CS 3500 Spring 2020

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Logo courtesy wordle.net

California State University Stanislaus

CS 3500: Human-Centered Design

Spring 2020

M W F 10:00 am - 10:50 am, DBH 104

Instructor: Dr. Megan Thomas

[Syllabus] [Announcements] [Schedule/Reflection Deadlines] [Homeworks] [Resources] [News]

Welcome to CS3500, an introduction to human-centered design. Human-Centered Design is both an old and a new area of study. When called "human factors engineering", the study of making tools and devices fit human beings has been around for decades. Recent developments in technology, making more and more powerful tools more and more integrated with our lives, have given new urgency to the need for easy to use tools.

We will study the principles of usability and human centered design. We will study what makes a tool easily usable, by humans, and a design philosophy that can help create usable tools. Bad design can cause user irritation, errors, misunderstanding, and occasionally outright chaos. But preventing poor designs is not as easy as it may seem... what is good for one user may not suit another. Designs that benefit adults may not benefit children, or the elderly.

In this class we will explore topics from computer science, sociology, biology, psychology, cognitive science, anthropology, communications studies, graphic design, industrial design and other fields.

Topics include

Functioning and limitations of human memory
Human cognition and perception, abilities and limitations, effects on design
Testing and evaluating existing tools
Design and prototyping
... and more ...

This is a General Education F1 course.

Announcements and Upcoming Events:

5/17/2020 As announced in class, Quiz 3 is optional. If your score on Quiz 3 is higher than that on Quiz 1 or 2, I will replace the older quiz score with the Quiz 3 grade.
The quiz is a 35 minute quiz. Once started, the quiz cannot be stopped and restarted.
For each question, select the single best answer.
Try to have a stable connection to the internet. Firefox, Safari, or Chrome should be fine.
The quiz will be on-line starting Thursday, 5/21, at 5 pm, and go off-line on Saturday, 5/23, at 10 pm. Make certain to take it before then. Once gone, the quiz is gone. This deadline is *firm*.
Blackboard will not kick you out after 35 minutes, but you will lose points for every minute over the time limit you use.

4/10/2020 Spring 2020-only Grading Policy Changes. (Thank you, M., for finding the link.)

5/6/2020 Spring 2020 Grading Options - including instructions on how to change your grading options if you want.

4/17/2020 CS 3500 addendum to the campus Spring 2020-only Grading Policy Changes: in Spring 2020 CS 3500, students are free to wait until summertime 2020, after you see what letter grade you earned in CS 3500 and have time to think about it. If you don't like your letter grade and want to change to CR / NC after the semester is over, email me. I'll file the paperwork to change your grade to CR / NC if you ask. (CR for C- or better, NC for the rest.)

4/15/2020 The quiz is a 35 minute quiz. Once started, the quiz cannot be stopped and restarted.
For each question, select the single best answer.
Try to have a stable connection to the internet. Firefox, Safari, or Chrome should be fine.
The quiz will be on-line starting Thursday, 4/16, at 9 pm, and go off-line on Saturday, 4/18, at 10:00 pm. Make certain to take it before then. Once gone, the quiz is gone. This deadline is *firm*.
Blackboard will not kick you out after 35 minutes, but you will lose points for every minute over the time limit you use.

4/10/2020 Spring 2020-only Grading Policy Changes. (Thank you, M., for finding the link.)

4/8/2020 More COVID-19 class changes: The number of Late Days each student has for the semester has been increased. (Late Days may not be used on reading reflections or missed-lecture reflections on videos.)

3/25/2020 COVID-19 class changes:

Participation and attendance "in class" will still be expected, as it has been throughout the semester.

Class sessions will be held via Zoom and other technologies, at the normal scheduled times -- Monday, Wednesday, Friday 10-10:50 am. The week after Spring Break will be lecture/discussions (Zoom link is in the schedule.)

The lectures and chats will be recorded and made available to students in this class for a limited amount of time after the class day. For storage space and for privacy reasons, they will not be available all semester.

At some point during each class period, I will call roll, and all students present will type their own names into the Zoom chat window. This is evidence a student is paying attention on that day.

While the major assignments of the rest of the semester will be significantly different from normal semesters, they will still require students to "talk" with either each other or with me during class time. We will discuss the assignments much more in class.

If a student is not able to 'attend' class on a particular day, and if that day was a lecture day, that student can earn credit for 'attending' by watching the recorded video and reading the chat dialogue of the lecture, and writing a reflection on the class.

The reflection must be completed within 36 hours after the class in question.

The reflection will be posted to our Blackboard discussion forums.

The reflection will have the same components as our reading reflections - summary, interesting / thought-provoking, questions / confusions. The summary must be of the lecture and discussion; your job is to convince me you watched with attention. The summary portion should be a bit longer than would be expected for a reading reflection. (Summarizing the slides will not convince me you watched the lecture.)

A student can submit a reflection instead of attending up to five times over the rest of the semester, with full credit for participation. Past that point, I will be less convinced a student is truly trying to attend class.

Tips for using less bandwidth to "attend" class: Turn off your webcam, mute your audio, reduce the size of the Zoom window.
These plans are experimental, and may be changed if they don't work as hoped.

3/18/2020 "All cell phone comparison" spreadsheet is in this document.

3/17/2020 On 3/17: Partial GOMS analysis. I haven't finished looking at all the results, but here are enough of them to get you thinking. "All cell phone comparison" spreadsheet is in this document.
Remember, since each phone in the collection was analyzed by a different person, the results need to be taken with a grain of salt. Some of the difference between phones is due to the difference between the people performing the analysis, not the phones themselves. But, using this, you can see how your cell phone compares to other cell phones used on our campus.
As we discussed in class, any task analysis that involves no M operators at all is flawed. How does anyone perform a task without using their brain? Our brains are involved in every action we choose to take, so every choice is one more M. Every choice in a task (including picking "Bob" instead of "Xiu Ying" to say hello to), is one more M operation. For this reason, I did not copy student KLM-GOMS results where the M value was 0 into the "all students" spreadsheet.
As we also discussed in class, modern smart phones have such swift CPUs inside them that response times (forcing the user to wait while the machine "thinks") are almost always zero. I opened a bunch of apps on my old Apple tool and the slowest "splash screen" at the start only forced me to wait for approximately 3 seconds before it went away. Also, it is not possible to measure fractions of a second without special equipment, which CS 3500 did not have. So fractional R(t)s must result from flawed measurements.
Use this to inform and enrich your cell phone analysis in Essay 5.

3/16/2020 FYI, if anyone is wondering, I'm not paying attention to attendance/participation this week. Just remember to turn in your homework assignments. I will resume paying attention to (virtual) attendance after Spring Break.

3/13/2020 FYI, I intend to continue to hold office hours physically through the rest of the semester. You may visit, if you wish. Or if you call my office during those times, you should reach me (unless some meeting has required rescheduling of office hours).

3/11/2020 Here is the list of tasks we chose to analyze, with tips to help you complete the assignment.
Here is a spreadsheet with all the tasks we chose filled in in column C for you. The full descriptions of the tasks, which we wrote in class, have been copied off to the right of the "Sanity Check" column.

3/10/2020 "The 5 top tech skills companies want in new hires right now", Fortune magazine, 2020 Feb 6.

3/5/2020 The quiz is a 35 minute quiz. Once started, the quiz cannot be stopped and restarted.
For each question, select the single best answer.
Make certain you have a stable connection to the internet. I recommend using a computer in one of the OIT labs -- all have stable internet connections. Firefox, Safari, or Chrome should be fine.
The quiz will be on-line starting Thursday, 3/5, at 9 pm, and go off-line on Saturday, 3/7, at 10:00 pm. Make certain to take it before then. Once gone, the quiz is gone. This deadline is *firm*.
Blackboard will not kick you out after 35 minutes, but you will lose points for every minute over the time limit you use.

2/28/2020 The chapter on quantitative testing (plus a optional chapter on science vs. engineering testing) is now available on our Blackboard site. It should be under 'Documents & Content'.
Reading reflection deadline will be on class schedule page.

2/26/2020 Since the possibly dangerous intersections of human error and automation came up on class today, and someone did mention Tesla cars, "NTSB: Tesla Autopilot, distracted driver caused fatal crash" from SFgate.com, 2020 Feb 25, may interest you.

2/19/2020 A supplemental chapter on science vs. engineering testing is now available on our Blackboard site. It should be under 'Documents & Content', in a file called ``Science vs. Engineering, Chapter 4.''
This is part of the draft of a book, not the final product, so please do not publicize or share.
Please do contact me as soon as possible if you are unable to view the chapter.
No reading reflection due for the supplemental chapter, but it may help students "brush up" on ideas we use in usability testing.

2/10/2020 For those who wondered at my comments about breaking a leg, at the start of class today, here is the photograph (source unknown) a student showed me. On the left is the view from the top of some stairs, on the right is the view from the ground. Can you identify why this is a poor design?

2/7/2020 Extra credit opportunity - partipate in a (real) web site usability study, for our campus library website re-design:
Mon, Feb 10, 11-1
Wed, Feb 12, 11-1
Fri, Feb 14, 11-1
Go to Library Annex 8. Isabel Vargas is the person to talk to. (Should take approximately 15 minutes.)

1/27/2020 Welcome to CS 3500, Human-Centered Design!

News and Videos:

Heroic Imagination Project, started by Phil Zimbardo et al. We will discuss a (very young) Dr Zimardo and his unexpected learning experience in the Stanford prison experiment. Here is a discussion of his latest venture -- if circumstances can make people act unheroic, can we train people to choose the other route?
"Most Developers Fail to Design Websites Accessible to People With Disabilities" theinstitute: the IEEE news source (21 June 2017)
"Teens React to Windows 95" (Fine Brothers Entertainment, Mar. 6, 2016) -- 2016-era teenagers interact with a 1995-era personal computer
"15 things that shouldn't have been invented" (SFGate.com)
"It's not you. Bad doors are everywhere" (Vox and Joe Posner, Feb. 26, 2016) -- someone gets frustrated enough about doors to go interview Don Norman
"The Forgotten Story of the Original iPhone Released in 1998" (internethistorypodcast.com) -- Many tools take longer to succeed in the market than people realize. It seems there was a touchscreen phone and internet access device for sale (called the iPhone, no kidding!) in 1998.
"The adidas method" The Economist, Aug. 24, 2013. Human-centered design applied to sports (clothing).
On the topic of the growing importance of good design: "Don't Be Ugly," The Economist, March 9, 2013.
On the topic of cell phone design: An engineer's perspective on the design constraints shaping cell phones, courtesy of Engineerguy.com
On the topic of your brain and eyes conflicting over what you see: "Your Guide to Optical Illusions"
On the topic of mistakes and errors leading to good things: "The 15 most fascinating accidental inventions" Christian Science Monitor, Oct 5, 2012.

5/17/2020	As announced in class, Quiz 3 is optional. If your score on Quiz 3 is higher than that on Quiz 1 or 2, I will replace the older quiz score with the Quiz 3 grade. The quiz is a 35 minute quiz. Once started, the quiz cannot be stopped and restarted. For each question, select the single best answer. Try to have a stable connection to the internet. Firefox, Safari, or Chrome should be fine. The quiz will be on-line starting Thursday, 5/21, at 5 pm, and go off-line on Saturday, 5/23, at 10 pm. Make certain to take it before then. Once gone, the quiz is gone. This deadline is firm. Blackboard will not kick you out after 35 minutes, but you will lose points for every minute over the time limit you use.
4/10/2020	Spring 2020-only Grading Policy Changes. (Thank you, M., for finding the link.)
5/6/2020	Spring 2020 Grading Options - including instructions on how to change your grading options if you want.
4/17/2020	CS 3500 addendum to the campus Spring 2020-only Grading Policy Changes: in Spring 2020 CS 3500, students are free to wait until summertime 2020, after you see what letter grade you earned in CS 3500 and have time to think about it. If you don't like your letter grade and want to change to CR / NC after the semester is over, email me. I'll file the paperwork to change your grade to CR / NC if you ask. (CR for C- or better, NC for the rest.)
4/15/2020	The quiz is a 35 minute quiz. Once started, the quiz cannot be stopped and restarted. For each question, select the single best answer. Try to have a stable connection to the internet. Firefox, Safari, or Chrome should be fine. The quiz will be on-line starting Thursday, 4/16, at 9 pm, and go off-line on Saturday, 4/18, at 10:00 pm. Make certain to take it before then. Once gone, the quiz is gone. This deadline is firm. Blackboard will not kick you out after 35 minutes, but you will lose points for every minute over the time limit you use.
4/10/2020	Spring 2020-only Grading Policy Changes. (Thank you, M., for finding the link.)
4/8/2020	More COVID-19 class changes: The number of Late Days each student has for the semester has been increased. (Late Days may not be used on reading reflections or missed-lecture reflections on videos.)
3/25/2020	COVID-19 class changes: Participation and attendance "in class" will still be expected, as it has been throughout the semester. Class sessions will be held via Zoom and other technologies, at the normal scheduled times -- Monday, Wednesday, Friday 10-10:50 am. The week after Spring Break will be lecture/discussions (Zoom link is in the schedule.) The lectures and chats will be recorded and made available to students in this class for a limited amount of time after the class day. For storage space and for privacy reasons, they will not be available all semester. At some point during each class period, I will call roll, and all students present will type their own names into the Zoom chat window. This is evidence a student is paying attention on that day. While the major assignments of the rest of the semester will be significantly different from normal semesters, they will still require students to "talk" with either each other or with me during class time. We will discuss the assignments much more in class. If a student is not able to 'attend' class on a particular day, and if that day was a lecture day, that student can earn credit for 'attending' by watching the recorded video and reading the chat dialogue of the lecture, and writing a reflection on the class. The reflection must be completed within 36 hours after the class in question. The reflection will be posted to our Blackboard discussion forums. The reflection will have the same components as our reading reflections - summary, interesting / thought-provoking, questions / confusions. The summary must be of the lecture and discussion; your job is to convince me you watched with attention. The summary portion should be a bit longer than would be expected for a reading reflection. (Summarizing the slides will not convince me you watched the lecture.) A student can submit a reflection instead of attending up to five times over the rest of the semester, with full credit for participation. Past that point, I will be less convinced a student is truly trying to attend class. Tips for using less bandwidth to "attend" class: Turn off your webcam, mute your audio, reduce the size of the Zoom window. These plans are experimental, and may be changed if they don't work as hoped.
3/18/2020	"All cell phone comparison" spreadsheet is in this document.
3/17/2020	On 3/17: Partial GOMS analysis. I haven't finished looking at all the results, but here are enough of them to get you thinking. "All cell phone comparison" spreadsheet is in this document. Remember, since each phone in the collection was analyzed by a different person, the results need to be taken with a grain of salt. Some of the difference between phones is due to the difference between the people performing the analysis, not the phones themselves. But, using this, you can see how your cell phone compares to other cell phones used on our campus. As we discussed in class, any task analysis that involves no M operators at all is flawed. How does anyone perform a task without using their brain? Our brains are involved in every action we choose to take, so every choice is one more M. Every choice in a task (including picking "Bob" instead of "Xiu Ying" to say hello to), is one more M operation. For this reason, I did not copy student KLM-GOMS results where the M value was 0 into the "all students" spreadsheet. As we also discussed in class, modern smart phones have such swift CPUs inside them that response times (forcing the user to wait while the machine "thinks") are almost always zero. I opened a bunch of apps on my old Apple tool and the slowest "splash screen" at the start only forced me to wait for approximately 3 seconds before it went away. Also, it is not possible to measure fractions of a second without special equipment, which CS 3500 did not have. So fractional R(t)s must result from flawed measurements. Use this to inform and enrich your cell phone analysis in Essay 5.
3/16/2020	FYI, if anyone is wondering, I'm not paying attention to attendance/participation this week. Just remember to turn in your homework assignments. I will resume paying attention to (virtual) attendance after Spring Break.
3/13/2020	FYI, I intend to continue to hold office hours physically through the rest of the semester. You may visit, if you wish. Or if you call my office during those times, you should reach me (unless some meeting has required rescheduling of office hours).
3/11/2020	Here is the list of tasks we chose to analyze, with tips to help you complete the assignment. Here is a spreadsheet with all the tasks we chose filled in in column C for you. The full descriptions of the tasks, which we wrote in class, have been copied off to the right of the "Sanity Check" column.
3/10/2020	"The 5 top tech skills companies want in new hires right now", Fortune magazine, 2020 Feb 6.
3/5/2020	The quiz is a 35 minute quiz. Once started, the quiz cannot be stopped and restarted. For each question, select the single best answer. Make certain you have a stable connection to the internet. I recommend using a computer in one of the OIT labs -- all have stable internet connections. Firefox, Safari, or Chrome should be fine. The quiz will be on-line starting Thursday, 3/5, at 9 pm, and go off-line on Saturday, 3/7, at 10:00 pm. Make certain to take it before then. Once gone, the quiz is gone. This deadline is firm. Blackboard will not kick you out after 35 minutes, but you will lose points for every minute over the time limit you use.
2/28/2020	The chapter on quantitative testing (plus a optional chapter on science vs. engineering testing) is now available on our Blackboard site. It should be under 'Documents & Content'. Reading reflection deadline will be on class schedule page.
2/26/2020	Since the possibly dangerous intersections of human error and automation came up on class today, and someone did mention Tesla cars, "NTSB: Tesla Autopilot, distracted driver caused fatal crash" from SFgate.com, 2020 Feb 25, may interest you.
2/19/2020	A supplemental chapter on science vs. engineering testing is now available on our Blackboard site. It should be under 'Documents & Content', in a file called ``Science vs. Engineering, Chapter 4.'' This is part of the draft of a book, not the final product, so please do not publicize or share. Please do contact me as soon as possible if you are unable to view the chapter. No reading reflection due for the supplemental chapter, but it may help students "brush up" on ideas we use in usability testing.
2/10/2020	For those who wondered at my comments about breaking a leg, at the start of class today, here is the photograph (source unknown) a student showed me. On the left is the view from the top of some stairs, on the right is the view from the ground. Can you identify why this is a poor design?
2/7/2020	Extra credit opportunity - partipate in a (real) web site usability study, for our campus library website re-design: Mon, Feb 10, 11-1 Wed, Feb 12, 11-1 Fri, Feb 14, 11-1 Go to Library Annex 8. Isabel Vargas is the person to talk to. (Should take approximately 15 minutes.)
1/27/2020	Welcome to CS 3500, Human-Centered Design!