New technologies provide the means to build superb new systems, as well as phenomenally ugly and awkward systems that still fully meet their performance and functional requirements. This course will explore several approaches towards a scientific understanding of basic issues of usability, representation and coordination that arise in interface design and related areas, such as how to best organize complex information in multimedia. There will be some focus on distributed cooperative work and on semiotics. See the course outline for more detail.

We distinguish the following five levels for interface design issues:

1. technology;
2. ergonomics;
3. individual psychology;
4. sociology and group psychology; and
5. organizational issues.

• semiotics - the study of signs and meaning;
• ethnomethodology - the sociology of ordinariness;
• narratology - the study of stories; and
• discourse analysis - the study of discourse.

We will examine a number of case studies, one of which is a system being built at UCSD CSE to support distributed cooperative software engineering over the web. A prototype of this system can be seen at /groups/tatami/kumo/exs/. Some issues here include: how to present proofs as webpages; how to make proofs easier to follow, e.g., by linking formal material to background material; how to motivate difficult proof steps; proof editors vs. proof browsers; direct manipulation vs. command line interfaces.

The class notes do not cover everything you need to know for this course, and their emphasis may not reflect the importance of material. The notes will not serve as a substitute for the lectures or the assigned readings. Moreover, the lectures and readings go beyond the text, and are at least as important as the text. In addition, there will be handout, diagrams on the board, and possibly guest appearances in the lectures. In short, all three of lectures, notes and text are necessary.

Wednesdays, 1:25 to 4:15 pm, Room APM 3218

Section ID 402523, Section A00

There is no TA for this class

My office hours: Wednesdays, 4:15 to 5:00 pm

The only required book is Shneiderman; other required readings will made available on the web or handed out in class.

• Designing the User Interface, Ben Shneiderman, Addison Wesley, 1998 (thrid edition). ISBN 0-201-69497-2.

Recommended Books

• Scientific Visualization, by Robert Spence, Addison Wesley, 2001. ISBN 0-201-59626-1.
• Human-Computer Interaction, by Jenny Preece, Prentice-Hall, 1998. ISBN 0-13-239864-8.

Other Relevant Books

• The Design of Everyday Things, by Donald A. Norman, Doubleday, 1988.
• Aramis, or the Love of Technology, by Bruno Latour, Harvard University Press, 1996.
• Requirements Engineering: Social and Technical Issues, ed. by Marina Jirotka and Joseph Goguen, Academic Press, 1994.
• The Humane Interface, by Jef Raskin, Addison Wesley, 2000.
• Life Stories: The Creation of Coherence, by Charlotte Linde, Oxford, 1993.
• The Literary Mind, by Mark Turner, Oxford, 1997.
• The Civilization of Illiteracy, by Mihai Nadin, Dresden Univ Press, 1998.
• Algebraic Semantics of Imperative Programs, by Joseph Goguen and Grant Malcolm, MIT Press, 1996.

Grades will be based on your project, your presentation of your project, and possibly one or more exams; obviously your project, presentation, and exams should reflect your familiarity with the readings, lectures and class notes. There will be homework assignments, but they will not be graded; see me after class if you want feedback on these. The items in Class participation and Miscellaneous have been contributed by class members of CSE 171 or CSE 271, possibly from previous years, and are for your interest and/or amusement.

1. Projects.
2. Reading assignments.
3. Class notes: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.
4. Homework assignments.
5. Class participation.
6. Miscellaneous.

• Homepage of the book Designing the User Interface, by Ben Shneiderman, Addison Wesley, 1998 (thrid edition). ISBN 0-201-69497-2.
• Homepage of Interactions magazine, published by the ACM.
• Homepage of Ben Shneiderman.
• Homepage of Jennifer Preece; see in particular, the subsite on her new book, Online Communities.
• The homepage of Phil Agre at UCLA contains many interesting publications, a good bibliography, and many interesting links.
• Homepage of Geoff Bowker, interesting material on sociology of science, including biodiversity informatics, information infrastructure, classification systems, medical records, and more.
• Homepage of Leigh Star, interesting material on sociology of science, including boundary objects, classification systems, information systems, and more.