Lecture slides:
Video podcasts:
Week VII: Information Design & Interfaces

Major Topics:
  • From "human factors" to "Human-Computer Interaction"
  • Interfaces in everyday life
  • "Cognitively mapping" information
  • Social and cultural contexts as gates or barriers to accessing information
  • The screen as a "political" divide between users and designers
  • User controls and designers' prescriptions
  • Closure of meaning and the routinization of interfaces
  • The pitfalls of the "single best solution" approach
Assigned Readings:
  • Donald A. Norman, "Emotion and Design: Attractive Things Work Better," on Website, jnd.org (full URL in the linked page)—an easy intro to the ideas of HCI's top guru.
  • Edward Tufte, "PowerPoint Is Evil; Power Corrupts.PowerPoint Corrupts Absolutely," Wired XI:9 (September, 2003).
  • Bruce Tognazzini, "First Principles," in the "Ask Tog" section of the Neilsen-Norman Group Website (full URL in the linked page)—once Apple's interface guru, Tog is now a top consultant and critic of UI design.
  • A brief selection from Ben Schneiderman, Leonardo's Laptop: Human Needs and the New Computing Technology (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002), 9-14—an elegant call for "seamless" interfaces.
  • Alorie Gilbert, "Business apps get bad marks in usability," CNET News.com (January 14, 2003)—a good example of how poor interfaces inhibit business-process efficiency.
  • Some of us have criticized mainstream HCI for having its focus limited to what could be considered "cognitive ergonomics;" now that cultural studies people are looking at HCI, we can now think about "culturally embedded computing," as a research group at Cornell does.
Recommended Readings:
  • We know that the Ministry of Homeland Security is looking at biometric modes of authentication as their magic bullet, so the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has published its standards for biometric data.
  • Continuing on the theme of PowerPoint not really as a bad interface but as a mangler of intentions, meanings, and emotions—and as a perverse mode of family management, here's a piece on "Absolute PowerPoint," from the New Yorker.
  • OK, we know it's easy to kick PowerPoint gratuitously, but [again!], here's how the Gettysburg Address would look in PowerPoint. By now, you get the Point, no doubt; here's a .pdf version of the Gettysburg Address.
  • You can experience the most unctuous, smarmy, and generally insulting GUI ever invented, Microsoft's Bob, simply by going to the critic's Website. Just cruise it; you can imagine Bill Gates asking Christine Lavin's famous phrase, "what was I thinking, what is this stuff?"
  • The Interface Hall of Shame is a good collection of some really bad HCI implementations.
  • On a more serious note, here's an exhaustive and continually-updated bibliography of articles on HCI.