Notes from 51st International STC Conference
Baltimore, Maryland, May 9-12, 2004

Keynote Address

Ben Scheiderman

Ben Schneiderman is a professor of computer science at the University of Maryland at College Park and founding director of UM's Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory. He authored "Leonardo's Laptop: Human Needs and the New Computer Technologies" (MIT Press, 2002), which received the 2003 Book Award of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and "Designing the User Interface: Strategies for Effective Human-Computer Interaction" (Addison Wesley Longman, 4th ed., 2004).

Session Description: Computer science professor and author Ben Schneiderman kicked off the 51st conference with an intriguing keynote that drew upon Leonard DaVinci to establish a paradigm for what he calls "the new computing" – a schema that calls for more usability, more universality, and more usefulness.

• Scientific approach
   
• Specify users and tasks
• Predict and measure
• Design issues
   
• Input devices and strategies
• Output devices and formats
• Collaboration and communities
• Manuals, tutorials
• Library of Congress
   
• Scholars, journalists, citizens
• Teachers, students
• NSF digital government initiative
   
• Find what you need
• Understand what you find
• Information visualization ... The eye, the window of the soul, is the principal means by which the central sense can most completely and abundantly appreciate the infinite works of nature.
• Treemap … market map. Color shows up and down (green, red); sector is shown via grid
   
• Treemap – product catalogues
• Treemap – monitoring diverse measurements
• Treemap – gene ontology
• Leonardo's Laptop: central thesis
   
• "The old computing is about what computers can do."
• "The new computing is about what people can do."
  
  
• Leonardo DaVinci
   
• Renaissance Man
• Combined science and art: integrated scientific outlook, practical technology, and artistic skill
• Integrated engineering and aesthetics
• Balanced technology advances and human values
• Merged visionary and practical
• Remarkable drawing skill
• Mona Lisa was not only great art, but also represented several disciplines
  
  
• Lady with Ermine and Leda with Swan were also landmark works spanning several disciplines
• Faces of Old Men ... another classic
• DaVinci did over 13,000 sketches: faces, anatomy, mechanical inventions (machine gun, giant crossbow)
• Goals for the new computing
   
• Usable: reliable and comprehensible
• Universal: diverse users and varied equipment
• Useful: in harmony with human needs
• Usable: ending user frustration
   
• Goal – make computer usage less frustrating
• Identify top ten frustrations
• Measure severity and frequency in lost time
• Determine if the situation is improving
• Related areas
• Errors
• Time delays
• Emotional reactions
• Time diary study: students did self-reports and observations, recording what problems they had, how much time it took to recover, etc.
• Minutes lost by 111 subjects totaled 46% of their time
• Conclusion is that there is substantial room for improvement in computer usability
• Universal: the digital divide remains troubling
   
• User diversity includes different skills, knowledge, age, gender, disabilities, and disabling conditions
• Diverse users and varied equipment
• Diversity also includes high-education vs low education, urban vs rural, youth vs age (big difference in percentage of internet use)
• Technology variety is another issue
• Gaps in user knowledge are pertinent as well
• Universal usability in practice: www.otal.umd.edu/uupractice
• Narrated recordings: short Flash demos with spoken explanation explain how to do typical tasks, tell users what they need to do, and show the interface in action ... then users do what they saw
• Verbal Help may not be adequate for GUI media; may need graphic Help as well
• One-minute animation walks users through a typical treemap ... screen pop-ups reinforce the narration. Such segments need to be very short (in this case, 1 minute). Users lose patients if such elements run several minutes or longer. Used Fantasia and Flash to show screen displays. (RoboHelp has a product that does automatic screen captures as well.)
• Videos are not as good as screen captures ... more challenging to do, more costly, greater file size.
• Useful: generative theories
   
• Beneficial theories
• Descriptive
• Explanatory
• Predictive
• Prescriptive
• But the big step forward will be generative theories to guide our invention of new technologies
• Theories of human needs
   
• Jefferson: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness
• Roosevelt: freedom of speech and expression, religion, from want, from fear
• Maslow: hierarchy (physiological, safety, love, esteem, self-actualization)
• Covey: living, loving, learning, and leaving a legacy
• Relationships
   
• Self: working on your own
• Family and friends: 2-50 close intimates
• Colleagues and neighbors: 50-5000 acquaintances
• Citizens and markets: 5000 and more
• As you ascend up this scale, closeness of communication and level of trust decrease
• Activities
   
• Collect: information
• Relation: communication
• Create: innovation
• Donate: dissemination
• Activities and relationship table (ART)
   
• Top axis: Activities (collect, relate, create, donate)
• Relationships: self, family and friends, colleagues and neighbors, citizenry and markets
• Skeptics corner: Each chapter had one, listing likely objections to the content of the chapter (proactive authoring approach!)
• In his book, the author filled out the 16-cell matrix for various communication products(e.g., photos), ranging from family scrapbooks to digital photo files to vast online photo databases accessible via web.
• Future directions
   
• E-learning: the new education
• E-business: the new commerce
• E-healthcare: the new medicine
• E-government: the new politics
• Mega-creativity
• Grander goals and the Next Leonardo