Human-Computer Interfaces: Software Ergonomics and Usability

Institut Supérieur d'Électronique de Paris
Supélec Training Course (Gif-sur-Yvette)
Thomson University (Jouy-en-Josas)
Dr. Jean-François Nogier

Objectives:

At the conclusion of this course, students will know:

• Main principles of software ergonomics,
• How to design and evaluate a human-computer interface,
• The user-centered process for software development,
• State of art Human-Computer Interface Research.

Topics:

Operational human-computer interfaces - The user's point of view - Cognitive aspects of human-computer interaction:model of human processor, task model, theory of action - Ergonomic criteria - Human-computer interface design: input/output devices, dialogue structure, multi-windowing, navigation,response time, error handling, on-line help, screen layout, colors, getting attention techniques, icons, characters fonts, language, dialog styles, menus, forms, functions keys, direct manipulation, combinating dialogues styles - Usability engineering: usability evaluation, usability test, task analysis,working context analysis, style guide, user manual, prototyping, after-sales -Human-computer interfaces research: virtual reality, natural language,multimodal interfaces, pie menus, marked menus, gesture, see-through interfaces, transparency, focus+context, access to large databases, cognitive approach -Conclusion - Commented bibliography.

Projects:

Different types of projects will be conducted by the students:

• Evaluating an existing user interface on the basis of ergonomic criteriaand designing a new user interface resolving the identified usability problems,
• Implementing a user interface prototype and conducting a usability test,
• Designing a user interface starting from system functional specifications.

Suggested readings:

• C. Bastien &. D. Scapin, Ergonomic criteria for evaluating user interfaces, Technical report 156, INRIA Rocquencourt (1993)
• D.J. Mayhew, Principles and guidelines in software user interface design, Prentice-Hall (1992)
• J. Nielsen, Usability Engineering, Academic Press (1993)
• B. Shneiderman, Designing the User Interface, Addison-Wesley (1992)

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