Rationale
The design and development of displays, alarms, and interfaces for small or large screens is an activity captured in the study of the human computer interface and in a study of human computer interaction. This discipline is increasingly software based and design needs require guidance by insights from psychology and informed by an appreciation of human diversity including matters such as colored blindness and deafness; in these circumstances, multimedia approaches often have a role to play. It is important to note that in certain applications there are crucial requirements for reliability and other kinds of performance that have implications for matters such as safety and security. Emphasis is placed on understanding human reactions to displays of various kinds and on human behavior in the context of interactive objects. Based on these, students need to understand the principles associated with the evaluation of interfaces including those that embody interaction. Students need to know the principles and guidelines that reflect best practice in the design, development, and maintenance of interfaces for multiple types of systems.
Objectives
By covering the course in Human Computer Interaction (HCI), the student will be able to:
- Identify some contributors to human-computer interaction and relate their achievements to the knowledge area, define HCI, explain the reasons for proper HCI designs in engineering, provide a good reason for having a small-screen graphical user interface, provide a good reason for having a large-screen graphical user interface, give an example on how one might evaluate an engineering design using some principles of HCI and describe how computer engineering uses or benefits from human-computer interaction.
- Develop a conceptual vocabulary for analyzing human interaction with software: to include terms such as affordance, conceptual model, and feedback, summarize the basic science of psychological and social interaction relevant to the development of human computer interfaces, differentiate between the role of hypotheses and experimental results recognizing the role of correlations, distinguish between the different interpretations that a given icon, symbol, word, or color can have in (a) different human cultures and (b) in the context of human diversity, and create and conduct a simple usability test for an existing software application, taking into account human diversity.
- Identify several fundamental principles for effective GUI design relevant for different applications in computer engineering, use a GUI toolkit to create a simple application that supports a graphical user interface, illustrate the effect of fundamental design principles on the structure of a graphical user interface, and conduct a simple usability test for each instance and compare the results.
- Recognize contexts in which to deploy the various technologies associated with intelligent systems and demonstrate an awareness of the capabilities as well as the limitations of the available techniques and technologies.
- For a range of contexts in which intelligent systems are deployed in a computer engineering context, identify the technical implications for devices, for computing power and for software, identify the potential for the use of intelligent systems in a range of computer engineering equipment, discuss the professional, legal and ethical implications of deploying intelligent systems in a range of computer engineering situations, describe situations from computer engineering applications when intelligent systems can be relied upon to deliver a required response, describe situations in which intelligent systems may or may not be reliable enough to deliver a required response, giving reasons for the answer, explain the necessity for heuristics in the general context of intelligent systems, and differentiate between the concepts of: optimal reasoning and human-like reasoning; of optimal behavior and human-like behavior.
- Discuss the full range of evaluation criteria appropriate for one of a range of computer engineering applications, conduct a walkthrough and a Keystroke Level Model analysis, summarize the features of the major guidelines and standards associated with human-centered software evaluation, and evaluate one of a range of existing interactive system with appropriate human-centered criteria and usability, giving reasons for selection of techniques.
- Explain the basic types and features of human-centered software development, indicate three functional and three usability requirements that may be useful in developing human-centered software, specify an interactive object using one of the common methods as well as appropriate standards or guidelines, and demonstrate the application of guidelines and fundamental principles in developing one of a range of possible computer engineering applications that rely on a human computer interface.
- Summarize common interaction styles, explain good design principles of each of the following: common widgets; sequenced screen presentations; simple error-trap dialog; a user manual, design, prototype, and evaluate a simple 2D GUI, and discuss the challenges that exist in moving from 2D to 3D interaction.
- Compare the event-driven paradigm with more traditional procedural control for the user interface, identify common differences as well as similarities in cross- platform user interface design, and demonstrate an ability to outline an approach to interface design for a computer engineering application that utilizes an appropriately chosen selection of technologies from event management, widgets, geometry management, and GUI builders.
- Understand the nature of graphical design and implement a simple graphical activity using a standard software package, appreciate the role of visualization technologies and demonstrate them through the development of a simple application, appreciate the benefits of virtual reality and the nature of the advantages this offers, and demonstrate a simple application of computer vision technology in a computer engineering context.
- Select system components which are suitable for the realization of multi-media interfaces of high quality, and design and develop a multi-media interface for a simple computer engineering application.
Attachment Name | Attachment Type | ||
CMP3202 Human Computer Interaction | DOC | PS |