HCI Comprehensive Exam Reading List

Communication and Information Sciences Program, University of Hawai`i at Manoa

Last Updated: November 13, 2009

This is the official reading list for the CIS HCI area exam.

NOTE: Many of these readings have been placed on electronic reserve! See these instructions.

Primary Exam

The readings for the primary exam consist of this entire reading list. We recommend that you begin with the Introductory/Survey readings, starting with those marked for the secondary exam, and then deepen your understanding with the other readings.

Secondary Exam

The readings for the secondary exam consist of the first three items in the "Introductory/Survey" category. The secondary exam readings are in boldface.

Introductory/Survey

Everyone should be familiar with the material in these readings. We recommend that you read them in the order listed. (Secondary exam students need only study the first three.)

  1. Norman, D. A. (1988). The Design of Everyday Things. (Previously published as The Psychology of Everyday Things.) New York: Doubleday.

    ISBN: 0-385-26774-6.
    Call Number: TS171.4 .N67 1990.
    A popular book that will motivate the importance of human factors in the design of everything we use. This reading is also included as an introduction to concepts such as "affordances" and "knowledge in the world" versus "knowledge in the head" (but see Norman's later

  2. Preece, J., Rogers, Y., & Sharp, H.. (2006). 2nd ed. Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interaction. New York: John Wiley.

    ISBN: 978-0-470-01866-8.
    A typical undergraduate level textbook to introduce you to the field, including both scientific background and usability design methods. One of the few that adequately addresses affective measures. Note that we are now using the 2nd edition.

  3. Carroll, J. M. (Ed.) (2003). HCI Models, Theories and Frameworks: Toward a Multidisciplinary Science. San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann publishers.

    ISBN: 1-55860-808-7.
    This collection of tutorial articles is an appropriate survey for the graduate level student.

  4. Carroll, J. M. (Ed.) (2002). Human-Computer Interaction in the New Millenium. New York: ACM Press.

    ISBN: 0-201-70447-1.
    A compilation of articles that will give the HCI specialist an in-depth introduction to various topics. Many of the articles were previously published and became highly referenced. Ask exam committee which chapters to read for the primary.

Cognitive/Behavioral/Affective Foundations

These readings provide a better understanding of the human side of human-computer interaction.

  1. Olson, Gary M. and Olson, Judith S. (2003). Human-Computer Interaction: Psychological Aspects of the Human Use of Computing. Annual Review of Psychology 54, 491–516.

    URL: http://psych.annualreviews.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/491.pdf
    Overview of recent HCI research that has expanded beyond its roots in the cognitive processes of individual users to include social and organizational processes involved in computer usage in real environments as well as computers in collaboration.

  2. Deek, F. P. & McHugh, J. A. M. (2003). Computer-Supported Collaboration with Applications to Software Development. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. ISBN: 1-4020-785-2. [Chapters 1-5]

    A concise survey of cognitive and social sciences literature on group collaboration and problem solving, and technology factors in supporting the same. Contact Dan Suthers for access to this book.

  3. Hudlicka, E. (2003). To feel or not to feel: The role of affect in human-computer interaction. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 59: 71-5.

    On reserve
    Introduction to and review for a special topic issue on "affective HCI" including affective architecture, techniques and devices for assessing user states such as biometric affective sensing and recognition, user affect modeling, socially intelligent agents, affect expression, etc. There is little overlap with the Olson & Olson review.

Perceptual Foundations

  1. Lohse, Gerald, L. (1997). Models of Graphical Perception. In M. Helander, T.K. Landauer, & P. Prabhu (Eds.), Handbook of Human-Computer Interaction (2nd ed., pp. 107-135). Amsterdam: Elsevier Science.

    Call Number: QA76.9.H85 H36 1997
    Provides an overview of human perception and of implications for graphical display of information. Focus on the first three sections, including the survey of the graphics literature and the example of three alternative visualizations of data. It is not necessary to memorize all of the models in section 6.4.

Social/Cultural Foundations

  1. Nardi, B. (1996). Studying context: A comparison of activity theory, situated action models, and distributed cognition. In B. Nardi (Ed.), Context and Consciousness: Activity Theory and Human-Computer Interaction. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. (pp. 69-102). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

    URL: http://www.acm.org/interactions/vol2no4/depts/book.htm
    Concise juxtaposition of three alternative theoretical frameworks for analyzing human communication and activity: situated action theory, distributed cognition theory, and activity theory.

  2. Suchman, L. A. (1987). Plans and Situated Actions: The Problem of Human-Machine Communication. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Call Number: T59.7 .S83 1987
    Drawing on the ethnomethodological tradition of sociology, this work challenges traditional assumptions about human-machine communication. The empirical fondation of the work is an observational study of the human use of an intelligent copy machine. Insights gleaned from the study make a compelling case against traditional representationalist models of communication, and for an alternative,"situated action" model, which has been highly influential in contemporary studies of HCI.

  3. Rogers, Y. (2004). New theoretical approaches for human-computer interaction. In B. Cronin (Ed.), Annual Review of Information Science Technology. Volume 38 (pp. 87-143). Medford, N.J.: Information Today.

    On reserve
    Reviews research guided by social and cultural theories in HCI including activity theory and ethnomethodology, among others.

Empirical Research Methods

  1. Rourke, L., Anderson, T., Garrison, D. R., & Archer, W. (2001). Methodological issues in the content analysis of computer conference transcripts. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education, 12. http://communitiesofinquiry.com/documents/2Rourke_et_al_Content_Analysis.pdf
    Some basic methodological considerations in analyzing online dialogue.

  2. Sanderson, P. M., & Fisher, C. (1994). Exploratory sequential data analysis: Foundations. Human-Computer Interaction, 9(3-4), 251-318.

    Sythesizes the empirical undertakings of three intellectual traditions--the behavioral, the cognitive, and the social. The fundamental argument is that, in HCI, it is imperative that we be prepared to view our research questions from multiple perspectives; we cannot lock ourselves into particular research techniques and particular intellectual traditions.

  3. Jordan, B., & Henderson, A. (1995). Interaction analysis: Foundations and practice. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 4(1), 39-103.

    Describes Interaction analysis, an interdisciplinary, video-based method for analyzing interaction between humans and humans, and between humans and their environment. Rooted in Situated Action Theory, this method is well-suited to analyzing the collaborative achievement of mutual intelligibility and social order in everyday settings.

Artifact Design & Evaluation

The purpose of these two readings is to compare and contrast alternative approaches to the design of usable systems. This material is covered in ICS 667.

  1. Rosson, M. B., & Carroll, J. M. (2007). Scenario-based design. In A. Sears & J. A. Jacko (Eds.), The Human-Computer Interaction Handbook, 2nd Edition (pp. 10410-1060). Mahweh, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

    A narrative (story-telling) approach to identifying requirements and envisioning implications of alternative designs. Note: this reading replaces the book used earlier.

  2. The following web based articles on Usage-Centered Design:


    Usage-centered design takes the stance that one should work out problems in design through successive refinement of abstract models, and that design should focus on the relationship between the user and the system, not just on users.

Applications

These articles fill out details in areas of particular interest to faculty.

  1. Olson, G. M. & Olson, J. S. (1997). Research on Computer Supported Cooperative Work. In M. Helander , T.K. Landauer, P. Prabhu (eds.) Handbook of Human-computer Interaction, Second Edition. Elsevier. pp. 1433-1456.

    Call Number: QA76.9 .H85 H36 1997
    A brief survey of methods for doing research in CSCW, and asociated issues.

  2. Olson, J. S. & Olson, G. M. (1999). Computer Supported Cooperative Work. In F. T. Durso (Ed.) Handbook of Applied Cognition (p. 409-442). NY: Wiley & Sons.

    In spite of the similar title, this article focuses on somewhat more recent research issues and themes. See also section IV of Carroll (2002), cited in the introductory section, and the Olson & Olson article there: "Distance Matters"

  3. Preece, J. and Diane Maloney-Krichmar (2003) Online Communities. In J. Jacko and A. Sears, A. (Eds.) Handbook of Human-Computer Interaction, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc. Publishers. Mahwah: NJ. 596-620. Draft at http://www.ifsm.umbc.edu/~preece/paper/7%20Handbook%20v1.7Final.pdf

    A summary of issues in designing to support online communities, and related research. This replaces the Preece book listed here previously, but the content is virtually the same, so you may use either.

    Note: the next two readings are effective in 2010.

  4. Christy M. K. Cheung, Matthew K. O. Lee: User satisfaction with an internet-based portal: An asymmetric and nonlinear approach. JASIST 60(1): 111-122 (2009). [Listed by Rich Gazan]

  5. Robert W. Proctor, Kim-Phuong L. Vu, Cumulative Knowledge and Progress in Human Factors, Annual Review of Psychology 2010 61. [Listed by Diane Nahl]

The End.