Fitts' Law (correct spelling = +bonus points)

A + B log(1 + D/W)...and the heavens trembled. 

Fitts' Law is basically about how long it takes a user to use a device. So Fitts came up with this crazy equation that we still use today that helps us to design effective programs and devices that cause minimal time to the user.  Yay!

Usability considered Harmful (some of the time)

This paper is basically about the thought that usability evaluation is harmful because it can give meaningless or trivial results that can hamper the design direction. And they say the evaluation methodology should be appropriate for the actual problem. 

This paper seems like it has good advice for the purposes of making things that conquer a problem. But it seems strange that no one thought of this before because it seems like a real no-brainer to have a design that is appropriate for the problem.

Human centered design considered harmful

Another Don Norman foray into design principles...This paper is about how he thinks that design works better when there is activity involved with it and how people adapt to technology.  But overall he thinks that when design focusing on the activity involved will bring about the most benefits.

I think this is probalbly true. And my example of course is going to be the Wii. The Wii involves more activity than any of the other video game consoles and as such seems to be selling more than all the other consoles combined. People seem to like this idea of actually doing something with their body that reflects on the television screnn more than just pressing a button and it happening. This especially seems to affect people who were never reall into video games and it brings in a new market of users.

Ethnography considered harmful

This paper is about how these guys think ethnographies are this angelic gift that should not be tainted by trying to do them in a new way. They want it to be kept to traditional practices. 

As far as this paper talking about how how ethnographies need to be done the way they have always been done, sure...okay. But the people who wrote this paper need to stop writing papers or get someone who knows how to write papers to write one for them because they suck at it. Maybe then it will actually seem like it is written in english.

CHI '09 Urban Pixels: Painting the City with light

Ben

Nick

Patrick S

In this paper the guys were trying to make a new form of urban art that was interactive. The display they came up with is called Urban Pixels and it is basically a bunch of balls with white lights inside that can be placed on any surface and that can also communicate to each other and have a wireless network so they can be accessed from a laptop. You can also interact with the pixels by using a flashlight and shining it on them to turn each on individually or use a mobile phone to send a signal to them.

Overall i thought this paper was pretty interesting and it seems like the idea is cool. Since they are dealing with just low resolution arrays of these pixels you cant really make any patterns that are very detailed and that is kind of a downer.

Uist 07: Multi user interaction using handheld projectors

Ben

Devin

drew

This paper was about some guys who made a handheld projector system. The system works with these staple gun like projectors that you hold in your hand and the interface that is used is explored in a flashlight-like manner. Meaning you have to search for the things you want to find by moving the projector around, this is shown clearly in the video. The main thing they wanted to do was try and make file sharing and things like that easy to do, but I really only see this being used for entertainment purposes, mainly amusement parks. Although it did look kind of useful in office meetings, i just don't think i would want to have a projector shining in my eyes while giving a presentation. They also integrated things into it like privacy settings and a feature where the projector will shut off if it is pointed at someone, but that someone has to be holding a projector themselves.

Emotional Design

Ben

Brad

Josh

This book was about Don Norman contradicting what he said in earilier books. He goes on about how robots need to have emotion and how the design of things evoke emotions in people.

I thought this book was fairly interestingin the way it reminds me of other things that are interesting. His ideas on how robots need to have emotion so they can learn and adapt is a little scary. Although in Terminator and The Matrix the machines don't seem to have emotions they're just cold killers. He goes on and lists some rules for machines that he ripped from I, robot. Which kind of says to me he really doesn't have any original ideas in this book it's all already been explored in Sci-fi.