Rethinking HCI Education for Design: Problem-Based Learning and Virtual Worlds at an HCI Design Studio

The practice of teaching and learning human–computer interaction (HCI) design has to develop its own approaches that balance method and technology use with reflective and situated practice. This article presents our HCI design studio course that makes a combined use of constructivist pedagogies and virtual worlds aiming to aid students critically review and reflect on the use of related methods and technologies in design and to cultivate more general skills like self-directed learning, intrinsic motivation, and critical thinking. Our HCI design studio course can be thought of as an iterative and incremental teaching and learning process that blends HCI methods, design practice, and technology between a real and a virtual design studio. The course introduces problem-based learning to the pedagogies of project-based learning and studio-based learning currently employed in most HCI design studios. The positive student responses and our reflection and experiences focusing on a number of challenges for further implementation are also outlined.     

Culture and HCI: a review of recent cultural studies in HCI and social networks

Studies on culture in HCI have always drawn the attention of academics. A comprehensive literature review of recent HCI studies on culture becomes a necessity. This study followed a systematic approach to review and create taxonomy of recent literature on culture from various HCI disciplines and how that relates to Social Networks. Most of the literature review focuses on recent studies on culture published in the last 5 years. The literature review reveals that understanding cultural values of people requires deep research. It highlights the complications of culture when it comes to interface design and makes some recommendations on designing more acceptable user interfaces. Understanding cultural values is essential for the design of successful and widely accepted user interfaces. The attempt of this study is to increase cultural awareness of people involved in international or cross-cultural HCI projects.     

Selecting Occupational Safety Equipment by MCDM Approach Considering Universal Design Principles

Occupational safety concept, which has become a major subject in all industries, has a vital importance in preventing accidents and ensuring a safe working environment. This study proposes an integrated approach to evaluate occupational safety equipment by considering universal design (UD) and technical requirements, both separately and simultaneously. UD principles are concerned with making things usable for anyone, whatever their conditions may be, without any requirements for rearrangement. Two robust multicriteria decision making (MCDM) aid methods, AHP and fuzzy PROMETHEE, are employed to handle the evaluation process in the presented study. The study also includes a demonstration of the proposed approach on a real MCDM problem. The study findings indicate that the proposed approach is valid and accurate, and the inclusion of UD principles has a positive and comprehensive effect on the selection process.     

HCI and education: a blended design experience

Teaching HCI in an undergraduate course for computer scientists is often a challenging experience, because the skills that characterize HCI are different from scientific and computational thinking that are the focus of most subjects of the curriculum. Often HCI teaching is organized as a set of lectures that are useful to learn concepts, but don’t increase the design skills of the students. This work reports the results of an educational experience where both learners and teachers were actively involved in a process of knowledge construction and design. This process usually happens in other domains, such as architecture or industrial design, but is not part of most computer science curricula. We chose as project a challenging theme: the design of eco-feedback interfaces that inform people about the consequences of their actions for the environment and help to take decisions for lowering energy consumption. Eco-feedback interfaces are also representative of the gap between the products available on the market and the results of scientific studies, evidenced also by a recent workshop about HCI education. The workshop evidenced a number of pitfalls in HCI education that in our educational experience we tried to overcome with appropriate methodologies. An additional challenging task was the attempt to organize all the design activities taking advantage of a platform for remote learning, stressing its limits. The paper will discuss all these issues, evidencing where the applied methodologies gave good results and where they need further improvements, with the final goal of giving useful advices for HCI educational experiences to come.     

Towards a unified Media-User Typology (MUT): A meta-analysis and review of the research literature on media-user typologies

Considering the increasingly complex media landscape and diversity of use, it is important to establish a common ground for identifying and describing the variety of ways in which people use new media technologies. Characterising the nature of media-user behaviour and distinctive user types is challenging and the literature offers little guidance in this regard. Hence, the present research aims to classify diverse user behaviours into meaningful categories of user types, according to the frequency of use, variety of use and content preferences. To reach a common framework, a review of the relevant research was conducted. An overview and meta-analysis of the literature (22 studies) regarding user typology was established and analysed with reference to (1) method, (2) theory, (3) media platform, (4) context and year, and (5) user types. Based on this examination, a unified Media-User Typology (MUT) is suggested. This initial MUT goes beyond the current research literature, by unifying all the existing and various user type models. A common MUT model can help the Human–Computer Interaction community to better understand both the typical users and the diversification of media-usage patterns more qualitatively. Developers of media systems can match the users’ preferences more precisely based on an MUT, in addition to identifying the target groups in the developing process. Finally, an MUT will allow a more nuanced approach when investigating the association between media usage and social implications such as the digital divide.     

一种通用SDR平台的设计与实现

针对传统软件无线电(SDR)平台的通用性差、面积大、离散化等问题,提出了使用Kintex7 FPGA与双通道射频收发器AD9371搭建一种通用且具有航天应用潜质的SDR平台。本平台与传统平台相比具有较高的适配性,使用嵌入在FPGA中的MicroBlaze、NiosII等软核处理器,通过C语言即可完成相关参数的配置,极大提高了平台对软件和操作系统的兼容性。同时严格遵守PCB设计规则,使平台性能达到最优。通过增益数据对比分析,证明本平台在功耗没有提升的情况下,发射功率明显优于官方评估板,同时极大地提高了工作效率,在无人机、电子战和军用通信等方面都有巨大的应用前景。     

一种通用模糊控制器的研究与设计

设计了一种通用模糊控制器，可适用于不同控制对象。采用软件的方法在线调整量化因子及比例因子，并在控制过程中对规则自动调整和完善，从而使控制规则趋于最优。仿真结果表明，这种通用模糊控制器的控制性能优于普通的模糊控制器，达到较高的控制精度。     

基于诱发脑电的人机交互系统的设计与实现

提出一种基于稳态视觉诱发脑电（SSVEP）的人机交互控制系统的设计方法。该系统采用闪烁刺激使操作者产生SSVEP信号,通过采集电路将信号送入PC中,由软件对其进一步处理和分析,提取出刺激器的闪烁频率,进而转换成相应的控制命令控制机械手臂操作。由于采用软硬件相结合的刺激源、信号逐级放大的电露设计、程序在线检测算法等,系统具有很好的人机交互的实时性和稳定性。检测算法对SSVEP的识别准确率达到90％以上。     

Display Design: Principles and Procedures

The history of research on display design is described briefly and the general problems of real/artificial displays and new/stored information are discussed with particular emphasis on compatibility. The main discussion centres on the advantages and limitations of the throe general approaches to display design: use of checklists, use of formal procedures and use of behaviour theory. A checklist for display design is provided and the other procedures are illustrated by case studies.     

Mobile HCI 2004: Experience and Reflection

Mobile HCI is rapidly becoming one of the prime conferences on human-computer interaction with mobile technology. Its sixth edition took place on 13-16 September in Glasgow, where it originated in 1998. The conference, chaired by Mark Dunlop (University of Strathclyde) and Stephen Brewster (Glasgow University), gathered a heterogeneous group of academics and practitioners that has acquired a unique identity over the past five years. This year's contributions highlighted four research areas: evaluation methods and techniques, context-adaptive systems (including user adaptation, location technology, and power management), the tension between experience and reflection, and interaction styles (auditory, small-display presentation, tilt and touch input, and text entry).     

通用型离子浓度检测仪的设计与实现

研究并实现了一种通用型离子浓度检测仪,该检测仪由上住机管理模块和下位机检测模块构成,二者经由串口通信.给出了浓度测量和温度补偿原理,导出了新的温度补偿公式.设计了基于STC89C58的下位机硬件电路,编写了单片机检测程序和上位机VB控制平台,实现了对离子浓度的测量、传输、显示、文件存储、曲线绘制以及结果打印等操作,并通过对Na+离子溶液的试验验证了该检测仪的精确性,同时由于该检测仪在相同的硬件条件下只需更换相应的离子电极以及控制程控放大器就可完成对多种离子的浓度检测,因此具有较好的应用前景.     

Making HCI theory work: an analysis of the use of activity theory in HCI research

This paper reports a study of the use of activity theory in human–computer interaction (HCI) research. We analyse activity theory in HCI since its first appearance about 25 years ago. Through an analysis and meta-synthesis of 109 selected HCI activity theory papers, we created a taxonomy of 5 different ways of using activity theory: (1) analysing unique features, principles, and problematic aspects of the theory; (2) identifying domain-specific requirements for new theoretical tools; (3) developing new conceptual accounts of issues in the field of HCI; (4) guiding and supporting empirical analyses of HCI phenomena; and (5) providing new design illustrations, claims, and guidelines. We conclude that HCI researchers are not only users of imported theory, but also theory-makers who adapt and develop theory for different purposes.     

一种VXI总线通用模块的设计

该模块为基于VXI总线的寄存器基A16/D16器件,结构为C尺寸.模块为插板式平台,可以同时搭载两个贴板单元用来承载多个功能电路.在设计上通过Lattice公司的CPLD与数字交叉阵列ispGDX120实现了VXI接口设计与信号线的分配.借助于该模块电路可以将VXI总线寄存器基低端仪器的开发转化为类似于单片机总线仪器的开发工作,提供了一种具有低成本和高性价比的VXI总线产品开发方式.     

Towards a standard for pointing device evaluation, perspectives on 27 years of Fitts’ law research in HCI

This paper makes seven recommendations to HCI researchers wishing to construct Fitts’ law models for either movement time prediction, or for the comparison of conditions in an experiment. These seven recommendations support (and in some cases supplement) the methods described in the recent ISO 9241-9 standard on the evaluation of pointing devices. In addition to improving the robustness of Fitts’ law models, these recommendations (if widely employed) will improve the comparability and consistency of forthcoming publications. Arguments to support these recommendations are presented, as are concise reviews of 24 published Fitts’ law models of the mouse, and 9 studies that used the new ISO standard.     

基于粗糙集的人机界面设计知识信息约简

随着各种高科技在战场中的应用,战场环境越来越复杂。武器显控界面的优劣直接关系到武器是否易用,进而影响战争的成败。在武器显控界面的设计中,本文采用粗糙集的方法对显控界面设计知识进行推理和简化,得到形式简洁和易于使用的界面设计知识决策表,进而设计简洁友好的自适应人机交互界面,提高作战效率。     

一种便携式低成本通用并行测试设备研制

为解决传统装备维修保障体系一对一测试环节效率低、成本高的缺点,满足现代保障体系对自动化、高效化、便携化的不断追求,研发新型并行测试软件平台、多核多线程并行管理技术,并依托“三化”、便携、柔性设计研制一种基于CPCI总线的并行测试设备。经验证,低成本、小型化、资源高度集成前提下设计开发的各功能组件以及多核多线程集群管理技术的优化使用,使得该设备拥有便携、高性价比、1-4台装备隔离高效并行自动测试、多装备通用等显著优势,大幅提升测试效率至400%、缩短复杂武器装备各阶段全流程周期,并锐减75%的人力、设备、环境资源投入,测试结果、原始数据的实时在线存储、智能判读及曲线回放亦突出显示了该设备故障诊断性能的卓越性。     

基于PowerBuilder的MIS系统中通用查询系统设计与实现

信息的组合查询是MIS糸统的一个重要组成部分,该文介绍了在PowerBuilder中采用Datawindow技术实现通用查询系统的设计方法。实践证明,该方法具有一定的可配置性、可管理性和可重用性,提高了系统的开发效率。