Human Computer Interaction

Term Project Assignment Specification

I. Introduction
The aim of HCI is to make systems that are easier to use, so that people can achieve
their goals faster, with less mistakes and greater satisfaction. HCI is more than just
designing a pretty interface: it dictates how a system reacts to what, and how
information is obtained from and presented to the user. HCI is therefore about
interaction as well as interface, and hence cannot be stuck on as a last minute thought.
A superb interface may help cover up the cracks in a poor system, but if the underlying
interaction is not well thought-out, the system will fail.
II. Problem Statement
You have to choose one project from the following area:
1. New paradigms in HCI
2. Affective detection and recognition
3. Smart interfaces
4. E-commerce
5. Human motion tracking
6. Gesture recognition
7. Multimodal event detection and recognition
8. Human motion and gesture recognition
9. HCI issues in image/video retrieval
10. Learning in HCI
11. Input and interaction techniques
12. Intelligent Virtual Environments
13. Multilingual website for a literary society
You have to follow the below defined HCI-Oriented Design Lifecycle and produce
appropriate deliverables and a prototype. The prototype interface should be for a robust
Computer Application Interface for the above tasks that shall be placed before the
users. The key users of the system shall be the users and other users for evaluation
and for the purpose of buying. In solving the above problem statement, following issues
need to be addressed:
1. Identify Stakeholders and obtain user ideas about the proposed system
First identify the stakeholders involved; this is to be documented in the report.
Next discuss the system with the prospective users/customers. Compare it to an
existing one, if there is one, and identify the weaknesses and strengths of the existing
system.
2. Identify various tasks involved
Using the hierarchical task analysis technique to identify various tasks involved, if a task
analysis document of a prior developed system is available then rethink over the old
design and make appropriate changes (if possible), which can accumulate the new
design requirements.
3. Allocate function to Tasks
After producing the task analysis document, allocate functions to the tasks, these
functions should be either Human (H) or Computer (C) oriented or both (H-C).
4. Recording of design decisions
Interaction design and interface design is about how the system responds to things,
how and what information is presented and entered. It ties in to architectural design and
detailed design, all this information and decisions have to be recorded using the design
rationale technique.
5. Conforming the design
Produce a Navigation and Dialogue Model to check that designers ideas meet
customers requirements, and to try out novel concepts to see if they work, and so on.
6. Implementation
Select a prototyping approach and using any visual language, prepare a prototype, but
you have to keep in mind that a prototype incorporates user requirements (what the
user wants it to do: enter this, display that). May also include initial attempts at
architectural design (how the system will provide the services).
7. Evaluate
Prototypes are near-working systems, in alpha or beta release they should be carefully
evaluated to see if they meet the client requirements and are easy, intuitive and
sensible to use. It is often the case that prospective users are very different to the actual
designers and so find certain things particularly difficult with the current system, and the
aim of evaluating the system at this stage is to catch these errors. Keeping this thought
in mind evaluate your prototype using evaluation techniques taught.
III. Deliverables
Following are the deliverables based on this coursework.
1. Report should cover the following headings: Abstract, Introduction, and
Related Work, Conclusion and References
2. Report covering following elements emanating from the above mentioned issues (1 to
7), particularly covering in following sections:
a. Task Context, including stakeholder analysis and task analysis
b. Navigation / Dialogue
c. Detailed Interface Design, including cognitive issues
d. Usability Evaluation, including criteria, metrics and plans
3. Functional Prototype with a Demo in Visual language
4. Evidences of users
IV. Evaluation
The assignment accounts for 10% weightage towards your final grade. The assignment
shall be graded based on performances in following phases:
I. Presentation and Demo of the Prototype
II. Report
III. Answering Questions in Viva-Voce
IV. Following Deadlines
The assignment is to be submitted as a group work not exceeding more than 4
members. The whole group is responsible for the work addressed in the evaluation of (i)
and (ii) above. However, questions in viva shall be answered individually. Further, the
report should clearly indicate the individual members key contribution in deliverables 1
and 2 from Section III above.
V. Deadlines
Deadlines should be strictly followed. If you miss a deadline, 10% penalty / day
on the weight age of the deliverable shall be applicable.
Deadlines will be announced accordingly through Slate.
V. More Details
For any query, Zaeem Nazir (Zaeem.nazir@gmail.com)