EECS 4441
Human-Computer Interaction
Fall 2020

--- Course Project ---

For the course project, you are to conduct an HCI user study comparing some interaction techniques. The
main submissions are a proposal and a research report on the user study. Another requirement is to
prepare a brief video (about 1 minute) demonstrating the interaction techniques tested in the user study.

--- Part 1 – Proposal (due Nov 10) ---
Preparing a proposal is the first step. Begin by downloading and opening the template file provided with
the assignment on the course Moodle. Save it on your computer and rename it proposal.docx. Read
the information in the template file and prepare your proposal following the organization and style
guidelines in the template.
The proposal should be organized in the usual manner for a research paper describing an HCI experiment,
or “user study”. Your proposal will expand into the full project report submitted later. For the proposal,
the Abstract, Results, and Conclusion sections may be left blank, since your research is not complete.
You are required to work in a group of three (3) students for the course project, and this includes the
project proposal. Where "Your name" appears at the top of the template file, include the names of the
three group members. Where "your_email_address" appears just below, include the email addresses of
the three group members.
The topic is up to you. For some ideas on appropriate topics, see the example student papers from
previous project courses (click here).
You are not required to write any software for this project (although you can, if you wish). You can use
one of the software apps on Professor MacKenzie's web site for experiment software (click here). Or, you
can use other software, as desired.
The main parts of your proposal are the Introduction, Related Work, Methodology, and References. The
introduction should begin with broadly-placed background information on the topic. Characterize the
current state of the art, then identify a UI challenge or problem that you will investigate.
Follow the Introduction with a Related Work section containing a literature review. The literature review
identifies, cites, and discusses prior research relevant to the topic. Use sub-sections, as appropriate, and
add additional sections as you see fit.
For the proposal, the Methodology section may be written in the future tense (e.g., "Ten participants will
be recruited…"), since the research has not been completed. Describe what you are planning to do, and
give as many details as possible on, for example, the number of participants, the independent and
dependent variables, counterbalancing, experiment design, etc.
Your user study must include independent variables and dependent variables. Include either one or two
independent variables. If you use only one independent variable, it should have at least three levels.
Include at least two dependent variables. The dependent variables are the measures of user performance
that you log and analyse. The most common measures relate to speed and accuracy. Speed is often
represented in its reciprocal form – the time to do a task. Accuracy can be a simple record of whether or
not the task was completed successfully, or as the number of errors or the error rate. Accuracy can also
reflect some other aspect of interaction, such as the number of corrective actions or the extent of deviation
from perfect performance.
The topic is up to you. Be original. Remember, this is your research project, not mine.
Include at least two figures, appropriately captioned and cross-referenced. All figures must be referred to
in the body text, as noted in the template.
For the References section, include at least four published papers, including at least one conference paper
and one journal paper. Choose papers not authored or co-authored by your instructor. Please, no web
postings. The papers appearing in the reference section should be cited in the paper. The references and
citations should be correctly formatted, as required for submissions to HCI conferences and as described
in class and as noted in the template file. See, also, Chapter 8 in the course text.
Do not pad the paper by adding extra white space (e.g., at the end of paragraphs). Work with the styles
provided in the template file. Also, do not write in the 1st person (i.e., “An experiment will be conducted
to…” is better than “I will conduct an experiment to…”).
Re length, 3-5 formatted pages will be fine.
When you are finished, make a PDF version of your proposal.
What to submit for Part 1 of the Project (by Nov 10)
Only one group member should upload the proposal. Make sure the names of the three group members
are at the top of the proposal.
Upload one (1) file to the Project section of the course Moodle:
proposal.pdf

--- Part 2 – Project Report and Video (due Dec 16) ---
After submitting your proposal, grades and comments will be available within one week. Change the
name of your proposal file to report.docx. Make changes in your report in view of the suggestions
and comments in the graded proposal. You many also change the design of your user study in
consideration of the comments in the proposal or new ideas you have. You may even change the entire
topic, if you wish.
When you are ready, proceed to conduct your user study according to class discussions and details
presented in the course text, the proposal, etc. Extend the write-up of your user study in report.docx
to include the Results and Discussion, Conclusion, and Abstract. For the Methodology section, write in
the past tense since you are describing what you did (e.g., "Ten participants were recruited…"). Consult
the example student papers and follow directions given by your instructor during class meetings.
Re length, 4-6 formatted pages will be fine.
When you are finished, make a PDF version of your report.
Prepare a video in mp4 format, about 1-minute in duration, demonstrating the interactions evaluated in
your user study. See the videos accompanying the example student papers for examples.
What to submit for Part 2 of the Project (by Dec 16)
Only one group member should upload the report. Make sure the names of the three group members are
at the top of the report.
Upload two (2) files to the Project section of the course Moodle:
report.pdf
video.mp4

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