CHI 97: Tutorials
CHI 97: Tutorials
Saturday Evening, Half Day
1 Human-Computer Interaction: Introduction and Overview
Saturday, 22 March, half-day evening
introductory level
Keith A. Butler | Boeing Information and Support Services
Robert J.K. Jacob | Tufts University
Benefits
If you are a newcomer to the HCI field, this tutorial will give you the background you need to get the most out of the CHI conference.
Origins
This tutorial is a tried-and-true introduction to the field of human-computer interaction (HCI). It has become a CHI conference tradition.
Features
- what is HCI and why is it important?
- introduction to building usable systems
- introduction to the psychology of HCI
- introduction to computer technologies for HCI
- psychological data for design
- design methods and tools
- user interface media and tools
- introduction to user interface architecture
- future directions of HCI
- where to learn more about HCI during the conference
- where to learn more in the published HCI literature
Audience
Professionals from computing-related fields who are new to the field of human-computer interaction or new to the CHI conference. No background in HCI is assumed.
Presentation
Lecture, plus videos and demos of relevant tools.
Instructors
Keith Butler is a senior principal scientist for user-centered design at Boeing Information and Support Services. Before joining Boeing, he was a member of the technical staff at Bell Labs. Rob Jacob is on the faculty of the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department at Tufts University. He is a member of the editorial board of ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction and former Vice Chair of SIGCHI.
Related Tutorials
3 Cognitive Factors in Design: Basic Phenomena in Human Memory and Problem Solving (Sunday)
16 Practical Usability Evaluation (Monday)
2 User Interface Design for the World Wide Web
Saturday, 22 March, half-day evening
introductory level
Jakob Nielsen | Sun Microsystems
Benefits
You will learn how to design compelling, easy to use, well-structured and attractive web sites, as well as simple and efficient methods for testing web sites for usability.
Origins
This tutorial was the most highly attended at CHI 96. Earlier versions were also presented at the 4th and 5th International WWW Conferences and won awards for excellence.
Features
- major user interface considerations for WWW design
- competitive usability analysis of other sites
- use of customer surveys
- discovering the users' mental models of the information space
- user testing of WWW designs, including exploratory and directed tasks
- using paper prototyping techniques to test early homepage designs
- testing the intuitiveness of your icons
- usability inspection methods to evaluate a large body of Web pages
- issues in redesigning a Web site
- utilizing non-standard elements, such as Netscape extensions and Java applets
- designing for an international audience
Audience
Anyone who authors or designs WWW page content, especially those with responsibility for the overall design and usability engineering of an entire site. You should have some experience using the WWW and understand the basic nature of Web pages.
Presentation
Lecture using case studies and examples.
Instructor
Jakob Nielsen is a Sun Microsystems Distinguished Engineer. He was the user interface lead for the recent redesign of Sun's WWW pages. His recent books include Multimedia and Hypertext: The Internet and Beyond, Usability Engineering, Usability Inspection Methods (with Bob Mack) and International User Interfaces (with Elisa del Galdo). He writes the monthly "Alert Box" column on Internet usability.
Related Tutorials
4 Development of Collaborative Applications with the WWW Shell (Sunday)
17 Designing Usable and Visually Appealing Web Sites (Monday)
32 Java-Based User Interface Development and Web Application Deployment (Monday PM)
Sunday, Full Day
3 Cognitive Factors in Design: Basic Phenomena in Human Memory and Problem-Solving
Sunday, 23 March, full-day
introductory level
Thomas T. Hewett | Drexel University
Benefits
You will learn the theoretical underpinnings of how people remember and how they solve problems. You will learn how to use that knowledge during product design to interpret user interface guidelines and also to go beyond the guidelines.
Origins
This was a top-rated tutorial at CHI 95 and CHI 96.
Features
- clustering and organization in recall
- characteristics of short-term memory
- how information is transferred from short-term to long-term memory
- characteristics of long-term memory
- basic processes and phenomena in human problem-solving
- rules of thumb for effective problem-solving
- how memory and problem-solving affect computer use
- memory and problem-solving issues in HCI design
- suggestions for self-directed study
Audience
Interface designers whose applications require users to interpret complex instructions and perform detailed procedures. Developers who have found that there are users who have trouble using their products without training. Anyone who needs to teach psychological aspects of human-computer interaction. Not intended for those with course work in cognitive psychology.
Presentation
Lecture, demonstration and exercises.
Instructor
Tom Hewett, Professor of Psychology at Drexel University, is a cognitive psychologist with considerable classroom experience. He has offered variants of this tutorial successfully to hundreds of interface designers at a variety of national and international conferences. Tom is a published courseware author and has worked on the development and evaluation of several projects.
Related Tutorials
1 Human-Computer Interaction: Introduction and Overview (Saturday evening)
16 Practical Usability Evaluation (Monday)
4 Developing Collaborative Applications Using the World Wide Web "Shell"
Sunday, 23 March, full-day
intermediate level
Alison Lee | NYNEX Science & Technology
Andreas Girgensohn | NYNEX Science & Technology
Benefits
How to use the Web as more than a mechanism for distributing documents. You will learn how to use common Web tools and technologies (e.g., Java, JavaScript, CGI scripts, tables, helper applications) in combination with Web browsers to design, develop, deploy and execute interactive and collaborative Web-based applications.
Origins
This is an update of a CSCW 96 tutorial.
Features
- software concepts and architecture of the World Wide Web
- tools and technologies that underlie the World Wide Web and form building blocks of the WWW "Shell"
- how to use the building blocks in the WWW "Shell" to develop collaborative applications
- adding application data and behavior to the WWW "Shell"
- issues in designing and developing collaborative applications
- advantages and limitations of using the WWW "Shell" for application development
Audience
Participants should be familiar with the Web and have experience using a Web browser. Participants should be comfortable with scripting and programming languages. Experience designing and developing collaborative applications is useful.
Presentation
Lecture, small-group exercises, discussions and demonstrations.
Instructors
Both instructors have experience with building Web-based applications for communication and collaboration. They have developed a tool, Web Dynamic Forms, that enables Web developers to create interactive and domain-specific form interfaces.
Related Tutorials
2 User Interface Design for the World Wide Web (Saturday evening)
17 Designing Usable and Visually Appealing Web Sites (Monday)
32 Java-Based User Interface Development and Web Application Deployment (Monday PM)
5 Designing Icons and Visual Symbols
Sunday, 23 March, full-day
introductory level
William Horton | William Horton Consulting
Benefits
You will learn how to design icons that users recognize, understand fully and remember reliably.
Origins
This is an update of a highly rated tutorial from CHI 95 and CHI 96.
Features
- where and when to use icons, words or both
- how to represent conceptual and non-visual concepts with icons
- how to draw iconsÑlimitations of size and colors
- how to design icons for international products
- how to systematically design a large number of icons
Audience
This tutorial is for anyoneÑgraphic artist, user interface designer, human factors specialist, technical writer, product designerÑwho designs icons and visual symbols for use in computer displays, technical documents and other media where a concept or idea must be communicated in a restricted area or to an international audience. You won't need artistic talent, just a willingness to try creative approaches to solving communication problems.
Presentation
Lecture, interactive discussion and individual and group exercises.
Instructor
William Horton, author of The Icon Book, is an expert in communicating business and technical information. He is a graduate of MIT and a registered professional engineer. His other books include Designing and Writing Online Documentation (2nd ed.), Illustrating Computer Documentation, Secrets of User-Seductive Documents and The Web Page Design Cookbook with CD-ROM.
Related Tutorials
18 Metaphor Design in User Interfaces: How to Effectively Manage Expectations, Surprise, Comprehension and Delight (Monday)
26 Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain (Monday)
27 Multimedia Visual Interface Design
(Monday AM)
6 MediaJazz: Digital Storytelling and Computer Game Design
Sunday, 23 March, full-day
advanced level
Thom Gillespie | Indiana University
Benefits
Practice digital storytelling and computer game design from concept development to business proposal and prototype development.
Origins
This tutorial is new for CHI 97.
Features
- understanding information as art, entertainment and fun
- historical, aesthetic and cognitive basis of digital storytelling and game design
- learning the relationship between interaction and storytelling
- evaluation of popular interactive titles
- brainstorming and critique of new ideas
- create a design specification and prototype, complete with market analysis and battle plan
Audience
Creative thinkers interested in digital storytelling and computer game design, who can use a mouse with either hand, can create slightly goofy art in Photoshop and have a creative streak which got them in trouble. Please bring at least 20 photographs or images that are important to you.
Presentation
Lecture, small group development, prototype presentation and critique. The morning is focused on individual concept development and the afternoon on group work. Computers will be available.
Instructor
Thom Gillespie is a practicing artist who works in both digital and analog. He has taught just north of the Arctic Circle at University of Alaska and just south of the Equator for the United Nations in Central Java. Currently, Thom teaches at Indiana University in the School of Library and Information Studies. He is also a founding member of DigitalMuses, a Midwest design company specializing in digital storytelling.
Related Tutorials
18 Metaphor Design in User Interfaces: How to Effectively Manage Expectations, Surprise, Comprehension and Delight (Monday)
19 Interacting and Designing in Virtual Worlds on the Internet (Monday)
26 Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain (Monday)
27 Multimedia Visual Interface Design (Monday AM)
7 Spoken Dialogue Interfaces
Sunday, 23 March, full-day
introductory level
Susann LuperFoy | The MITRE Corporation
Benefits
What can speech systems do today? You will learn about recent advances and current efforts to design, construct and evaluate complete conversational systems that integrate speech recognition and synthesis with other enabling technologies. This tutorial draws upon work in user-system dialogue design, speech synthesis and recognition, natural language processing, machine translation, planning and plan recognition, gesture analysis, computational discourse and usability evaluation.
Origins
This tutorial is new for CHI 97.
Features
- assessing the state of the art
- introduction to the underlying technologies
- tools for developing spoken dialogue systems
- examples of projects, including software agents that communicate via spoken language
- how to evaluate spoken dialogue interfaces
Audience
Commercial and government managers of technology will learn about potential applications of spoken dialogue systems in their organizations. Students, faculty and other researchers working in component fields will get an overview of the broader discipline.
Presentation
Lecture and guided discussion.
Instructor
Susann LuperFoy is a Lead Scientist at The MITRE Corporation in Washington, DC and adjunct faculty at Georgetown University. She has worked in computational linguistics and human-system interaction for over ten years, collaborating with leading researchers in voice-to-voice machine translation and spoken dialogue systems in the United States, Japan and Europe. She is currently editing an MIT Press book, Automated Spoken Dialogue Systems, which includes papers from all areas of spoken dialogue research and development.
Related Tutorials
28 Social and Natural Interfaces: Theory and Design (Monday AM)
29 Software Agents (Monday AM)
31 Creating Conversational Interfaces for Interactive Software Agents (Monday PM)
8 Wizards, Coaches, Advisors and More: A Performance Support Primer
Sunday, 23 March, full-day
introductory level
Karen L. McGraw | Cognitive Technologies
Benefits
This tutorial provides you with a solid foundation in performance support system (PSS) components to help enhance the use, acceptability and performance of interactive systems.
Origins
This tutorial is new for CHI 97.
Features
- examples of PSS components from numerous domains
- selling management on PSS using performance metrics and return on investment
- deciding when a system needs performance support
- determining which PSS components users need
- a tested, performance-centered methodology to define, design, develop and evaluate PSS
- lessons learned from embedded, stand-alone and Web-based PSS projects
Audience
Designers of organization-critical interactive systems, including software analysts and engineers, project champions, human factors engineers and trainers.
Presentation
Lecture with small group exercises and activities.
Instructor
Karen McGraw has over 15 years of experience solving performance problems through the careful definition, development and deployment of technology. She has conducted or managed requirements engineering, design, development and usability testing for human-computer interfaces, performance support systems, intelligent tutoring and expert systems and information systems. Karen is the author of numerous texts and articles, including User-centered Requirements: A Scenario-based Engineering Process published by Lawrence Erlbaum.
Related Tutorials
29 Software Agents (Monday AM)
31 Creating Conversational Interfaces for Interactive Software Agents (Monday PM)
9 Product Usability: Survival Techniques
Sunday, 23 March, full-day
introductory level
Jared M. Spool | User Interface Engineering
Carolyn Snyder | User Interface Engineering
Tara Scanlon | User Interface Engineering
Benefits
You will learn how to produce a more usable product by prototyping and testing a design in a matter of hours, using readily available materials.
Origins
This is an update of a tutorial presented at several CHI conferences. This year more emphasis is placed on discount usability methods and less on design principles and user interface guidelines.
Features
- develop products using a process of iterative refinement with frequent measurements to ensure they are still "on course"
- build a paper mock-up of a product interface using common office supplies
- usability test a paper mock-up and improve it very quickly based on feedback from users
- apply the concepts of affordances and mental models to create a successful design
Audience
All members of the development team, including engineers, designers, technical writers and managers. Experience in developing commercial products is highly recommended. Participants are not assumed to have experience with usability testing.
Presentation
Small team design exercises, plus lecture and discussion.
Instructors
User Interface Engineering has extensive experience in teaching paper prototyping and usability evaluation to development teams. Jared Spool is also on the faculty of the Tufts University Gordon Institute. Carolyn Snyder holds an MBA from the University of Chicago. Tara Scanlon previously worked for Dun and Bradstreet Software and Digital Equipment Corporation. She holds a Masters in Technical Communication from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Related Tutorials
16 Practical Usability Evaluation (Monday)
20 Practical Interface Design: Developing Software within Real-World Constraints (Monday)
21 Managing the Design of the User Interface (Monday)
10 Strategic Usability: Introducing Usability into Organizations
Sunday, 23 March, full-day
intermediate level
Sarah Bloomer | The Hiser Group
Rachel Croft | The Hiser Group
Helen Kieboom | The Hiser Group
Benefits
You will learn techniques for convincing management and development teams of the value of usability in a way meaningful to your organization.
Origins
This tutorial is new for CHI 97.
Features
- barriers to and opportunities for usability activities
- techniques for communicating the value of usability to your organization
- aligning usability activities with business goals and objectives
- translating usability information into terms each target audience understands
- practice in developing usability strategy for an organization
- analysis of real-world cases
Audience
Experienced usability professionals, user interface designers, developers and managers who want to improve the acceptance of usability activities within their organizations. Consultants who wish to convince potential clients.
Presentation
Lecture with team exercises.
Instructors
The Hiser Group has consulted to a number of large clients in Australia over the past 3 years, facilitating the introduction of usability at the organizational level. Sarah Bloomer, Rachel Croft and Helen Kieboom have been leading the development of this service and have worked directly on the case studies which will be presented. Their usability expertise also includes styleguide development, cost-justification, ethnographic methods and sociological issues.
Related Tutorials
16 Practical Usability Evaluation (Monday)
21 Managing the Design of the User Interface (Monday)
11 Activity Theory: Basic Concepts and Applications
Sunday, 23 March, full-day
intermediate level
Victor Kaptelinin | UmeΠUniversity
Bonnie A. Nardi | Apple Computer
Benefits
You will acquire a unifying theoretical framework covering many commonly used methods of studying users and the context of their work. You will learn practical ways of applying activity theory to problems of human-computer interaction.
Origins
This tutorial is new for CHI 97.
Features
- the five basic principles of activity theory
- how activity theory relates to other approaches such as cognitive science, distributed cognition, scenario-based design, participatory design and situativity theory
- how to apply activity theory to real-world problems of design and evaluation
- how to select a contextual methodology for your problem
Audience
Researchers, designers, engineers and managers who are interested in theoretical approaches to contextual design and evaluation.
Presentation
Lecture, demonstration and exercises.
Instructors
Victor Kaptelinin is a Research Associate at the Department of Informatics, UmeΠUniversity. He has held various research and teaching positions and has published extensively on the topics of the psychology of perception, computer-assisted learning and human-computer interaction. His current research is on contextual factors of human-computer interaction and on skill automatization in computer use. Bonnie Nardi is an anthropologist in the Apple Research Laboratories, the editor of Context and Consciousness: Activity Theory and Human-Computer Interaction and the author of A Small Matter of Programming: Perspectives on End User Computing. She was Technical Program Co-Chair for CHI 96.
Related Tutorials
22 Interviewing Customers: Discovering What They Can't Tell You (Monday)
23 Structured Observation: Practical Methods for Understanding Users and Their Work in Context (Monday)
24 Contextual Design: Using Customer Work Models to Drive System Design (Monday)
12 Designing User Interfaces from Analyses of Users' Work Tasks
Sunday, 23 March, full-day
intermediate level
Peter Johnson | Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London
Stephanie Wilson | Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London
Hilary Johnson | Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London
Benefits
You will learn how to study, analyze and model users' work tasks. You will understand how to progress from this analysis to envisioning users' future work and designing the user interface to support it.
Origins
Highly rated at international conferences such as INTERACT 95 and BCS HCI 95.
Features
- advantages and limitations of task analysis and task modeling
- detailed presentation of methods for analyzing and modeling tasks
- how the content of models influences interaction design
- practice in using task analysis and modeling for user interface design
Audience
Designers, developers, human factors practitioners and other HCI professionals. No knowledge of task analysis or user interface programming is assumed.
Presentation
Lecture with small group analysis and practical design exercises.
Instructors
Peter Johnson is a Professor of Human-Computer Interaction and teaches courses in user interface modeling, interactive systems design and graphical user interfaces. He developed the concepts of work-task analysis and task-based user interface design. He is currently investigating the role of representations in design, user involvement in analysis and design, and principles of HCI. Hilary Johnson is a member of the faculty at QMW and teaches courses in human factors and user modeling. She developed the Task Knowledge Structures approach; her research includes task modeling, explanation and evaluation. Stephanie Wilson is a senior researcher investigating user involvement in interactive system design. She developed the ADEPT tools for task modeling and user interface design.
Related Tutorial
25 Object, View and Interaction Design (Monday)
13 Color and Type in Information Design
Sunday, 23 March, full-day
advanced level
Charles A. Poynton | Poynton Vector Corporation
Mary Mooney | Sun Microsystems
Benefits
You will learn the perceptual, color science and engineering principles that underlie effective information presentation, and apply these principles to the design of graphical user interfaces and information displays.
Origins
This tutorial is based on the SIGGRAPH 96 course "Digital Color," with added material on information display and design.
Features
- designing for human visual perception, including color-blindness
- designing for different viewing conditions
- choosing effective color combinations for print and for computer monitors
- understanding tone reproduction and creating the illusion of more than you have
- managing color palettes across applications and platforms
- typography; serif or sans-serif fonts
- illustration
- information design
Audience
Graphic designers, interface designers and developers of online information. You should have experience in developing user interfaces, in creating and manipulating digital imagery or in writing or illustration.
Presentation
Lecture, demonstration and exercises.
Instructors
Charles A. Poynton is the founder and principal of Poynton Vector Corporation, where he works to integrate video technologyÑparticularly high definition television and accurate color reproductionÑinto computer workstations. His book, A Technical Introduction to Digital Video, is published by John Wiley & Sons. Mary Mooney has worked as Information Architect for Ikonic Interactive designing Web sites and interactive TV applications for Time Warner. She previously designed multimedia applications, computer based training and prototypes for IBM, Ford and World Cup Soccer while at Sybase.
Related Tutorials
18 Metaphor Design in User Interfaces: How to Effectively Manage Expectations, Surprise, Comprehension and Delight (Monday)
27 Multimedia Visual Interface Design (Monday AM)
Sunday Morning, Half Day
14 Getting Started on a Contextual Project
Sunday, 23 March, half-day AM
intermediate level
Karen Holtzblatt | InContext Enterprises
Hugh R. Beyer | InContext Enterprises
Benefits
You will be able to plan and conduct a project using contextual techniques to gather customer data.
Origins
This tutorial is new for CHI 97.
Features
- technical and organizational issues to consider before introducing contextual techniques
- choosing a project and setting its focus
- choosing customers to visit
- structuring a project and gathering data
- communicating the project's findings
Audience
Anyone interested in putting contextual or customer-centered techniques into practice in their own projects. Some familiarity with contextual techniques is desirable.
Presentation
Lecture, demonstration and hands-on exercises.
Instructors
Karen Holtzblatt and Hugh Beyer are co-founders of InContext Enterprises, Inc., a firm that works with companies such as Microsoft and WordPerfect coaching teams to design products, product strategies and information systems from customer data. Karen and Hugh are developers of contextual design, a customer-centered design process that extends the contextual inquiry data gathering technique. Karen is an originator of the contextual inquiry approach to field data collection and has pioneered the introduction of this technique into working engineering teams. Hugh has worked in industry for the past 12 years as a programmer, architect and consultant. He has developed processes for using customer data to drive object-oriented design.
Related Tutorials
22 Interviewing Customers: Discovering What They Can't Tell You (Monday)
23 Structured Observation: Practical Methods for Understanding Users and Their Work in Context (Monday)
24 Contextual Design: Using Customer Work Models to Drive System Design (Monday)
Sunday Afternoon, Half Day
15 Design Ethnography: Using Custom Ethnographic Techniques to Develop New Product Concepts
Sunday, 23 March, half-day PM
intermediate level
Tony Salvador | Intel
Michael Mateas | Carnegie Mellon University
Benefits
You will learn the parameters for initiating and conducting an ethnographic study, and review the results from several studies conducted at Intel Corporation.
Origins
This tutorial is new for CHI 97.
Features
- practical and corporate benefits of this work for new product development
- how design ethnography is qualitatively different than ethnography
- how to initiate and conduct a study for a particular user domain
- results from our studies of families with young children, teens and/or business communications
Audience
Participants should have experience with some techniques for determining product requirements.
Presentation
Lecture with extensive discussion.
Instructors
Tony Salvador and Michael Mateas have evolved this methodology in the course of their work at Intel and Tektronix. Both have experience with a wide range of requirement analysis techniques for business and consumer products.
Related Tutorials
22 Interviewing Customers: Discovering What They Can't Tell You (Monday)
23 Structured Observation: Practical Methods for Understanding Users and Their Work in Context (Monday)
24 Contextual Design: Using Customer Work Models to Drive System Design (Monday)
Monday, Full Day
16 Practical Usability Evaluation
Monday, 24 March, full-day
introductory level
Gary Perlman | OCLC, Online Computer Library Center
Benefits
You will learn how to use cost-effective methods for evaluating interactive systems and gain enough experience to apply the methods on your own.
Origins
This tutorial is an update of a highly-rated CHI 96 tutorial.
Features
- goals for interactive system evaluation
- cost-benefit analysis of usability evaluation
- choosing the right evaluation method
- usability inspection methods (e.g., heuristic evaluation)
- observational skills and video
- data collection by software logging
- questionnaires for structured feedback
- a step-by-step guide to usability testing
- sources of information about usability evaluation, including a usability bibliography
- sample data collection forms provided
Audience
Managers interested in increasing usability testing in their organizations. Software engineers interested in practical methods for usability evaluation duringÑnot afterÑ
development. Human factors specialists who want to learn more about usability evaluation methods. No background in usability evaluation is assumed.
Presentation
Lecture, interspersed with hands-on exercises and discussion.
Instructor
Gary Perlman is a consulting research scientist at OCLC, the Online Computer Library Center. He is the author of statistical and hypertext software used widely for user interface evaluation. Gary has consulted extensively for major information technology companies on user interface development process. He is also the creator of the "HCI Bibliography" project, the largest free-access bibliography on human-computer interaction.
Related Tutorials
1 Human-Computer Interaction: Introduction and Overview (Saturday evening)
3 Cognitive Factors in Design: Basic Phenomena in Human Memory and Problem Solving (Sunday)
10 Strategic Usability: Introducing Usability into Organizations (Sunday)
17 Designing Usable and Visually Appealing Web Sites
Monday, 24 March, full-day
intermediate level
Wayne Neale | Eastman Kodak Company
Cindy McCombe | Eastman Kodak Company
Benefits
You will learn to use design methods confidently to craft well-engineered and highly usable web sites.
Origins
This tutorial is new for CHI 97.
Features
- structuring information so that current Web technology can be effectively used to represent it and to help users navigate through it
- design techniques unique to the Web environment
- specific techniques to achieve consistency and support usability
- prototyping and evaluating the information structure
- graphics production and management techniques that ensure high quality and rapid system response
Audience
Participants should have basic familiarity with the web and HTML.
Presentation
Lecture, demonstration and exercises.
Instructors
Wayne Neale has been involved with the Web since 1993 and has designed, built and maintained the 6000+ page Kodak Web site over the past three years. His educational background is in human-computer interaction, cognitive psychology, business and industrial engineering. Wayne has taught classes on human-computer interaction and Web site design at Virginia Tech and Kodak. Cindy McCombe is a visual interaction designer supporting the Kodak Web site. Her background is in communications, journalism, graphic design, graphic arts publishing and typography. Cindy has taught courses in publishing, ranging from Web design to newswriting, at the Rochester Institute of Technology and Kodak.
Related Tutorials
2 User Interface Design for the World Wide Web (Saturday evening)
4 Developing Collaborative Applications Using the World Wide Web "Shell"
(Sunday)
18 Metaphor Design in User Interfaces: How to Effectively Manage Expectation, Surprise, Comprehension and Delight
Monday, 24 March, full-day
intermediate level
Aaron Marcus | Aaron Marcus and Associates
Benefits
You will learn how to design and implement user interface metaphors.
Origins
This is an update of a tutorial presented at CHI 95 and various SIGGRAPH conferences.
Features
- how metaphors embody products, convey structures and processes, and win over users
- how to explore and identify metaphors for target user communities
- how to analyze and design metaphors based on logical paradigms, task analysis and cultural stereotypes
- what new metaphors are emerging in the marketplace
- practical guidance for research and commercial product development
- practice applying metaphor design principles using simple pen-and-paper exercises
Audience
User interface designers, researchers and developers of productivity tools, multimedia products and Web-based documents.
Presentation
Illustrated lectures with pen-and-paper sketch exercises and group critiques.
Instructor
Aaron Marcus and his staff have designed and evaluated more than 120 user interfaces and information display environments. They have been contracted to undertake metaphor design projects for Kaiser Permanente Health Systems, Motorola, Oracle and SABRE Travel Information Network. Aaron is widely published and in 1992, he received the National Computer Graphics Association Industry Achievement award for his contributions to the field.
Related Tutorials
5 Designing Icons and Visual Symbols
(Sunday)
13 Color and Type in Information Display (Sunday)
19 Interacting and Designing in Virtual Worlds on the Internet
Monday, 24 March, full-day
intermediate level
Bruce Damer | Contact Consortium
Benefits
You will be introduced to the new Internet medium of "avatar" virtual environments, in which hundreds of thousands of Internet users now participate. You will learn about this new area for research and applications of interaction design and virtual community.
Origins
This tutorial is an expansion of a highly rated demonstration at CHI 96 and was also featured at various conferences, including CSCW 96.
Features
- virtual communities
- background on 3D interfaces
- cooperative and participatory interaction design
- CSCW and CSCL applications of virtual worlds
- hands-on experience using an avatar in a virtual world
- participation of people at remote sites within the virtual world during the tutorial
Audience
Participants should have some experience with use of graphical interfaces (Windows 95) and in navigating in 3D spaces. No programming experience is assumed.
Presentation
Lecture followed by hands-on exercises. Computers will be available.
Instructor
Bruce Damer is co-director of the Contact Consortium, a non-profit research membership organization dedicated to the development of the virtual worlds medium. The Consortium has engaged in extensive usability testing of virtual worlds provided by its member companies, which include Worlds Incorporated, Intel, Black Sun Interactive, IDS, Nippon Telephone and Telegraph (SoftwareDivision), Philips, Microsoft, Onlive, The Palace and others. The collaborative construction and staffing of a virtual town (Sherwood Forest), a virtual university (the U) and the hosting of a major international conference has given the Consortium good experience in this medium.
Related Tutorial
6 MediaJazz: Digital Storytelling and Computer Game Design (Sunday)
20 Practical Interface Design: Developing Software within Real-World Constraints
Monday, 24 March, full-day
advanced level
Debra Herschmann | Lehman Brothers
Benefits
You will learn techniques for designing a user interface within real-world development constraints (budget, time, staff) while preserving the usability of the system.
Origins
This is an update of a CHI 96 tutorial.
Features
- factors influencing user interface design: budget, schedule, choice of development tools, conflicting agendas of the development team and skill level of the development team
- defining the best user interface that can be implemented within project resource constraints
- communication within and across project teams
- how to revise, scale down or even eliminate features while preserving the integrity of the user interface
- tracking the user interface through the development process
Audience
User interface designers, project managers and developers involved with application design and implementation in production environments. Familiarity with concepts of graphical user interface design and team software development is assumed.
Presentation
Lecture, real-life examples and individual and group exercises.
Instructor
Debra Herschmann is a user interface designer specializing in the development of business software, including workflow, customer service, document imaging and financial applications. She has extensive experience designing interactive applications for businesses, museums and educational institutions. Debra also teaches Interactive Design at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.
The following guest speakers will be discussing their experiences and
recommendations for developing user interfaces within real-world
constraints:
Stacey Ashlund, Infoseek
Rachel Croft, The Hiser Group
Dan Workman, Wang Software
Related Tutorials
9 Product Usability: Survival Techniques (Sunday)
10 Strategic Usability: Introducing Usability into Organizations (Sunday)
21 Managing the Design of the User Interface
Monday, 24 March, full-day
introductory level
Deborah Mayhew | Deborah J. Mayhew and Associates
Benefits
You will learn what techniques and methods are available for designing good user interfaces and when and why to apply them.
You will also learn evaluation techniques, organizational and managerial strategies.
Origins
This CHI "classic" consistently receives high ratings from participants. The tutorial has been updated to reflect new ideas, approaches and methods in the field.
Features
- analyzing the costs and benefits of applying human factors methods
- organizational structures and processes that foster good interface design
- planning for and managing the use of usability techniques within the overall project plan
- evaluating design alternatives by defining & prioritizing objective goals & criteria
- making interface design decisions by applying quick and inexpensive interface evaluation techniques
- information gathering methods that support preliminary design and specification
- testing and evaluation methods for simulations and prototypes
Audience
Experience with software development methodologies will provide a useful context. No experience with usability engineering is necessary. Most relevant to development managers, developers for usability and usability engineering practitioners.
Presentation
Organized around a sample development life cycle and presents an overview of usability methods which can be applied at different points in the development process.
Instructor
Deborah Mayhew holds a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology, has worked 18 years in software development organizations, 11 years as a usability consultant, and authored two books on usability. Her clients include IBM, AT&T, American Airlines, Hewlett-Packard, Ford Motor Co., GTE and American Express. Often her work involves introducing usability techniques and methods into software development organizations.
Related Tutorials
9 Product Usability: Survival Techniques (Sunday)
10 Strategic Usability: Introducing Usability Into Organizations (Sunday)
22 Interviewing Customers: Discovering What They Can't Tell You
Monday, 24 March, full-day
introductory level
Ellen Isaacs | Electric Communities
Benefits
You will learn an approach to discovering customers' underlying needs for computer support. You will gain first-hand experience
in developing good interview questions, interviewing people and analyzing the responses you receive.
Origins
This tutorial is an update of a highly-rated CHI 96 tutorial.
Features
- contrasting interviews with other means of learning about customers
- basic interviewing skills, including ways to ask open, unbiased questions
- preparing for interviews
- recording and analyzing the information you receive
- many examples of good and poor interview questions
Audience
Designers, developers, writers, managers, testers, marketers and anyone else who needs to identify customer requirements and end-user needs.
Presentation
Exercises, demonstrations and lecture. Highly interactive; be ready to participate.
Instructor
Ellen Isaacs is a user interface designer at Electric Communities where she is designing virtual worlds. Prior to that she designed multimedia-based collaboration applications at Sun Microsystems. She has been interviewing customers on a regular basis for the past seven years and has made it a standard component of her design process. She received her Ph.D. from Stanford University in cognitive psychology, with a focus on language and conversation. Before that, she worked as a professional newspaper reporter. Ellen has combined her background in human information processing with her skills in interviewing to develop a technique for learning about customers' needs and translating that information into design requirements.
Related Tutorials
11 Activity Theory: Basic Concepts and Applications (Sunday)
14 Getting Started on a Contextual Project (Sunday AM)
15 Introduction to Engineering Ethnography (Sunday PM)
23 Structured Observation: Practical Methods for Understanding Users and Their Work in Context
Monday, 24 March, full-day
introductory level
Susan M. Dray | Dray & Associates
Benefits
You will learn powerful techniques for gathering information about users and their work. Specifically, you will learn when and how to apply the techniques of structured observation to the software development process.
Origins
This highly rated tutorial was presented at CHI 96.
Features
- introduction to the structured observation techniques of naturalistic observation, contextual inquiry, usability roundtable and artifact walk-through
- how to plan for and carry out observations of users at their work sites
- what to do with the data
- next steps for using the data in system design
- applied tools for use "in the trenches" and practice using them
Audience
Developers, designers and managers responsible for customer needs analysis and identifying user requirements, as well as anyone who wants to understand how users work in order to do a better job of system design.
Presentation
Lecture, group discussion and small group exercises to obtain practical experience performing structured observation.
Instructor
Susan Dray is a consultant with 18 years of experience helping clients such as AT&T, Hewlett Packard, Claris, Lockheed Martin and Medtronic apply user-center methods, including observational studies. A Fellow of the Human Factors and Ergonomic Society, she is widely published. Susan has a doctorate in psychology from UCLA and has held positions in human factors research and management at Honeywell and at American Express Financial Advisors.
Related Tutorials
11 Activity Theory: Basic Concepts and Applications (Sunday)
14 Getting Started on a Contextual Project (Sunday AM)
15 Introduction to Engineering Ethnography (Sunday PM)
24 Contextual Design: Using Customer Work Models to Drive Systems Design
Monday, 24 March, full-day
introductory level
Karen Holtzblatt | InContext Enterprises
Hugh R. Beyer | InContext Enterprises
Benefits
Learn how to develop work models for representing data from field studies in a comprehensible form suitable for system design.
Origins
Update of highly rated CHI tutorial.
Features
- contextual influences on people in their work environments
- modeling customers' work practices
- choosing types of work models to represent different aspects of users' tasks, environments, communication paths and organizational culture
- derive design decisions from work models
- consolidating work models to reveal common structure, work strategies, intents and concepts
- techniques to generate, evaluate and iter-ate innovative designs from work models
Audience
Interest in customer-centered design, requirements analysis or tailoring products and systems to people's work. Valuable for those with experience collecting field data about users and who want to learn to use that information to influence system design.
Presentation
Lecture, video, demonstration and exercises.
Instructors
Karen Holtzblatt and Hugh Beyer are founders of InContext Enterprises, Inc., working with companies such as Microsoft and WordPerfect coaching teams to design products, product strategies and information systems from customer data. They are developers of contextual design, a customer-centered design process that extends the contextual inquiry data gathering technique. Karen is an originator of the contextual inquiry approach to field data collection and has pioneered the introduction of this technique into working engineering teams. Hugh has worked in industry as a programmer, architect and consultant, and developed processes for using customer data to drive object-oriented design.
Related Tutorials
11 Activity Theory: Basic Concepts and Applications (Sunday)
14 Getting Started on a Contextual Project (Sunday AM)
15 Introduction to Engineering Ethnography (Sunday PM)
25 Object, View, and Interaction Design
Monday, 24 March, full-day
intermediate level
Dick Berry | IBM Corporation
Dave Roberts | IBM Corporation
Scott Isensee | IBM Corporation
Benefits
You will learn techniques for turning user requirements into design for an object-oriented user interface. The tools and techniques described will help to ensure the model's accuracy and completeness and will generate output that feeds into object-oriented code design methodologies.
Origins
This tutorial is new for CHI 97.
Features
- techniques for identifying objects relevant to a task and relationships among them
- turning user data into an object model
- constructing user model state diagrams
- translating view definitions into interactive visual representations
- abstract and concrete interface designs
- prototyping and evaluating an interface design
Audience
HCI professionals responsible for turning user requirements into interface design. Background in at least one (but not all) of the following areas is recommended: requirements gathering, user interface design and object-oriented analysis. This tutorial is on object-oriented user interface design rather than object-oriented programming.
Presentation
Lecture and exercises.
Instructors
The instructors are user interface architects at IBM. They develop user interface guidelines, interface design methodologies and new user interaction techniques. They developed the Common User Access object-oriented user interface style and hold numerous patents related to user interface design.
Related Tutorial
12 Designing User Interfaces from Analyses of Users' Work Tasks (Sunday)
26 Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain
Monday, 24 March, full-day
introductory level
Betty Edwards | California State University
Benefits
You will learn to draw what you see, rather than what you believe you see. You
will learn basic strategies to unlock the visual perceptual mode of thinking.
Origins
Betty Edwards' CHI 96 plenary speech covered some elements of her work on
drawing and on accessing the visual perceptual mode of thinking. For CHI 97,
she returns to offer a one-day version of her renowned drawing course.
Features
- an understanding of the nature of drawing
- basic drawing skills
Audience
This seminar is intended for a wide audience. No previous drawing experience is
required; in fact, it's designed for people who believe they "can't draw."
Presentation
Lecture with hands-on drawing exercises.
Instructor
Betty Edwards is a creativity consultant and author of Drawing on the Right
Side of the Brain and Drawing on the Artist Within. Her educational background
is in art education and psychology. She is Professor Emeritus at California
State University, Long Beach.
Related Tutorials
5 Designing Icons and Visual Symbols (Sunday)
6 MediaJazz: Digital Storytelling and Computer Game Design (Sunday)
Monday Morning, Half Day
27 Multimedia Visual Interface Design
Monday, 24 March, half-day AM
introductory level
Susan E. Metros | University of Tennessee/Knoxville
John G. Hedberg | University of Wollongong, Australia
Benefits
You will understand how the components of visual interface design work with the cognitive demands of an interface. As a result,
you will be able to design or direct the design of interfaces for multimedia, Web sites, courseware and training modules.
Origins
International conferences in media education (AACE Ed Media), 1994Ð1996.
Features
- components of effective, stimulating, appropriate visual interface design
- demands those components make on the user's attention, memory or other cognitive skills
- translating written materials and other media into visual components
- creating visual frameworks
- graphically prototyping screens, nodes and links
- case studies of successful interfaces
Audience
Designers and developers of graphic or multimedia products, or anyone interested in using visual communication more effectively. No background in art is assumed.
Presentation
Lectures, small group exercises and discussions. Computers will be available.
Instructors
Susan Metros teaches computer-enhanced graphic design courses and does research on improved interfaces for multimedia applications and Web spaces. At the University of Tennessee/Knoxville, she is establishing a university-wide Instructional Technology Center. Susan has also designed the infrastructure and graphical interface for several interactive multimedia projects. John Hedberg's research is in navigation, cognition and design in interactive multimedia. He has written and consulted on instructional design, including projects with government departments and industry in the US and in Southeast Asia. Both Susan and John helped create the award-winning CD-ROM Investigating Lake Iluka, an ecology simulation.
Related Tutorials
6 MediaJazz: Digital Storytelling and Computer Game Design (Sunday)
13 Color and Type in Information Display (Sunday)
30 Information Visualization (Monday PM)
28 Social and Natural Interfaces: Theory and Design
Monday, 24 March, half-day AM
introductory level
Clifford Nass | Stanford University
Byron Reeves | Stanford University
Benefits
You will learn the theoretical and empirical framework for social and natural interfaces, a rapidly growing category of interfaces. You will obtain over 100 specific guidelines for the design of interfaces that conform with social and natural rules. You will learn how to apply social science methods to assess these interfaces.
Origins
This tutorial is new for CHI 97.
Features
- examples of how users treat computer interfaces in a social manner
- social science concepts including manners, personality, emotion, roles and form, and their implications for interface design
- how to design interfaces that meet users' expectations for social interaction
- using questionnaires, reaction time data and physiological measures to assess these interfaces
- practice in evaluating social and natural interfaces
Audience
Designers, usability specialists and others interested in creating or assessing interfaces that conform with social and natural rules. No knowledge of programming is necessary.
Presentation
Lecture, discussion and exercises.
Instructors
The instructors are co-authors of The Media Equation: How People Treat Computers, Television, and New Media Like Real People and Places. They are the directors of the Social Responses to Communication technology industrial affiliates program at Stanford. Their theories and research have been used in the design of numerous software products.
Related Tutorials
7 Spoken Dialogue Interfaces (Sunday)
8 Wizards, Coaches, Advisors and More: A Performance Support Primer (Sunday)
31 Creating Conversational Interfaces for Interactive Software Agents (Monday PM)
29 Software Agents
Monday, 24 March, half-day AM
intermediate level
Marc Millier | Intel
Benefits
You will understand the structure and architectures of current agent technology
and understand the user interface issues of software agents.
Origins
This tutorial is new for CHI 97.
Features
- agents defined
- roles and architectures for agents
- how agents observe and recognize, learn and adapt, plan and infer
- how users interact with agents
- how users trust and control agents
- distinguishing agents from people
Audience
Software engineers or managers who are interested in agent technologies and architectures. A familiarity with software architecture and the software development process is assumed.
Presentation
Lectures, demonstrations and discussion.
Instructor
Marc Millier has been a working practitioner in software engineering for 25 years. His background includes databases, information retrieval, intelligent filtering and object-oriented design and implementation. His current activity includes leading a team of software engineers in the research and development of a practical multi-agent architecture targeted for the business desktop.
Related Tutorials
8 Wizards, Coaches, Advisors and More: A Performance Support Primer (Sunday)
31 Creating Conversational Interfaces for Interactive Software Agents (Monday PM)
Monday Afternoon, Half Day
30 Information Visualization
Monday, 24 March, half-day PM
intermediate level
Stuart Card | Xerox PARC
Stephen G. Eick | Bell Laboratories
Nahum Gershon | The MITRE Corporation
Benefits
You will gain a working knowledge of how to effectively visualize abstract information
(in contrast with scientific data which is often spatial). You will learn how to apply this knowledge to specific areas such as the World Wide Web, text databases and network information.
Origins
This tutorial was first presented at SIGGRAPH 96.
Features
- knowing when visualization improves usability
- perceptual and cognitive principles behind information visualization
- visualization and interaction techniques: hierarchies, landscapes and nets
- case studies, including WWW browsing and querying
Audience
Participants should have some basic knowledge in graphics and visualization and interest in understanding this emerging and significant area.
Presentation
Lecture with questions.
Instructors
Stuart Card is a Xerox Research Fellow and manager of the User Interface Research Group at Xerox PARC. He and his team created the Information Visualizer, an animated 3D interactive information workspace program. Stephen G. Eick is a technical manager of the Data Visualization Research Group at Bell Laboratories, a division of Lucent Technologies. His research focuses on extracting information latent in large databases using novel interactive visualizations. His group has developed a suite of visualizations, including tools for visualizing abstract networks, software source code and text corpora. Nahum Gershon is Principal Scientist at The MITRE Corporation. His work is concerned with information and data visualization, network browsers, image processing, data organization and analysis of medical, environment and other multidimensional data.
Related Tutorials
13 Color and Type in Information Display (Sunday)
31 Creating Conversational Interfaces for Interactive Software Agents
Monday, 24 March, half-day PM
intermediate level
Tandy Trower | Microsoft
Benefits
You will learn practical design principles in designing conversational interfaces with visible interactive agents.
Origins
This tutorial is new for CHI 97.
Features
- overview of agent and speech research and implementation
- psychological and social research on media design
- guidelines on basic principles for creating effective conversational interfaces
- demonstration of agent application using conversational design principles
Audience
CHI professionals and product designers interested in designing interactive agent interfaces with conversational (speech-enabled) interfaces. Should have a basic understanding of HCI design and practice, but need not have a background in speech or agent interface design.
Presentation
Lecture with demonstrations and video materials.
Instructor
Tandy Trower is the Director of the Advanced User Interface Design Group at Microsoft where he reviews and advises product teams on their interface design. He managed the development and introduction of a variety of products, including Microsoft C Compiler, Microsoft Flight Simulator, and Microsoft Windows. He is author of The Windows Interface Guidelines for Software Design.
Related Tutorials
7 Spoken Dialogue Interfaces (Sunday)
28 Social and Natural Interfaces: Theory and Design (Monday AM)
29 Software Agents (Monday AM)
32 Java-Based User Interface Development and Web Application Deployment
Monday, 24 March, half-day PM
intermediate level
Ian Smith | Georgia Institute of Technology
Benefits
You will understand the possibilities provided by the World Wide Web for application deployment. You will gain a more detailed understanding of the issues involved in developing user interfaces for the WWW in Java.
Origins
This tutorial is new for CHI 97.
Features
- how Java applets work within the context of Web servers and browsers
- Abstract Window Toolkit (AWT), the primary mechanism by which graphical applications can be constructed in Java
- capabilities and problems of interfaces developed within cross-platform settings
- emerging technologies and how they will affect your ability to deliver graphical applications via the Web
Audience
Participants should be well-versed in using the Web; experience with developing HTML documents is helpful. A software development background would help in understanding some of the details, but is not required.
Presentation
Lecture plus demonstrations.
Instructor
Ian Smith is one of the principal developers of SubArctic, a new UI toolkit written in Java that is used by developers around the world, and has developed numerous Java applications. Ian has taught courses about Java and has lectured extensively on the subject. He has experience working on Java-related technologies at Xerox PARC and JavaSoft.
Related Tutorials
2 User Interface Design for the World Wide Web (Saturday evening)
4 Developing Collaborative Applications Using the World Wide Web "Shell"
(Sunday)
