Stanford University

Communication 169/269

Computer Science 377X

STS 162/262

Sociology 133/233

Symbolic Systems 169/269

Computers and Interfaces: Psychological and Social Issues

Winter, 2003-2004

Monday and Wednesday, 11:00AM - 12:15PM

Building 420 (Psychology), Room 041

Section TBA

Instructor

Professor Clifford Nass (Instructor)

300E McClatchy Hall

Telephone: 723-5499

E-Mail: nass@stanford.edu

Appointments: Joan Ferguson (jcandm@stanford.edu; 650-725-9472)

Teaching Assistants

Isabel Awad (iawad@stanford.edu)

John Hu (huj@stanford.edu)

Jane Wang (wangqy@stanford.edu)

Website

http://coursework.stanford.edu

Overview

This course explores the relationship between (computer-based) interfaces and human attitudes and behaviors. There are two organizing questions for the course:

(1) How do aspects of interfaces affect and interact with the social psychology and culture of individuals and groups?

(2) How should the answers to question (1) influence interface design?

The goal of the course is to provide tools for answering these questions, rather than simply answering them. You can think of the course as built around three types of activities:

a) Consuming. The readings and lectures will present you with theories of interfaces from both social science and design perspectives. We will often read authors who strenuously disagree with each other. Instead of focusing on who’s right and who’s wrong (although that’s certainly not irrelevant), we will be concerned with the theoretical and/or empirical methods by which they reached their conclusions. This part of the course is designed to give you a set of ideas with which to analyze and create. Your skills in this area will be assessed via the midterm, final, and section (and secondarily by the projects).

b) Analyzing. An excellent way to reinforce an understanding of a theory is to apply it rigorously. In class lectures and in the exams, you will be asked to apply what you consumed to interfaces. That is, you will be asked to critique interfaces (drawn from past, present, and future products), from the variety of perspectives presented in readings, lectures, and section. The goal here is to exercise general ideas by analyzing how they play out in real interfaces drawn from PC-based software, the Web, voice portals, handheld devices, etc.. Your skills in this area will be assessed via the midterm, final, and section (and secondarily by the projects).

c) Creating. It’s easier to criticize than to do. It’s also easier to work along than to work in a group. If you really understand interfaces and people, you should be able to create an interface as part of a small group. Hence, the third type of activity in the course will be a (three-person) group project in which you will be asked to create a storyboard for a new product or service and provide arguments that explain why your design is wonderful! The emphasis here is on creativity, ingenuity, and playfulness, constrained by meeting the needs of your target user. Because the most interesting and educational design projects are those that involve users that are different from you, and because there is tremendous demand and need for information technology and services for the developing world, the design projects will focus on developing countries. Your projects will be presented at a “Big Idea Festival” which will be attended by approximately 150 venture capitalists, government officials, industrial representatives, government representatives, faculty, etc., as well as your fellow students. There will be opportunities to make your projects a reality for developing countries via a number of different opportunities which I’ll discuss in class. Your skills in creating interfaces will be assessed via the projects (and secondarily by the midterm, final, and section).

Requirements

1. Take-home midterm

2. Take-home final examination

3. Design project (storyboard and supporting document)

4. Section participation (may not be required or available for graduate students)

5. Participation as experimental participants (an on-line questionnaire as well as a maximum of eight hours total across the ten weeks)

Attendance at lectures is not required, but it is essential for passing the course: The lectures introduce a great deal of material that is not covered in the readings.

Required Books

Hofstadter, D. R. & Dennett, D. C. (1981). The mind's I. New York: Bantam Books.

Nass, C. (2000). Computers and interfaces: Reading packet.

Reeves, B. & Nass, C. (1996). The media equation: How people treat computers, television, and new media like real people and places. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Stork, D. (Ed.) (1997). HAL's legacy: 2001's computer as dream and reality. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Coursework Website

It is very important that you register for the course in Axess IMMEDIATELY (you can certainly drop the course later). Once you register, you will have access to

http://coursework.stanford.edu

which is where I post all of the lecture outlines, the take-home midterm and final, readings that didn’t get into the reading packet, class emails, etc.. Also, the class email lists are all generated through coursework via Axess..

Sections

All students must sign up for a section via Coursework. Section grades will be based on attendance and quality of participation.

Because the projects will be based in section, you MUST sign up for the same section as your project partners (you will have two partners). If you do not choose a partner(s), we will be happy to create a group out of your section. You should not be afraid of this: Students who were randomly assigned partners did better on average than students who chose partners (although there certainly was variance), which is consistent with the research literature.

Support of Research

All students will be required to provide up to ten hours of activities in support of research (it will likely be much less). In most cases, this will involve being an experimental participant in experiments studying interface psychology and design. I have found this participation to be a consistently valuable way to learn about another aspect of interface research. Indeed, many students have gotten so excited about experimental research on interfaces that they have pursued research projects in this area (a wonderful thing!).

If some students are unable or unwilling to do experiments for any of a host of reasons (e.g., consistent scheduling conflicts, ethical objections to participating in experiments, individual characteristics that make one inappropriate for particular experiments, etc.), I will work out a mechanism to meet their requirement in a different way (e.g., running subjects, coding data, etc.).

Design Project and Big Idea Festival

For the past three years, we have required a group design project. To say the least, they have been an incredible hit! Many students said that it was their best experience at Stanford, and 95% of the students had positive feelings about the projects.

Every year, we make improvements based on what we’ve learned from years past. First, we have already set the date for the Big Idea Festival (April 14) so that students and guests can plan well in advance. Second, we will have a more effective mechanism for students to follow up with the influential people they meet at the Festival. Finally, we will provide richer access to experts in developing countries.

Key Dates

Friday, January 12 to Monday, January 15 - Section signups

Thursday, January 15 - Section assignments

Tuesday, January 20 - Sections begin

Wednesday, February 11 -- Midterm will be posted on the Web

Wednesday, February 18 -- Midterm due at 11 AM

Thursday, March 4 -- Design projects due

Wednesday, March 10 -- Final exam will be posted on the Web

Thursday, March 11 -- Class Festival (probably 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM)

Thursday, March 18 -- Final due at 11:30 A.M.

Wednesday, April 14 - Big Idea Festival from 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM

Grading

Some students best demonstrate their understanding of course material through exams; others, through projects. In recognition of this, we use two different formulas to calculate your grade (see below) and assign you the higher grade.

Grading Formula 1

Aspect of Course Weight

Final Exam 40%

Midterm 20%

Design Project 25%

Sections (including experiment participation) 15%

Grading Formula 2

Aspect of Course Weight

Final Exam 25%

Midterm 15%

Design Project 40%

Sections (including experiment participation) 20%

Detailed Readings and Lecture List

1. Introduction to the Course (Wednesday, January 7)

No Readings

2. Basics of Interfaces (Monday, January 12)

Johnson, S. (1999). Interface culture: How new technology transforms the way we create and communicate. San Francisco: HarperEdge. Pp. 1-26.

Norman, D. A. (1988). The design of everyday things. New York: Doubleday. Chapter 1.

Parker, I. (2001, May 28). Absolute PowerPoint. The New Yorker, 76, 78-80, 85-87.

3. Accelerating the Achievement of Shared Global Prosperity: Modalities of Personal Engagements (Wednesday, January 14)

Estes, R. J. (1998). Developmental social work: A new paradigm for a new century.

Farmer, P. (2003). Pathologies of power: Health, human rights, and the new war on the poor. Berkeley CA: University of California Press. Chapter 5.

United Nations. (September, 2000). Millennium development goals incorporated in the millennium declaration." Declaration unanimously adopted by the members of the United Nations.

Recommended Readings

Nisbet, R. (2003) The geography of thought: How Asians and Westerners think differently … and Why. New York: Free Press.

Srinivasan, R. (2002). Village voice: Expressing narrative through community-designed
ontologies. MS thesis, MIT.

Weisman, A. (1999). Gaviotas: A village to reinvent the world. South Burlington, VT: Chelsea Green.

4. Martin Luther King Day – No Class (Monday, January 19)

5. Virtual Communities (Wednesday, January 21)

Tetzlaff, David. (2000). “Yo-ho-ho and a server of warez: Internet software piracy and the new global information economy.” Pp. 99-126 in Herman and Swiss (Eds.), The world-wide web and contemporary cultural theory. New York and London: Routledge.

John Perry Barlow (March, 1994). The economy of ideas: a framework for rethinking patents and copyrights in the digital age (everything you know about intellectual copyright is wrong). Wired 2.03, 84-90, 126-129.

Lawrence Lessig. (2000). Code. New York: Basic Books. Pp. 122-141.

6. Virtual Reality (Monday, January 26)

Bailenson, J. N., Beall, A. C., Loomis, J., Blascovich, J., & Turk, M. (in press). Transformed social interaction: Decoupling representation from behavior and form in collaborative virtual environments. PRESENCE: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments.

Brooks, Jr., F.P. (1999) What’s real about virtual reality? IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, 16-27.

7. Fundamentals of Technology Research (Wednesday, January 28)

Proctor, R.W. & Vu, K.L. (2003) Human information processing: An overview for human-computer interaction. Pp. 35-51 in J. Jacko & A. Sears (Eds.), Handbook of human-computer interaction. New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Nass, C. I. & Mason, L. (1990). On the study of technology and task: A variable-based approach. Pp. 46-67 in J. Fulk & C. Steinfeld (Eds.), Organization and communication technology. Newbury Park: Sage.

Recommended Reading

Steuer, J.S. (1992). Defining virtual reality: Dimensions determining telepresence. Journal of Communication, 42(4), 73-93.

8. Computers as Humans (Monday, February 2)

Turing, A. (1981). Computing machinery and intelligence. In Hofstadter, D. R. & Dennett, D. C. (1981). The mind's I (pp. 53-68). New York: Bantam Books.

Hofstadter, D. (1981). The Turing Test: A coffeehouse conversation. In Hofstadter, D. R. & Dennett, D. C. (1981). The mind's I (pp. 69-95). New York: Bantam Books.

Searle, J. R. (1981). Minds, brains, and programs. In Hofstadter, D. R. & Dennett, D. C. (1981). The mind's I (pp. 353-373). New York: Bantam Books.

9. Social Responses to Communication Technology I (Wednesday, February 4)

Reeves, B. & Nass, C. (1996). The media equation: How people treat computers, television, and new media like real people and places. New York: Cambridge University Press. Chapters 1, 2, and 7.

Nass, C. (in press). Etiquette equality: Exhibitions and expectations of computer politeness. Communications of the ACM.

10. Social Responses to Communication Technology II (Monday, February 9)

Reeves, B. & Nass, C. (1996). The media equation: How people treat computers, television, and new media like real people and places. New York: Cambridge University Press. Chapters 12, 13, 14.

11. Voice in Interfaces (Wednesday, February 11)

Olive, J. P. (1997). "The talking computer": Text to speech synthesis. In D. Stork (ed.), HAL's legacy: 2001's computer as dream and reality (pp. 101-130). Cambridge, MA: MIT. Chap. 6.

Kurzweil, R . (1997). When will HAL understand what we are saying? Computer speech recognition and understanding. In D. Stork (ed.), HAL's legacy: 2001's computer as dream and reality (pp. 131-170). Cambridge, MA: MIT. Chap. 7.

Nass, C. & Gong, L. (2000). Social aspects of speech interfaces from an evolutionary perspective: Experimental research and design implications. Communications of the ACM.

12. Presidents’ Day – No Class (Monday, February 16)

13. Computers and Language (Wednesday, February 18)

Clark, H. (1996). Using language. New York: Cambridge University Press. Chap. 1.

Cassell, J. (2002). Nudge nudge wink wink: Elements of face-to-face conversation for embodied conversational agents. In J. Cassells, J. Sullivan, S. Prevost, & E. Churchill (Eds.), Embodied conversational agents (pp. 1-27). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

14. Computers and Other Human Abilities (Monday, February 23)

Brave, S. & Nass, C. (2002). Emotion in human-computer interaction. Pp. 251-271 in J. Jacko & A. Sears (Eds.), Handbook of human-computer interaction. New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Rosenfeld, A. (1997). Eyes for computers: How could HAL "see". In D. Stork (ed.), HAL's legacy: 2001's computer as dream and reality (pp. 211-236). Cambridge, MA: MIT. Chap. 10.

15. Computers and Agents (Wednesday, February 25)

Johnson, S. (1999). Interface culture: How new technology transforms the way we create and communicate. San Francisco: HarperEdge. Pp. 173-205.

Jameson, A. (2002). Adaptive interfaces and agents. Pp. 305-330 in J. Jacko & A. Sears (Eds.), Handbook of human-computer interaction. New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Lyttinen, K & Yoo, Y. (Eds). (2002). Issues and challenges in ubiquitous computing (special section). Communication of the ACM, 45(12), 63-65, 67-96.

16. Computers and Identity (Monday, March 1)

Borges, J. L. (1962). Pierre Menaud, author of the Quixote. D. A. Yates & J. E. Irby (Eds.), Labyrinths (2nd ed.) (pp. 36-44). New York: New Directions.

Dennett, D. (1981). Where am I? In Hofstadter, D. R. & Dennett, D. C. (1981). The mind's I (pp. 217-231). New York: Bantam Books.

Dennett, D. C. (1997). When HAL kills, who's to blame? Computer ethics. In D. Stork (ed.), HAL's legacy: 2001's computer as dream and reality (pp. 351-366). Cambridge, MA: MIT. Chap. 16.

17. Humans as Computers (Wednesday, March 3)

Bolter, J. D. (1984). Turing's man: Western culture in the computer age. Chapel Hill: U. of North Carolina Press. pp. 3-14; 24-32; 37-42.

Turkle, S. (1984). The second self: Computers and the human spirit. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Pp. 11-25.

18. General Models of Technological Effects (Monday, March 8)

Required Readings

Fisher, C. S. (1985). Studying technology and social life. In M. Castells (Ed.), Technology, space, and society: Emerging trends. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

Winner, L. (1977). Autonomous technology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Pp. 306-335.

Shapiro, C. & Varian, H.R. (1999). Information rules: A strategic guide to the network economy. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press. Pp. 1-18, 83-102.

19. Tying It All Together (Wednesday, March 10)

No Required Readings