Already Thinking About the Thesis
Yesterday, we heard from three HCI Master’s students who talked about their theses and surviving the course. I was impressed by the range of their thesis topics. One was on extracting keywords from common discussion and using those keywords to search for related images via Alta Vista image search. Another examined using information visualization techniques in complex transportation displays. Finally, another investigated the idea of immersion in video games.
We won’t need to solidify our project topics until after the first term, but I can’t help but think about what I might study. I already have quite a few ideas brewing, but I’d love to hear any project ideas you have. So if you have any important, interesting or outrageous ideas that you think I should look at in the context of HCI, please me let know in the comments.
Comments
You finally turned comments on for one of your posts!
Here at school (shameless plug -> Rochester Institute of Technology) a few of my professors in the HCI field have been doing some groundbreaking work with eyetracking devices and software.
I always thought that a great study should be done that (once and for all) provided statistics as to where males and females look first on a given user interface. What makes them look there, what (on average) usually draws their attention away from the first place they look, what areas does their attention keep drawing them back to, and the differences between males and females in these regards. Color, proximity, design clarity… all cool variables that could be studied.
I’m currently a third-year undergrad, and have been checking out the HCI master’s program at DePaul in Chicago (depaul.edu I think). Many HCI graduate programs differ in the way they approach the field: DePaul takes the more user-centered design approach, while others (UCL if I’m not mistaken) are more based on applied cognitive psychology and theory.
What made you decide to go to UCL for the degree instead of some other schools? I’d love to hear what made you sway your decision one way or the other.
Keep up the great work, and your animated voices on the poem reading were awesome!
Mike on 27 Sep 03
Thanks for the project suggestion. Eye tracking is a very interesting topic and one that I’m sure I’ll be thinking more about throughout the year.
Regarding different approaches to HCI, I think UCL has a very well-rounded approach. The curriculum includes both design methodologies and applied cognitive science. See the UCLIC website for details on the course components.
Joshua on 27 Sep 03
If you (or anyone else) is interested in studying web based behavior, Uzilla.net is available free for student projects. It’ll record, aggregate, slice, and dice web browser behavior.
I’d love to understand how people are using tabbed browsing — as a very practical idea.
Andy Edmonds on 30 Sep 03
Joshua Kaufman) — “I already have quite a few ideas brewing, but I�d love to hear any project ideas you have. So if you have any important, interesting or outrageous ideas that you think I should look at in the context of HCI, please me let know in th…
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