Reference:
Erickson, Thomas and McDonald, David W. HCI Remixed: Reflections on Works that have Influenced the HCI Community. MIT. 2008
Title:
Chapter 6: A Creative Programming Environment
Summary:
Henry Lieberman from MIT comments on Smith's Pygmalion: A Creative Programming Environment. Lieberman randomly found Smith's paper through suggestion. It was rarely known, but contributed to much of Lieberman's work. The paper was a program that used icons, one of the first implementations of icons, to model programs and actually program.
Lieberman points out that we should not let the big questions scare us, think about the huge picture and implement something small to model that picture in a small way, don't be afraid to look hard for things, and let your work speak for you.
Discussion:
This paper was hard to follow in the beginning, and since the program crashed we are not able to get a great sense of how the program acted. Apparently it was really influential to Lieberman. The thing I got the most out of this was when he said, "show people what things would be like if your vision were realized."
Title:
Chapter 7: Fundamentals in HCI: Learning the Value of Consistency and User Models
Summary:
Sara Bly comments on the Xerox Red Book. She said that it provides an important grounding for user interface design. When it came out it showed important concepts such as making it what the user actually intended to do, consistency, and the notion of a desktop. It came out in wake of Xerox Star.
Discussion:
This fairly bland article was interesting only in the conclusion. I got out of it that we need to model our designs from what the user relates the action to.
Title:
Chapter 9: The Disappearing Computer
Summary:
Norbert Streitz comments on M. Weiser's "The Computer for the 21st Centruy". Streigtz highlights the paper's claim that the computer should disappear and be intertwined in everyday life. The paper continues with the invention of LiveBoard which was similar to a large box using a pen. This spurred on the idea for Streitz to develop more invisible interaction methods such as in walls and chairs.
Discussion:
I think that Weiser's goal has been close to accomplished with iPod touches and the like. They really have integrated with our society so much so to where they are almost inseparable to us. It makes me think that with this also comes dependence seen in films such as Dr. Strangelove.
Title:
Chapter 10: It Really Is All About Location!
Summary:
Anind Dey tells of Want, Hopper, Falcao and Gibbons design of "The Active Badge Location System". This system was designed to be able to locate people with this active badge within a particular building. They used it in the environment they were working in with about thirty people. It used infra-red technology. The receptionist used it to transfer calls to the location most probably that the recipient would be. Others used it to locate other staff there. All this was 15 years before our common GPS and Google Maps.
Discussion:
It was interesting to see a design as such back in the day. It does sound nice to be able to track your coworkers, but it almost sounds like a big brother was watching everyone's move. I would like to see an inexpensive model of those sorts now but with people and their cellphones. In a similar friending pattern found on things such as Facebook, one could see the location of friends if they wanted you to.
Title:
Chapter 46: The Essential Role of Mental Models in HCI: Card, Moran, and Newell
Summary:
Kate Ehrlich from IBM Research takes interest in Card, Moran, and Newell's book "The Psychology of Human-Computer Interaction". Ehrlich tells of how the book's focus was on mental models that people develop for a computer system. She discusses GOMS as a mental model. Goals are the set of things the user wants to do or accomplish. Operators are the means by which the user has to accomplish those goals. Methods are the subgoals needed in order to accomplish the goal. Selectional rules are the different approaches that could achieve the subgoals. Ehrlich reflects on the question of what disciplines are truly involved in HCI.
Discussion:
Although I feel that Ehrlich did not get into any specifics represented in the book, she did believe that the book was very influential for HCI. It seemed like she thought it contributed mostly in the fact that it forced people to think just a little bit differently in their approach to HCI.
Title:
Chapter 47: A Most Fitting Law
Summary:
Gary Olsen tells of P. M. Fitts' quantitative law that applies to CHI. The law, informally stated, says that movement time is a function of the length of the movement and the size of the target. Olsen points out that this has several uses in CHI.
- The edge of the screen is a great location to put things needed to be clicked
- Pop up menus already have the cursor where it needs to be
- Linear menus and pie menus are ways of listing icons
- As you go down a list, it may be a good idea to have the list items get larger
- It shows interest in hierarchical menus
- Expanding items as you move toward them aid in clicking on them.
Discussion:
I really appreciated this article because it brought to mind things that I have never thought about. It makes complete sense that these six items would be useful in allowing the user to click with more speed and precision. It would not only speed up the performance of tasks, but also would probably allow for a more user friendly environment as the user would not make as many mistakes and have the opportunity to get upset over those mistakes.
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