Papers in PDF format

elementary school integrating the arts with academics and a group providing technology for the disabled. Much of the
initial inspiration for incorporating a service component in HCI course work came from work by Jean Gasen [Gasen 96]
at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her efforts involve incorporating social responsibility in a collaborative course
involving a local cancer center and university faculty from the School of Art and the School of Business.
4. Emphasize and practice communication skills. When working with student teams, it is a mistake to assume
teamwork skills do not have to be taught. Throughout project work, attention was given to skills such as conciseness,
listening, reflection and equity in participation. A primary motivation for this community project work is found in the
1994 Report on New Directions in HCI Education, Research and Practice [Strong et al. 94]. The reports calls for an
increase in student exposure to problem situations that challenge them to "learn to work with others, and to justify their
choices to professional colleagues.
4. Provide students multidisciplinary exposure. Many issues in HCI are multidisciplinary by nature. Multidisciplinary
teams are required in the development of many software projects. The community projects provide students HCI
experience working with users and experts outside their discipline.
Conclusions
Karat and Dayton raise the issue "...usability activities must be practiced by more members of the design and
development team than just the usability specialists" [Karat and Dayton 95]. The community Web projects reported here
address this issue through education involving hands-on experience with usability activities. As possibilities for
interaction increase, there is a need for more HCI usability practice on the Web. Community Web projects promote
student learning about HCI in general and also about HCI and the Web. These projects also support user involvement in
learning more about HCI and the Web.
References
[Borges et al. 96] Borges, J.A., Morales, I. and Rodriquez, N.J. (1996). Guidelines for Designing Usable World Wide
Web Pages. CHI'96 Conference Companion: ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Vancouver,
Canada. 277-278.
[CACM 93] Special Issue on Participatory Design. (1993). Communications of the ACM, 36(4).
[Gasen 96] Gasen, J. (1996). Encouraging social responsibility through collaborative team learning. CHI'96 Conference
Companion: ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Vancouver, Canada. 125-126.
[Karat and Dayton 95] Karat, J. and Dayton, T. (1995). Practical education for improving software usability. CHI'95
Conference Proceedings: ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Denver CO. 162-169.
[Muller 93] Muller, M. "PICTIVE: Democratizing the Dynamics of the Design Session". In Participatory Design
Principles and Practices. 211-237. Douglas Schuler and Aki Namioka, Eds. (1993). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates.
[Muller et al. 95] Muller, M. J., Tudor, L. G., Wildman, D. M., White, E. A., Dayton, T., Carr, B., Diekmann, B., and
Erickson, E. D. "Bifocal tools for scenarios and representations in participatory activities with users". In Scenario-Based
Design for Human-Computer Interaction. 135-163. J. M. Carroll, Ed. (1995). New York: Wiley.
[Nielson 94] Nielson, J. (1994). Usability Engineering. Boston, MA: AP Professionals.
[Service Learning 93] Standards Committee. (1993). The Alliance for Service-Learning in Educational Reform.
[Strong et al. 94] Strong, G. B., with J.B. Gasen, T. Hewett, D. Hix, J. Morris, M. J. Muller and D. G. Novick. (1994). A
Report: New Directions in Human-Computer Interaction Education, Research and Practice. Sponsored by: NSF
Interactive Systems Program, NSF Applications of Advanced Technology Program and Advanced Research Projects
Agency Software and Intelligent Systems Technology Office.