Papers after the midterm

While I highly recommend all the papers as really good reading you all probably want me to get the point and tell you what I might potentially test you on. The testable material includes the stuff below and any other material in the paper that overlaps with lecture material.  That is, just like with the midterm I won't ask a final exam question about material in a paper that is not mentioned below - except when it this material was already covered in lecture..

First section: Beyond Screen Design

    1) Designing the user interface (Chapter 15): Information Search and Visualization

   Read the parts that talk about the systems that I covered in lecture (FilmFinder, Document Lens, Perspective Wall, HomeFinder, Table Lens, Cone Trees/Cam-trees, the Hyperbolic Tree) as well as the Information Visualization Mantra (overview first, zoom and filter, details on demand).

Second section: Graphical Screen Design

    1) Principles of Effective Visual Communication for GUI design

    Most of the lecture notes are based on this paper and the book by Mullet & Sano.  I won't require that you read the book but you should read and have an understanding of the material in the paper (especially the stuff that overlaps closely with the lecture slides).

Third section: Usability Heuristics

    1) Chapter 5: Usability heuristics. In Usability Engineering

   This is an important paper to read, it expands upon the material that I will cover in lecture.  Don't worry about the stuff on pages 157 - 163 although I highly recommend that you do the heuristic evaluation of the system on page 274 without first looking at the answers.  It is a good way to test if truly understand how to apply the Heuristics laid out by Nielsen.

Fourth section: Psychology of Everyday Things   

   1) Norman, D. A. (1988) The Design of Everyday Things, Basic Books. Excerpt pp. 5-22. 

   I won't specificially test you on concepts in this paper that I don't cover in the exam.  But I still recommend that you read it because it will help to illustrate some of the points that I make and it is very informative.  Plus it's fairly short and well-written.