DH3050 History of Human-Computer Interaction, 7.5 hp
Research student course, Oct 2011 - Jan 2012

Latest updates 18 December 2011: Thanks for a good seminar in Uppsala on December 5.
Unfortunately only 4 of the active participants presented, the other 8 have to present in January.
Please let us know all of afternoons (13-17) of January 20, 23, 24, 25 are possible for your presentation (20 minutes including questions)
via the Doodle
Those who presented in Uppsala are welcome but it is not compulsory for them.

Thanks for your 8 papers, we will soon give feedback.
We expect the other 4 (Elena, Marcus, Mikael, Oscar) at latest January 13.

The reflection statistics is quite good, se list at the end.
5 of you have submitted all 6 x 2 reflections, most others miss just a few.
We expect the others also at latest January 13.

Latest updates 9 November 2011: Thanks for six very stimulating seminar days.

+ All thirteen participants have made the two required oral presentations:
Adnan, Anette, Celia, Elena, John, Jordi, Luis, Marcus, Mikael, Oscar, Petra, Simon, Stanislaw
+ We have also got most of the reflections, see at end below. Many contributions are quite good and show that the subjects are inspiring.
All contributions are OK.
+ Please check that we got all sent reflections, resend otherwise, and send in the missing soon.
+ We have subjects for ten of the final papers, due November 28 for presentation December 5 in Uppsala. Please answer email about whether titles are appropriate and complement with the three missing.

Yngve and Anders

Latest updates 2 November 2011:

+ Overview presentations (PPT as PDF) from first 5 seminar days
+ Added topics from seminar days
+ Added references and task for last seminar day, November 7:
Make a paragraph/page about what you expect will be the HCI of the future
+ Schedule for final paper: Deadline Nov.28,
joint presentation in Uppsala December 5, at 14.15-17, followed by pub
+ Reflection assignments received and OK

Latest updates 22 October 2011:

+ Overview presentations (PPT as PDF) from first 3 seminar days
+ Added topics from first 4 seminar days
+ Information about material (book chapters) handed out on paper
Note that many of the references (not books in general) can be downloaded from ACM Library when at KTH
+ Schedule for final paper: Deadline Nov.28, joint presentation early December

Instructors

Course leader is Anders Hedman, assisted by Yngve Sundblad.

Schedule (12 two-hour seminars)

Mondays October 3, 10, 17, 24, 31, November 7 at 10.15 - 12 and 13.15 - 15

NB! First seminar day, October 3 at 10.15-12 and 13.15-15,
in hörsalen, Almgrens sidenväveri, Repslagargatan 15A, T-Slussen, utgång Götgatan 17

Mondays October 10, 17, 24, 31, November 7 at Torget, Lindstedtsvägen 5, floor 6, KTH

The course has been concentrated in support of those who attend from elsewhere.

Course prerequisites

Graduate student status. It is recommended that the student has taken at least an introductory course on human-computer interaction in order to get the most out of class discussions. Master students with thorough background in HCI can be accepted.

Goals

The course aims to provide a historical overview, reflection and understanding of developments in human-computer interaction from its roots to present days.

Themes and content

The nature of HCI: How has the field developed historically? How has practice and theory been understood in HCI? How is work in HCI related to work in computer science/engineering, cognitive science and the social sciences? What makes HCI unique? Is HCI a subject that we can define?* More broadly, we can also ask what is the relation between cognitive science, computing technology and our views of what it is to be human? These and other questions will be discussed throughout the course.

*ACM offers, as an example, the following definition of HCI: a discipline concerned with the design, evaluation and implementation of interactive computing systems for human use and with the study of major phenomena surrounding them.

We will read, discuss and reflect on selected original papers that have come to shape our understanding of human-computer interaction. These readings start with Vannevar Bush (1945) and continue on to current times. We will watch and discuss videos that help to illustrate origins and use of important ideas and concepts and techniques in human-computer interaction as they developed historically.

Assignments

Students should prepare by reading assigned papers and write a one-two-page reflection paper before each seminar day, where they will be discussed, when suitable complemented by video material and guest participants.

Students will be assigned to present their alternative view (e.g. technical vs. human) of each paper.

Assigned readings will as far as possible be made available as links below.

Examination

For passing the course a student must get a pass in each of the following

Actively attend at least 5 of the 6 seminar days
Hand in all 6 reflection papers
Lead discussion at seminars of at least 2 papers
Write a 10-15-page final paper on subject chosen together with course leaders, deadline November 28, joint presentation (in Uppsala?) early December

Subjects and preliminary readings

Note that the programme can be modified, especially the latter part, with choice among the extensive material.
It will be complemented with more web references.

Day 1 - October 3

PDF (16 MB): Overview, today's programme and pre 1950 history

Seminar 1 -- Early interaction and computer experience

Joseph Marie Jacquard (1754-1832) -- Punched cards for mechanical looms

Charles Babbage 1791-1871) -- differential engine

Augusta Ada Byron / Lovelace(1815-1852) -- first known programmer

Human "computers" (1930s)

Howard Aiken(1900-1973) -- Harvard Mark I 1944

Grace Murray Hopper(1906-1992) -- first bug report 1944, programming team.

Personal accounts by course leaders, and guest(s)

Read paper by Ylva Fernaeus et al on interaction with Jacquard loom

Seminar 2 -- Philosophical beginnings

Helmholtz, Cantor, Gödel and Turing - Anders

Alan Turing (1912-1954) -- Alan Turing's Forgotten Ideas in Computer Science

Vannevar Bush (1890-1974) -- Memex and the roots of hypertext

John Licklider (1915-1990) -- Man-computer symbiosis

Assignment for Day 1 (Seminars 1 and 2)

Read and write, at least a page, about

Bush V (1945)  "As we may think " The Atlantic Monthly, version with pictures attached, interactions March 1996, pp.35-46

Copeland & Proudfoot (1999):
"Alan Turing's Forgotten Ideas in Computer Science", Scientific American April 1999

Further reading

Licklider J (1960): Man-computer symbiosis, IRE Transactions of Human Factors in Electronics HFE-1(1), 4-11.

Day 2 - October 10

PDF (6 MB): Today's programme and KTH/SU and Yngve's personal HCI history

Seminar 3 -- The vision and implementation of the HCI desktop

Douglas Engelbart (1925-) -- theory and practice of "augmenting the human intellect"

Watch, especially clips 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 15, 17, 21, 35, or the whole (100 mins) of

Video of 8 December 1968 "Mother of all demos"

Seminar 4 -- Flexible graphic interaction

Ivan Sutherland (1938-) -- Sketchpad, interactive graphics inventions in 1963

Alan Kay(1940-) -- personal computer, graphic user interface, Smalltalk 1971

Seymour Papert (1928-) -- Turtle graphics, LOGO - Handout: introduction to "Mindstorms" - Anders

Watch videos

Ivan Sutherland's Sketchpad from 1963 by Alan Kay
Alan Kay on a personal computer for children of all ages, Dynabook from 1968
Xerox Alto History (1972)
Seymour Papert on education and LOGO (1983)

Assignment for Day 2 (Seminars 3 and 4)

Read and write, at least a page, about:

Engelbart D (1962a) Letter to Vannevar Bush and Program On Human Effectiveness in Nyce M J  & Kahn P (1991) (eds) From Memex to Hypertext, San Diego, CA: Academic Press

Ivan Sutherland (1963) Sketchpad: A man-machine graphical communication system, AFIPS Conference Proceedings 1963, pp. 329-346

Further reading

Engelbart D (1962b) "Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual Framework" SRI Report AFOSR-3233, 130 pages
http://sloan.stanford.edu/mousesite/EngelbartPapers/B5_F18_ConceptFrameworkInd.html

Papert, S. (1980): The Gears of My Childhood, and the whole book "Mindstorms"

Day 3 - October 17

PDF (1 MB): Today's programme

Seminar 5 -- Innovation through application and computer design, e.g. spreadsheet, PC and Macintosh

Presentation by computer pioneer Horace Lyles arithmetic units logic, fundamentals of core memories, character art
Dan Bricklin (1951-) -- The spreadsheet (Visicalc 1978)

Steve Jobs (1951-2011) -- Apple 2, Macintosh, iPod, iPhone, iPad
Video (1983)

Seminar 6 - Towards insightful design of interfaces

Donald Norman (1935-) -- the psychology of everyday things, UCSD
Video from Normans CD

Ben Shneiderman (1947-) -- direct manipulation

J J Gibson, A theory of affordances overflow to next time

Assignment for Day 3 (Seminars 5 and 6)

Read and write, at least a page, about

Bricklin D (1986): Dan Bricklin, pp. 130-151 in Susan Lammers (1986) Programmers at Work Microsoft Press.
See also Dan's own account with more pictures

Shneiderman B (1983) Direct Manipulation: A Step Beyond Programming Languages, IEEE Computer, 16(8): 57--69, August 1983.

Further reading

Norman D (1988): The psychopathology of everyday things, in The Psychology of everyday things, Basic Books, pp 1-33.

Norman, D. & Draper, S., eds. (1986): User Centered System Design - New Perspectives on Human-Computer Interaction, Lawrence Erlbaum 1986

Day 4 - October 24

PDF (315 kB): Today's programme

Seminar 7 -- The cognitive paradigm and the computer metaphor

Allen Newell 1927-1992), StuartCard (~1945- ), Tom Moran(~1950- ) -- model human processor

Herbert Simon (1916-2001) -- cognition and AI

John Searle Minds, Brains and Programs

Seminar 8 -- Limits of the cognitive paradigm and the computer metaphor

Hubert Dreyfus (1929-) -- What computers cannot do
Dreyfus in Artificial Intelligence, TV special, Computer Chronicles (1996)
Varför 2001 inte blev som 2001, Anders Lotson i Computer Sweden 2007

Peter Wegner (1932-): Why Interaction is more powerful than algorithms
Short review and reflections by Michel Beaudouin-Lafon
(Chapter 43 in book HCI Remixed, useful starting points for final paper)

Preliminary Assignment for Day 4 (Seminars 7 and 8)

Read and write, at least a page, about

Card S, Moran T & Newell A (1983): The model human processor.
This version is printed 1986 but is written before the book from 1983 as it states that the full text "The psychology of human-computer interaction" is "in preparation". It appeared as a Lawrence Erlbaum book in 1983, 469 pp.

Dreyfus H: What computers can't do. Use this Wikipedia entrance to find out more.

Further reading

Herbert Simon (1967): Motivational and emotional controls of cognition, Psychological Review, vol. 74:29-39, reprinted in Models of Thought Vol 1, Yale University Press 1979

Dreyfus H & Dreyfus S (1986) Mind over machine, New York: The Free Press

Dreyfus H (1999) What computers still can't do, MIT Press.

Dreyfus, H. (2007) Why Heideggerian AI Failed and How Fixing it would require making it more Heideggerian (paper for lecture at KTH)

Wegner, P. (1997): Why Interaction is more powerful than algorithms, Communication of the ACM, May 1997, pp.81-91

Day 5 - October 31

PDF (9 MB): Today's programme

Seminar 9 - The Scandinavian school of design with methodical extensions

Pelle Ehn (1948-), Susanne Bødker (1956-), Morten Kyng (1950-), Yngve Sundblad (1943-) -- Utopia (1981-86)
Web presentation from 1996
Video (7 mins) from 1985: Utopia in video on three examples of Scandinavian model

Wendy Mackay (1956-) -- triangulisation, video prototypes

Terry Winograd (1946-) -- Software design

Seminar 10 - Computer Supported Cooperative Work

Irene Greif (~1950-)

Lucy Suchman (~1950-)
Debate with Terry Winograd

Jonathan Grudin (~1955-)

John Bowers (1959-)

Bonnie Nardi (~1950-)

Preliminary Assignment for Day 5 (Seminars 9 and 10)

Read and write, at least a page, about

Bødker, S., Ehn, P., Kammersgaard, J., Kyng, M., Sundblad, Y. (1987). A Utopian experience. In G.Bjerknes, P. Ehn, & M. Kyng (Eds.), Computers and democracy: A Scandinavian challenge, pp. 251-278. Aldershot, UK: Avebury.
Handout on October 24 - Yngve
Also use the Web presentation from 1996

Grudin, J. (1994). "Computer-Supported Cooperative Work: History and Focus".Computer 27 (5): 19-26

Further reading

Bødker S, Ehn P, Sjögren D & Sundblad Y (2000) Co-operative Design -- perspectives on 20 years with the Scandinavian IT Design Model, Keynote paper, Proc. of NordiCHI 2000, October, Stockholm.

Robert Howard: "Utopia - Where Workers Craft New Technology",Technological Review, Vol. 88, no. 3, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1985

Mackay, W.E. & Fayard, A.L. (1997): "HCI, Natural Science and Design: A Framework for Triangulation Across Disciplines" in Proceedings of ACM DIS97, Designing Interactive Systems. Amsterdam, pp. 223-234.

Mackay, W.E., Ratzer, A.V. & Janecek, P. (2000): Video artefacts for design: bridging the gap between abstraction and detail. Proceedings of ACM DIS2000, Designing Interactive Systems, New York, pp.72-82.

Nardi, B. & Miller J. (1990).
An ethnographic study of distributed problem solving in spreadsheet development. Proceedings of the Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work.

James Pycock, John Bowers (1996): Getting others to get it right: an ethnography of design work in the fashion industry, Proceedings of CSCW '96, pp.219-228

Suchman, L.: Plans and situated actions -- The Problem of Human-Machine Communication. Cambridge, Univ. Press, Y, 1987. (1 MB PDF)Chapter 4

Winograd, T. (1996) Bringing design to software, Addison-Wesley, 310 pp.

Day 6 - November 7

PDF (5 MB): Today's programme

Seminar 11 - Ubiquitous, physical, affective, computing, VR, games

Myron Krueger (1942-) -- Early VR (1969)
Video on Myron's early digital art installations
Mark Weiser (1952-99) -- Ubiquitous computing
Donald Norman (1935-) -- The invisible computer
Rosalind Picard (1962-) -- Affective computing
Jaron Lanier (1960-) -- VR
Toru Iwatani (1955-) -- PacMan
Alexey Pajitnov (1956-) -- Tetris

Seminar 12 - Web and hyperdata revisited, Open discussion on the future of HCI

Theodor Nelson (1937-) -- Text systems, notably hypertext in Xanadu (1960)

Tim Berners-Lee (1955-) & Robert Caillau (1957-): World Wide Web

All participants give a short idea about the future of HCI as input for open discussion.

Assignment for Day 6 (Seminars 11 and 12)

Read and write, at least a page, about

Weiser M "The Computer for the 21st Century" from Scientific American Special Issue on Communications, Computers, and Networks, September, 1991

Berners-Lee, T; Fischetti, M (1999). First three pages of each chapter of Weaving the Web, Harper-Collins Publishers. Read chapters 1-6.
Berners-Lee, T. (1989-90) First web proposal 1989-90

Cailliau (1995). A Short History of the Web

Try to compare Tim Berners-Lee's and Robert Cailliau's accounts of the WWW.

Further reading

Norman, D. The Invisible Computer (1998)

Picard R.W. Excerpt from Affective Computing, MIT Press, 1997.

Lanier J (1986) "Jaron Lanier", pp. 286-301 in Lammers, S (1986): Programmers at Work, Microsoft Press.

Iwatani T (1986): , pp. 262-270 In Lammers (1986) Programmers at Work, Microsoft Press.

Pajitnov (1985): Tetris

Nelson T (1972) "As we will think", in Proc. of the International conference on online interactive computing Brunel University, Uxbridge UK Sep. 4-7.

Final paper - Deadline November 28, presentation - December 5

+ 10-15 pages, strong elements of history
+ not only narration, also substantial part of reflections / discussion
+ present idea via e-mail to Anders & Yngve for OK (even if you have talked with us)
+ deadline Nov 28, send paper to A & Y+ presentations in Uppsala, December 5, 14.15-17

Reflection assignments received and OK

The following participants have supplied OK reflections on the seminar days.

Day 1: Adnan, Anette, Celia, Elena, John, Luis, Marcus, Mikael, Oscar, Petra, Simon, Stanislaw

Day 2: Adnan, Anette, Celia, Elena, John, Luis, Marcus, Mikael, Oscar, Petra, Simon, Stanislaw

Day 3: Adnan, Anette, Celia, Elena, John, Luis, Marcus, Oscar, Stanislaw

Day 4: Adnan, Celia, Elena, John, Luis, Marcus, Oscar, Stanislaw

Day 5: Adnan, Anette, Celia, Elena, John, Luis,Marcus, Mikael, Oscar, Stanislaw

Day 6: Adnan, Celia, John, Luis, Oscar, Simon, Stanislaw