EECS 255: Advanced Human-Computer Interaction
SPRING 2020 (4 UNITS)
Explores the theory, design procedure, programming practices, and evaluation methods in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), with a particular focus on input and interaction techniques. Introduces students to recent developments in the area and provides them with the methods to design, develop, and evaluate existing or novel interactive systems.
Lecture | Wednesday & Friday | 4:30 PM — 5:45 PM | |
Lab | Friday | 7:30 PM — 10:20 PM | |
Office Hours | Monday — Friday | By appointment |
Textbook
This course does not use textbooks. Students are expected to read research publications. A list of Suggested Reading in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) is also available.
Course Objectives
Primarily, the course covers the following topics.
- A brief overview of the historical development of major advances in the area.
- Recent developments and challenges in the area, focusing on input and interaction techniques, tangible and embodied user interactions, mobile interactions, augmented and virtual reality, game user interfaces, and/or interaction techniques for special user groups.
- Quantitative research methods, including experimental design, quantifying and modeling human and system factors, digital and physical prototyping, and statistical analysis.
- Research ethics and working with human subjects.
- Reporting research findings in scientific articles.
Course Learning Outcomes
Students participating in this course are expected to achieve the following learning outcomes through lectures, guest lectures, readings, and research projects. The ability to:
- Apply theory to design and develop useful, efficient, and enjoyable interactive systems.
- Evaluate interactive systems using empirical research methods.
- Practice a high standard of professional ethics.
- Report research findings in scientific articles.
Prerequisites
Strong skills in computer and web programming preferred.
Course Policies
Class participation is required. Late submission is not permitted.
- Weekly Inspiration. Students briefly discuss a recent, relevant project or publication that has inspired them.
- Lecture. The instructor delivers a lecture on a relevant topic.
- Paper Discussion. The class collectively discusses a research paper.
- Research Project. Students works individually on small research projects. Each project must involve the design and development of an input and interaction technique, user study, data evaluation, and a 2-6 page report.
- Lab. During supervised labs, students receive feedback on their projects and learns how to use research tools. During unsupervised labs, students work independently on their research project.
Tasks | Weight | Grading Policy and Due Date |
---|---|---|
Class participation | 10% | Will be graded based on attendance (5%) and the level of participation in the class (5%) |
Project Presentation | 10% | |
Weekly inspiration | 10% | |
Reading | 20% | Will be graded based on paper discussion, particularly understanding (10%), scientific reasoning (5%), and independent thinking (5%) |
Final Project | 30% | Will be graded based on the project motivation (10%), design and development (10%), and |
Final Project Presentation | 10% | |
Final Report (2-6 pages) | 10% | Friday, May 8, 2020 by 11:59 PM |
Academic Dishonesty Statement
- Each student in this course is expected to abide by the University of California, Merced's Academic Honesty Policy. Any work submitted by a student in this course for academic credit will be the student's own work.
- Students are encouraged to study together and to discuss information and concepts covered in lecture and the sections with other students. They may give “consulting” help to or receive “consulting” help from such students. However, this permissible cooperation should never involve one student having possession of a copy of all or part of work done by someone else, in the form of an email, an email attachment file, a diskette, or a hard copy. Should copying occur, both the student who copied work from another student and the student who gave material to be copied will both automatically receive a zero for the assignment. Penalty for violation of this Policy can also be extended to include failure of the course and University disciplinary action.
- During examinations, students must do their own work. Talking or discussion is not permitted in the examinations, nor comparing papers, coping from others, or collaboration in any way. Any collaborative behavior during the examinations will result in failure of the exam and may lead to failure of the course and University disciplinary action.
Student Accessibility Services
University of California, Merced is committed to creating learning environments that are accessible to all. If you anticipate or experience physical or academic barriers based on a disability, please feel welcome to contact me privately so we can discuss options. In addition, please contact Student Accessibility Services (SAS) at (209) 228-6996 or disabilityservices@ucmerced.edu as soon as possible to explore reasonable accommodations. All accommodations must have prior approval from Student Accessibility Services on the basis of appropriate documentation.
If you anticipate or experience barriers due to pregnancy, temporary medical condition, or injury, please feel welcome to contact me so we can discuss options. You are encouraged to contact the Dean of Students for support and resources at (209) 228-3633 or https://studentaffairs.ucmerced.edu/dean-students.
Lectures
Wednesday, 22/01/2020 | Lecture. Introduction - Topics in Human-Computer Interaction |
Friday, 01/24/2020 | Lecture. The Human Factor - Sensors |
Wednesday, 01/29/2020 |
Weekly Inspiration. Y. R. - Orochi: Multipurpose Daily Used Supernumerary Robotic Limbs Video Lecture. The Human Factor - Responders; Models |
Friday, 01/31/2020 |
Weekly Inspiration. G. G. A. - Black Mirror: Arkangel Lecture. Interaction Elements, Part 1 |
Wednesday, 02/05/2020 |
Weekly Inspiration. J. L. - Xbox One Controller Lecture. Interaction Elements, Part 2 |
Friday, 02/07/2020 |
Weekly Inspiration. M. C. - Kinemathics Lecture. History of HCI |
Wednesday, 02/12/2020 |
Weekly Inspiration. Y. R. - Vine Robots Paper Discussion. Jacob O. Wobbrock and Julie A. Kientz. 2016. Research contributions in human-computer interaction. interactions 23, 3 (April 2016), 38-44. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/2907069 |
Friday, 02/14/2020 |
Weekly Inspiration. Timothy Meyer - Game Controller Mapping Paper Discussion. Donald A. Norman. 1983. Design principles for human-computer interfaces. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '83). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 1-10. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/800045.801571 |
Wednesday, 02/19/2020 |
Weekly Inspiration. J. L. - Evolution of Game Controllers Lecture. Scientific Foundations, Part 1 |
Friday, 02/21/2020 | Lecture. Scientific Foundations, Part 2 |
Wednesday, 02/26/2020 | No class, instructor away on a conference |
Friday, 02/28/2020 | No class, instructor away on a conference |
Wednesday, 03/04/2020 |
Weekly Inspiration. G. G. A. - Google Stadia Lecture. HCI Research Methods, Part 1 |
Friday, 03/06/2020 | Paper Discussion. Laxmi Pandey, Azar Alizadeh, Ahmed Sabbir Arif. 2020. Enabling Predictive Number Entry and Editing on Touchscreen-Based Mobile Devices. In Proceedings of the 2020 Conference on Human Information Interaction and Retrieval (CHIIR 2020). ACM, New York, NY, USA. Video Presentation. Laxmi Pandey (15 minutes) |
Wednesday, 03/11/2020 |
Project Presentations (30 minutes, including Q&A)
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Friday, 03/13/2020 |
Project Presentations (30 minutes, including Q&A)
|
Wednesday, 03/18/2020 |
Weekly Inspiration. M. C. - Graphical Course Syllabus Lecture. HCI Research Methods, Part 2 |
Friday, 03/20/2020 | Paper Discussion. Hugo Romat, Emmanuel Pietriga, Nathalie Henry-Riche, Ken Hinckley, and Caroline Appert. 2019. SpaceInk: Making Space for In-Context Annotations. In Proceedings of the 32nd Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST '19). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 871–882. |
Wednesday, 03/25/2020 | Spring Recess |
Friday, 03/27/2020 | Cesar Chavez Holiday |
Wednesday, 04/01/2020 |
Weekly Inspiration. G. G. A. - TAP STRAP Video Lecture. Data Analysis, Part 1 - Parametric |
Friday, 04/03/2020 |
Weekly Inspiration. J. L. - COVID-19 Fighting Chinese Robots Lecture. Data Analysis, Part 2 - Non-parametric |
Wednesday, 04/08/2020 |
Weekly Inspiration. M. C. - NetLogo vs. Desmos Paper Discussion. Emanuela Maggioni, Robert Cobden, Dmitrijs Dmitrenko, and Marianna Obrist. 2018. Smell-O-Message: Integration of Olfactory Notifications into a Messaging Application to Improve Users' Performance. In Proceedings of the 20th ACM International Conference on Multimodal Interaction (ICMI '18). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 45-54. |
Friday, 04/10/2020 |
Weekly Inspiration. Y. R. - Kilobots - Programmable Robot Swarms Lecture. Data Analysis, Part 3 - Demo: NCSS and SPSS |
Wednesday, 04/15/2020 | Paper Discussion. Gulnar Rakhmetulla, Ahmed Sabbir Arif. 2020. Senorita: A Chorded Keyboard for Sighted, Low Vision, and Blind Mobile Users. In Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2020). ACM, New York, NY, USA. Video Presentation. Gulnar Rakhmetulla (15 minutes) |
Friday, 04/17/2020 |
Weekly Inspiration. G. G. A. - Apple and Google Partner on COVID-19 Contact Tracing Technology Video Paper Discussion. Anhong Guo, Junhan Kong, Michael Rivera, Frank F. Xu, and Jeffrey P. Bigham. 2019. StateLens: A Reverse Engineering Solution for Making Existing Dynamic Touchscreens Accessible. In Proceedings of the 32nd Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST '19). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 371-385. |
Wednesday, 04/22/2020 |
Weekly Inspiration. Y. R. - Towards a Human Scale Acrobatic Robot Video Paper Discussion. Changyo Han, Katsufumi Matsui, and Takeshi Naemura. 2020. ForceStamps: Fiducial Markers for Pressure-sensitive Touch Surfaces to Support Rapid Prototyping of Physical Control Interfaces. In Proceedings of the Fourteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI '20). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 273-285. |
Friday, 04/24/2020 |
Weekly Inspiration. J. L. - Beijing Daxing International Airport Paper Discussion. Yang Zhang, Wolf Kienzle, Yanjun Ma, Shiu S. Ng, Hrvoje Benko, and Chris Harrison. 2019. ActiTouch: Robust Touch Detection for On-Skin AR/VR Interfaces. In Proceedings of the 32nd Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST '19). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 1151-1159. |
Wednesday, 04/29/2020 | Final Project Presentations (30 minutes, excluding Q&A) - M. C. |
Friday, 05/01/2020 | Final Project Presentations (30 minutes, excluding Q&A) - Y. R. |
Wednesday, 05/06/2020 | Final Project Presentations (30 minutes, excluding Q&A) - G. G. A. |
Friday, 05/08/2020 | Final Project Presentations (30 minutes, excluding Q&A) - J. L. |
Annual HCI Group Pizza Party has been canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.