Title Review of Masters Degree in Human-Computer Interaction at SUNY Oswego
Author Gary Perlman (perlman@oclc.org)
Modified:
Abstract In early December 2000, I visited SUNY Oswego to review their plans for a Masters program in HCI (Human-Computer Interaction). The planning for the program is at an early stage, which is an ideal time to bring in outside expertise. This document is a summary of my impressions from the visit, and my recommendations for further planning. My general strategy was to synthesize my notes into a framework that followed the flow of students in, through, and out of the program. For a general audience, I begin with a definition of the field of HCI. I conclude that an HCI Masters program can do well at SUNY Oswego, but that finding students and faculty will be a challenge.
Biography Gary Perlman, Ph.D. is a consulting research scientist at the OCLC Online Computer Library Center. He designs, builds, and evaluates user interfaces for bibliographic and full text retrieval, notably for the OCLC FirstSearch service. Before OCLC, he had research and/or teaching positions at Bell Labs, Wang Institute, Software Engineering Institute, MIT, and Ohio State University. Dr. Perlman has a Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego, and a B.A. from the University of Rochester, both in psychology.

Having been a professor for 12 years, he has had more than a passing interest in HCI education:

Contents:

What is HCI Theory and Practice?

According to the ACM SIGCHI Curriculum Development Group's 1992 report,
Human-computer interaction is a discipline concerned with the design, evaluation and implementation of interactive computing systems for human use and with the study of major phenomena surrounding them.
ACM SIGCHI CDG 1992
While the design, evaluation and implementation of interactive computing systems for human use can be viewed as the engineering practice of the field, the study of major phenomena surrounding them can be viewed as the scientific investigation leading to theory.

While the dichotomy between engineering/practice and science/theory is artificial, it is a natural one to highlight when discussing a Masters program of study compared to a Doctoral program, especially in a field for which graduates are in high demand in industry. An assumption throughout this review is that SUNY Oswego is going to be more focused on preparing students to contribute to the engineering of more usable software systems than more long-term advancement of scientific theory. The terms "HCI", "HCI practice", "usability", "user interface development" will be used somewhat interchangeably, with the qualification that good engineering is based on good science, and often helps advance science.

Software is usable to the extent that is makes it possible for people to accomplish useful tasks within human limitations and other constraints. Usable software begins with the identification of the tasks people need to accomplish, and ends with the evaluation of the degree to which people can actually accomplish those tasks. Thus HCI practice is inherently human-centered, from the analysis of requirements, through design, to system evaluation.

Many skills from many disciplines are needed to produce usable software. Not the least of which is software engineering, because without that discipline's goals of validity, reliability, performance, cost-effectiveness, etc., usability becomes a secondary concern. But a system that does not meet user needs or task demands, as might be best identified by psychologists, anthropologists, marketers, industrial designers, etc., or if it is not conveyed through effective graphic design, a well-engineering system may have no use or no users.

HCI is a multidisciplinary field, as evidenced by the range of fields listed on the web site of its leading professional organization, ACM SIGCHI:

computer science, psychology, cognitive science, human factors, industrial design, graphic design, anthropology, sociology, management science, software engineering, ...
About ACM SIGCHI 1996

Given the multidisciplinary nature of HCI, it is important to emphasize that while people from many disciplines contribute to system development, and people may contribute more to areas related to their discipline, none can dominate the contributions in an area. In HCI, we make decisions based on the data from the user (not just user opinions, and not contributor opinions).

Where Will Students Come From?

Location, Location, Location, Maybe

Oswego is not is the best location for starting or sustaining a Masters program in HCI. An HCI program should attract students from industry, and a major metropolitan area would be better. Given its proximity, it will be important to leverage Syracuse and its high technology sector, and offering some courses in Syracuse may be considered. Cities as near as Rochester would be too far for students to commute more than once or twice a week, making part time involvement in the program difficult. Distance education may be acceptable for some courses in the program, but not for group projects.

Industrial Advisors

A key to promoting the program may be obtaining industrial cooperation, perhaps in the form of an industrial advisory board. Through industrial advisors, SUNY Oswego might obtain: In return, these industrial champions of HCI would have greatly enhanced input into the program, influencing it in directions that increase benefits to their companies.

Who Will be the Students?

Most students at SUNY Oswego are full time, but an HCI Masters program should ideally lend itself to part-time and non-degree (continuing education) enrollment. It may turn out that most students will come from industry, either at the request of their employer, or based on their own initiative, motivated by dissatisfaction with the usability of software, but possibly based on their excitement of increasing usability, accessibility, etc. Some students will come from the upper level undergraduate ranks, for which a 3+2 or 4+1 program has been discussed.

Most Masters students will probably be software developers (with degrees in computer science, engineering, etc.),. The program may be attractive to technical writers, marketers, and graphic designers, and students with psychology or human factors degrees. Attracting students with varied backgrounds may be critical to the success of the program because of the multidisciplinary nature of HCI. Having a team of programmers play multidisciplinary roles is nothing like working with a real graphic designer or human factors specialist. Drawing students with diverse backgrounds implies that the graduates of the program will be diverse:

and so on, each prepared to work with the other in a team, and each having some skills outside their primary area.

What Background is Needed?

What Background is Needed for Students? The ACM SIGCHI Curriculum development group proposed the following pre-requisites for its proposed graduate-level courses in HCI:
All students taking the proposed courses should:
ACM SIGCHI CDG 1992

What Courses will Be Offered?

General Objectives

Before discussing specific course proposals, it is worthwhile to discuss general objectives for coursework in HCI. The following are from the ACM SIGCHI Curriculum Development Group report.
By taking courses in HCI, we expect students to have gained an understanding of the following:
ACM SIGCHI CDG 1992

Other HCI Masters Programs

The few HCI Masters programs tend to be run by concentrations university faculty who specialize in HCI. Requiring a large specialized faculty would severely limit the availability of HCI programs. But given the interdisciplinary nature of HCI, it may not be necessary for a university to have many HCI faculty to support an HCI program. While the programs at CMU and Michigan are beyond the means of all but a handful of universities in the world, there are similarities among all the programs:

Proposed Curriculum

The curriculum in the SUNY Oswego proposal "Human-Computer Interaction and Systems Engineering" was brief, with only course titles.
Semester 1 Semester 2 Semester 3
Statistics, Tools & Methods 1 Statistics, Tools & Methods 2 Studio Project (6 s.h.)
Human Computer Interaction Cognitive Psychology  
System Engineering System Design Elective
Display Design Elective Elective
SUNY Oswego HCI & Systems Engineering
>From discussions with SUNY Oswego faculty, there appears to be some tension about requiring programming. To me, it seems that requiring systems courses would place the program exclusively in the computer science department, exclusively for programmers. Based on the ACM SIGCHI CDG recommendations, I recommend admitting students with diverse backgrounds because:

Some of the course titles appear relevant but perhaps too focused for HCI:

In the following table, I have listed a program of possible required courses. Rather than propose detailed syllabi, I have listed books and/or resources to indicate the sort of topics I think would make for a balanced program. I have different degrees of confidence in different courses, and have lower conviction about the non-project courses in the later semesters, and for those, I have added some notes.

Semester 1
Semester 2
Semester 3
  • General: Project II
  • Design: Information Design/Architecture
    • The main topic for this courses is the design of the entire user interface and the information underlying it.
    • Rosenfeld & Morville 1998 Information Architecture
    • Henry 1998 User-Centered Information Design
  • Elective
  • Elective

Electives

The following electives seemed relevant (to varying degrees) to a Masters in HCI. I have a preference for enforcing diversity by requiring that students take electives from two departments out of their undergraduate major. In the following list, which is a rough first cut, I list courses from the SUNY Oswego 2000-2001 undergraduate catalog, almost exclusively from 300-400 level courses, although listing some courses that might be required for admission to the program. Courses that seem especially relevant are bold and marked with a *. Some that would be covered by required courses are not allowed as electives.

Who Will Teach the Courses?

Some existing courses (ISC 370: HCI, and PSY 410: HF) may be taught as is or adapted for joint graduate/senior service. I recommend team teaching for many of the core courses, especially initially when they are being developed. This will ease the load on individual faculty and provide multidisciplinary input into the courses. Adjunct faculty might be brought in to teach some courses, and these might be coordinated with (or be) industrial advisors.

Ideally, SUNY Oswego will be able to attract at least one HCI faculty to focus on the HCI Masters program and coordinate the courses. This faculty member may come from Computer Science, but may come from Psychology, Cognitive Science or Engineering, Human Factors, Industrial Engineering, or a Design discipline. The difficulty of hiring good faculty in any field, but particularly Computer Science, requires creativity and flexibility.

What Facilities are Needed and Available?

Overall, I think the space and hardware requirements for an HCI Masters can be minimal. While visiting SUNY Oswego, I was given tours of:

Meeting/Design Space

With the ubiquity of connections to the Internet, almost any room with a network connection can serve as a design studio, assuming the availability of portable computers (which may be reasonable for most students focusing on HCI). Preece 1994 provides some good ideas about design spaces in the chapter about Supporting Design Teams. Wilbur Hall had some open design areas, and I would look to the design disciplines for design space ideas because of their focus on studio/group experience.

Usability Testing

More controlled environments may be needed for usability testing, and some video equipment may be needed, but a quiet room and video camera are probably adequate; a dedicated usability lab is almost certainly not needed. The anechoic booths in the Psychology department are probably not suitable for usability testing.

Hardware and Software

Hardware requirements are minimal for many software packages. Simple, but recent, PCs will allow most types of contemporary development (e.g., Web, Applet, or Native applications). I would anticipate little research by students (e.g., like at Xerox PARC), but students interested in high-end graphics workstations might be able to make arrangements with faculty or local companies.

Specialized design or development software may be a major expensive, but often there are inexpensive alternatives, or educational discounts.

Library Resources

The Library seemed up to date, although with a limited budget. Some books from a core list could be acquired by the library, but faculty would need to assist students with getting materials such as conference proceedings. This could be done through private copies placed on reserve, or through access to online materials (e.g., the ACM Digital Library.

Prospects for Success

While talking with Cynthia Clabough in Wilber Hall, I was looking at some health displays for handing out health information, and she told me they were remakes and she told me about the one I was looking at: "I didn't care for it, but people were picking up the pamphlets." It was HCI in a nutshell. I assumed that the remake was based on some sort of evaluation, possibly by inspection or with real users, and that the goal was that people would pick up the handouts (and hopefully, these would be useful, usable, and used). Equally important, there was an evaluation after the remake, and the expert, I mean the professor, although not subjectively satisfied, used the data and objectively concluded that the design worked. To me, this is a good sign for an HCI program.

Positive Signs

While SUNY Oswego is not a large school with extensive resources or faculty, I think it has some key features that support an HCI program:

Challenges

Although prospects for the program are promising, I have observed some obstacles to overcome: