus. With Fittsizing there is a 20 percent increase in size per item which increases the speed of selection.