Microblog #17, "HCI Remixed, Chapters 6,7,9,10,46,47"

6
Summary
This is a history chapter, in which Henry Lieberman, of the MIT media lab,  discusses D.C. Smith's early GUI known as Pygmalion. The author credits it with being a predecessor of the modern file system and with the first computer program to make use of icons and "drag-and-drop".

Discussion
It's always interesting to see what kinds of out of the way places history comes from. I certainly hope I'm never in a situation where I have to explain what an icon is.

7
Summary
In this chapter, Sara Bly discusses the "Red Book" instruction manual for the Xerox Star office workstation. The Star was the first of the kind, and pioneered such features as selection and execution being independent.

Discussion
Turns out the function keys are named what they are because that was what Xerox thought would be straightforward of office workers of the 80s. Who would have thought?

9
Summary
Norbert Streitz of Fraunhofer IPSI in Darmstadt, Germany discusses Mark Weiser's 1991 paper "The Computer for the 21st Century". This is a chapter with a little bit of several different subjects. Dr. Weiser, the paper, the author, the "Disappearing Computer" (the topic of the 1991 paper), and how predictive it was are all touched on, but none in extreme detail.

Discussion
I think Human-Information-Interaction is a term that's going to stick with me. That was what got me the most about this chapter.

10
Summary
Anind Dey of Carnegie Mellon University discusses how the "Active Badge Location System" grew into the modern field of location based systems (GPS, Google Maps, and the like). The chapter includes a brief description of features, and a summary of an experiment where all thirty-two employees at Olivetti Research wore the badges. Apparently they like 'em so much they kept using the system afterward.

Discussion
Maybe I'm a throwback, but I don't like the idea of my computers knowing where I am all the time. As long as I have the option to turn it off, it's a convenience. After that, it's tyranny.

46
Summary
Kate Erlich of IBM research discusses how user interfaces can be approved by attempting to sync them up with a users mental model. She then outlines GOMS (Goals, Operators, Methods, Selectional rules), an attempted framework for doing so.

Discusses
This chapter caught my attention because of the obvious connection to what we've discussed in Norman's books about mental models. I obviously cannot speak to the efficacy of the model proposed, but just the idea of trying to make the mental model transparent is valuable, I think.

47
Summary
Gary Olsen of the University of Michigan discusses how Fitt's law can be applied to HCI. I'm not going to type the equation out in this ugly format, but in principle the law states that bigger targets can be hit more efficiently. Olsen talks about extrapolating this to icons, with points including that the edge of the screen is of infinite size so edge and corner icons are good, and that dynamic sizing can be used effectively.

Discussion
An angle I hadn't considered (so, I guess he's right that it isn't intuitive!). I think the importance of this one relative to the others may be a little overstated...I think an experienced user should be able to hit a relatively small "target" quickly and reliably.