CS477 - Reinventing Interactive Systems
Exploring a radically new, user-centered approach to human-computer interaction
Wendy Mackay & Michel Beaudouin-Lafon
Fridays, 10-11:50am, Room 160-329 (Wallenberg building)
For 2 credits: Present an article and lead a discussion + Present a design proposal for a co-adaptive instrument
For 1 credit: Readings and participation in discussion
Office hours: Wednesdays (except May 11), 11am to noon, Room 280 (Gates building)
Course Summary
What is the future of human-computer interfaces? (Or, what comes after the iPad?) This seminar will go back to the first principles of interaction, with the goal of rethinking the whole idea of the graphical user interface. It will focus on two concepts: co-adaptation, which characterizes the fact that users both adapt their behavior to that imposed by the system, but also appropriate the system for new purposes; and instrumental interaction, which encapsulates interactions as first class objects from the user’s, designer’s and developer’s perspectives. We will focus on interaction rather than interfaces, emphasizing the fact that human users always act in context and need more expressive, more learnable, and more transferable forms of interaction.
The seminar will explore the foundations of these ideas, drawing from different disciplines, including psychology, anthropology, biology, computer science and design. It will also revisit the seminal papers on ubiquitous and mobile computing, tangible interaction, and other recent interaction paradigms. Students will gain a rich theoretical background and a good knowledge of the state-of-the-art in human-computer interaction.
We will also teach video prototyping, a technique used to quickly create prototypes of interactive systems that highlight the interaction qualities of the design. Video prototypes may range from simple paper and pencil animations to working code and encourage creativity and critique as you explore the design of a new system.
Students taking the course for credit will be asked to present and lead a discussion of one of the assigned readings. They will also be asked to design a co-adaptive instrument, to be presented as a video prototype.
We are interested in students with diverse backgrounds, including HCI, Computer Science, Education, and Design, as well as specific domain areas, such as music or medicine. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions (mackay@lri.fr, mbl@lri.fr).
About us
We are both visiting professors this year at Stanford, from the |in|situ| research lab in France (http://insitu.lri.fr). Wendy Mackay introduced the concept of co-adaptive systems in the early 1990s, and Michel Beaudouin-Lafon introduced the concept of Instrumental Interaction in 2000. We have both worked for over 25 years in creating novel theories, systems and techniques for human-computer interaction.
Course Outline 
Week 1 — 1 April — Instrumental Interaction and Co-Adaptive Systems
Readings
- Beaudouin-Lafon, M. (2000) Instrumental Interaction: An Interaction Model for Designing Post-WIMP User Interfaces. In Proc. ACM Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '00). ACM, pp. 446-453.
- Mackay, W.E. (2000) Responding to cognitive overload: Co-adaptation between users and technology. Intellectica. 30 (1):177-193.
Handouts
Design activities
- Deconstructing interaction
- Design notebook
Week 2 — 8 April — Designing Instruments
Readings
- Gaver, W. (1991) Technology affordances. In Proc. Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '91). ACM, pp. 79-84.
- Beaudouin-Lafon, M. & Mackay, W.E. (2000) Reification, Polymorphism and Reuse: Three Principles for Designing Visual Interfaces. In Proc. Advanced Visual Interfaces (AVI’00), Palermo, Italy. ACM, pp. 102.
Design activities - Bring a video-recording device if you can (camera, smartphone, Flip, ...)
- Oral brainstorming
- Video brainstorming - See an example from the WILD project -
.
Class activity
- Oral brainstorming on possible instruments
- Video brainstorming on word disambiguation (Alek, Mike, Jesse, Molly)
Week 3 — 15 April — Learning
Readings
- Kirsh, D. (1997) Interactivity and Multimedia Interfaces. Instructional Sciences. Springer Netherlands, Vol 25 #2:79-96.
- Bau, O. & Mackay, W. (2008) OctoPocus: A Dynamic Guide for Learning Gesture-Based Command Sets. In Proc. ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST 2008). ACM, pp. 37-46.
Handouts
- Slides
Design activities
- Design space
- Design scenario (see an example in the Course 4 handouts)
- Storyboard
Class activity
- Scenario on medical checklist (contextual elements)
Week 4 — 22 April — User Innovation
Handouts
- Slides
Design activities
- Scenario writing
- Design exploration
Week 5 — 29 April — Collaborative Interaction
Readings
- Nardi, B. and Miller, J. (1991). Twinkling lights and nested loops: Distributed problem solving and spreadsheet development. International Journal of Man-Machine Studies 34: 161–184.
- Tsandilas, T., Letondal, C. and Mackay, W. (2009) MusInk: Composing Music Through Augmented Drawing. In Proc. ACM Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '09). ACM, pp. 819-828.
Handouts
- Slides
Design activities
- Scenario writing
- Paper prototype
Class activity
- Scenario on selecting a movie
- Scenario on medical checklist
Week 6 — 6 May — Design exploration
Readings
- Hollan, J., Hutchins, E., Kirsh, D. (2000) Distributed Cognition: Toward a New Foundation for Human-Computer Interaction Research. ACM Trans. Computer-Human Interaction. ACM, 7(2):174-196.
- Lottridge, D., Mackay, W. (2009) Generative Walkthroughs: To Support Creative Redesign. In Proc. Creativity and Cognition (CC ’09). ACM, pp. 175-184.
Online DVD
Handouts
- Slides
Design activities
- Video prototype
- Generative walkthrough
Class activities
- Video prototype ()
Week 7 — 13 May — Instrument Architectures
Readings
- Olsen, D.R. (1999) Interacting in Chaos. Interactions, 6(5):42-54, ACM.
- Beaudouin-Lafon, L. and Lassen, H.M. (2000) The architecture and implementation of CPN2000, a post-WIMP graphical application. In Proc. ACM symposium on User interface software and technology (UIST '00). ACM, pp. 181-190.
Handouts
- Template for the interaction graphs and interaction table - color version:
Design activities
Class activities
- Analysis of the color picker tool (also contains Michel's take on a color picker instrument) <-- NEW!
Week 8 — 20 May — Ubiquitous Computing
Readings
- Weiser, M. (1991) The Computer for the 21st Century. Scientific American, 265(3):94-101.
- Klokmose, C.N. and Beaudouin-Lafon, M. (2009) VIGO: Instrumental interaction in multi-surface environments. In Proc. Human factors in computing systems (CHI '09). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 869-878.
Handouts
- Slides
Design activities
Class activities
- Video Prototype Group1 - EggTimer: High-res (82Mb) - Low-res (9.5Mb)
- Video Prototype Group1 - Movie Map: High-res (46Mb) - Low-res (11Mb)
Week 9 — 27 May — Tangible Interaction
Readings
- Jacob, R., Girouard, A., Hirshfield, L., Horn, M., Shaer, O., Solovey, E. and Zigelbaum, J. (2008) Reality-Based Interaction: A Framework for Post-WIMP Interfaces. In Proc. ACM Human Factors in Computing Systems Conference (CHI'08). ACM, pp. 201-210.
- Mackay, W.E. & Fayard, A-L. (1999) Designing Interactive Paper: Lessons from three Augmented Reality Projects. In Proc. International Workshop on Augmented Reality (IWAR’98). Natick, MA: A K Peters, Ltd.
Design activities
- Alternate video prototype
Week 10 — 3 June — Shifting the Design Paradigm
Readings
- Kuhn, T. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Univ. Chicago Press, 1962.
- Mackay, W.E. and Fayard, A-L. (1997) HCI, Natural Science and Design: A Framework for Triangulation Across Disciplines. In Proc. ACM Designing Interactive Systems (DIS ’97). ACM, pp. 223-234.
Design activities
