A1 Daniel Delany

Dan Delany's Assignment 1

Human Computer Interaction is the scientific study of the way people interact with computers, on many levels: physically (mouse, keyboard, etc.), visually (UI design and layout), conceptually (information visualization, visual metaphors), and since the advent of the internet, socially.

Interesting article: http://www.azarask.in/blog/post/ubiquity-in-depth/ or anything by Aza Raskin.

Computer Supported Cooperative Work is the study of how computers can facilitate and improve collaborative work.

Interesting article: Understanding Situated Social Interactions: A Case Study of Public Places in the City by J. Paay, and J. Kjeldskov

Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning is the study of using computers for education in collaborative social environments, like the classroom.

Interesting bunch of essays: Group Cognition: Computer Support for Building Collaborative Knowledge by Gerry Stahl

Design of Interactive Systems is the study of creating computer systems which interact with people more efficiently and intuitively. Depending on the application, this encompasses parts of industrial design, graphic design, information design, and software design.

Interesting Article: New High-Tech Musical Instruments by Roger Linn

Participatory Design is the philosophy that the end user of an object or system should be actively involved in the design and creation of it, creating a producer/consumer feedback loop.

Interesting interview: Kate Rutter Learns What's New in Participatory Design with Liz Sanders

User Modeling is an approach to interface design that involves creating a "cognitive model" of users to simulate and predict their actions. While accurate cognitive models can help inform a developer's design decisions, they are sometimes used in the place of true user studies.

Interesting project: CMU's CogTool

Crowdsourcing, or Distributed Participatory Design, is a form of Participatory Design that not only involves end-users in the design and production process, but relies on them for the majority of it. Often, users are compensated in the form of micropayments (Amazon's Mechanical Turk), contest winnings (Threadless), warm, fuzzy feelings (SETI@Home or Stardust@Home) or the fame and glory of being on the front page (Digg).

Interesting Blog: Crowdsourcing