Human Computer nteraction (Part 2)

This is a continuation of Part 1 showing some very preliminary results. 

A very important aspect of conducting research is ethics, and when in a university environment this is handled through the internal review board (IRB). They make sure that any project dealing with human subjects is conducted ethically, and that all the subjects are treated properly, their rights not disrupted, and privacy is handled properly. After two months of handling the IRB paperwork, I finally have the go ahead to recruit subjects and see some data.

This data is simple, long logs recording the pixel (x,y) location of a users mouse cursor. The main point of this is to determine various user habits. If we can look at how users behaved, we can try to predict where they will be, and place all interfaces in the right spot. By placing navigation, and content in the right part of a computer program, we can make users life easier. 

Now we go back to the question asked in the previous section. Where is the location of the mouse over a period of a month? Does it trend towards the center of the screen? The upper left? The upper right? Maybe towards the bottom? How does a mac user differ from a windows user? how does a programmer differ from a secretary, or from somebody who uses the computer only for entertainment. 

What can we tell from this image. Obviously it s a a lot of data, and shows little detail. However it does point to a few very important habits. I tend highly to the upper left. I am also a very heavy user of the task bar, browser tabs, and close buttons. What happens if we look at all this data over shorter periods of time. More details, less proper averaging. 

This image shows the results from just a few hours of usage. I can't tell as much about where my mouse tends to live. I can however identify independent paths. What was the point of these paths, are they straight, or do i go down round-about paths. How fast do i go between targets.

Finally lets analyze another unknown user. I can not say anything abotu this user, but what can you tell from it. How does this user compare to me. Obviously if we were designing an interface for me, it would be of best use to put my navigation in the upper left but how about for this user.

I asked a lot of questions and posted some data. Comment, give me some ideas, theories, answers, and suggestions. Please cite me anytime you use this data. Suggest ideas and things you notice or want answered. All of this data is just now coming in, and we are still coming up with new analysis to run. 

Finally, I really need more participants for this. If you want to contribute to the academic filed contact me (razvan.orendovici@gmail.com). I would ask you to run a program on your computer which logs your mouse position. It does not log any personal data or key strokes. Doing this for me would be a great benefit.

Penn State, a dissapointment

So let's examine the status of our so called great university. 

First lets start looking at examples of the great schools, and seeing what they have to offer. Stanford (see.stanford.edu), MIT (ocw.mit.edu) and others like Carnegie Mellon, Berkley, Illinois are offering all of their course materials online for free. I only mention the engineering schools beause that is what i am interested in, and that is what i can quickly find from my bookmarks. I'm sure there are plenty of other schools offering this same option. These online courses offer everything. Syllabi, video lectures, text transcripts of lectures, homeworks, homework solutions, quizes, quiz solutions, projects, and exams. How can these schools continue to do this, and why do students still flock to $40,000 tuition?

The answer: because the students do not pay for the course content.

That content can be obtained anywhere, for low costs, and extreme detail. The students pay for the best resource of all, the professors. So let's get this straight, we should be paying for the professors, (and that stupid diploma seal).

So with that in mind, lets see what we do at Penn State. We pay $24,000 per year for graduate students, weak lecturers, and professors who don't care about their classes, or students at all. Your life has for the past 12+ years and will continue to be influenced by your teachers, so how many memorable ones have you had.

Those professors that are memorable, are the ones that inspire you, motivate you, and their passion for the material is infectious. How many can you count. Those professors that care about their students are great teachers, loved by students, and able to make the tuition worth it. One problem. They usually do not have time to conduct research, and publish 10 books+100 papers on the same 3 studies. Thus they never really become full professors. They do not get tenure, they are lecturers, and they are looked down on by the other professors. This is a sad fact. Research ocupies professors too much for them to care about the students.