Announcements

27 Apr 2004   Final grades now available. To view, log on to Ariel and issue the command courseInfo 6390C.

Final papers and exams may be picked up at my office. Sorry, but I can't guarantee a specific time to pick them up, as I'm in and out of the office quite a bit. Just drop by when convenient. Thanks.

26 Mar 2004   Slides for the topic "Evaluation of Two Three-Key Text Entry Techniques" now posted.
26 Mar 2004   Slides for the topic "Language Modeling" now posted.
24 Mar 2004   We now have a room booked for the final exam. See below.
17 Mar 2004   The following dates were discussed and agreed to in class today:

Item Date/Time
Final Exam Wednesday, April 7, 8:30-10:00, Room: CSB 2002
Research Report Wednesday, April 21
12 Mar 2004   Papers to read, re language modeling:

Silfverberg, M., MacKenzie, I. S., & Korhonen, P. (2000). Predicting text entry speeds on mobile phones. Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - CHI 2000, pp. 9-16. New York: ACM.

MacKenzie, I. S., Kober, H., Smith, D., Jones, T., & Skepner, E. (2001). LetterWise: Prefix-based disambiguation for mobile text input. Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology - UIST 2001, pp. 111-120. New York: ACM.

MacKenzie, I. S. (2002). KSPC (keystrokes per character) as a characteristic of text entry techniques. Proceedings of the Fourth International Symposium on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices, pp. 195-210. Heidelberg, Germany: Springer-Verlag.

MacKenzie, I. S., & Soukoreff, R. W. (2003). Phrase sets for evaluating text entry techniques. Extended Abstracts of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - CHI 2003, pp. 754-755 New York: ACM.

MacKenzie, I. S. (2002). Mobile text entry using three keys. Proceedings of the Second Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction - NordiCHI 2002, 27-34. New York: ACM.

8 Mar 2004   Slides from today ("Fitts' Law") now posted.
25 Feb 2004   A few people have asked me about the expectations for the draft research paper. Here they are.

Begin by making a copy of the template file, and giving the new file an appropriate name. The template file is the standard for "CHI" submissions. CHI is the ACM's annual conference in human-computer interaction, and CHI publications are the most coveted in the field. Please read the information in the template file, and prepare your research paper in accordance with the stated requirements. The draft research paper should include the following sections, as in the template file: title, name and affiliation, keywords, introduction, and references. (The sections to be added later include the method, results and discussion, and conclusions.) Do not include an abstract, as this is normally written after the other parts of a research paper are finished.

The main part is the introduction. The introcution should begin with broadly-placed background information on the topic, followed by specific, more narrowly focused details on the topic. This amounts to a "lit review" -- a discussion on prior research relevant to the topic. Use sub-sections, as appropriate. Try to organize the discussion such that the current state of the art is reviewed, followed by the identification of a research topic. The problem should be clearly stated, and you should indicate what your approach to solving or investigating the problem will be.

The topic is up to you. Be original. Remember, this is your research project, not mine. Please, nothing on soft keyboards! We've already done that.

For the reference section, include at least five published papers. Please, no web postings. The papers appearing in the reference section should be cited in the introduction, as in the template. The references should be correctly formatted, as in the template.

Re length, aim for 3-5 formatted pages. Please hand in the draft research paper in hardcopy on March 8.

23 Feb 2004   The template file for your research paper is now available under "Downloads". Also, please note that the due date for the draft research paper is two weeks from today: Monday, March 8.
4 Feb 2004   Two things...
  1. It's official. The exam will be next Wednesday. As for the format of the exam, it will consist of short questions and answers. The questions will be drawn from the slides and readings for the course.
  2. Slides from today ("Writing a Research Paper") now posted.
4 Feb 2004   I'd like to have the mid-term exam next Wednesday, Feb 11. Let's discuss this in class today.
27 Jan 2004   Files pertaining to our simple experiment yesterday have been posted under "Downloads". These include (b) a .doc file presenting the procedure, (b) a .xls file containing the summary stats and anova tables, and (c) a .pdf file containing a research paper describing the experiment and the results. Please review these before next Monday's class. In particular, please read the research paper. The paper has not been updated, as per the stats from yesterday; however, the results are the same, re the statistical significance of the effects, etc. Remember, no class tomorrow (Wed, Jan 28).
26 Jan 2004   Slides from today ("Statistical Models of Human Performance") now posted.
26 Jan 2004   Please note: There will be no class on Wednesday (Jan 28). I have an appointment for personal matters that, unfortunately, cannot be changed.
21 Jan 2004   Slides from today ("Models of Interaction") now posted.
19 Jan 2004     Slides from today ("Terminology") now posted.
14 Jan 2004     Slides from today now posted. This is an update from the verion posted earlier.
7 Jan 2004     Slides from today now posted. Click "Downloads" for details. I only got to slide #22 today. The slides following that may change before our next meeting.
5 Jan 2004     For Jan 12, read Motor behaviour models for human-computer interaction.
4 Dec 2003     Course web page is now under construction.