Multi-media Information Systems Introduction Brian Whitworth © 2001

© 2001 Brian Whitworth2 What is this course about? (pick one) How to make whizz-bang impressions How to make movies with your computer How to create artistic pictures How to be musical online How to get girls with cool computer effects How to transcend your mundane life How to make information systems fit people 

© 2001 Brian Whitworth3 What do you have to do? Understand how people process vs how computers process (theory lectures+book = exam) Apply simple computing techniques (HTML) in practice (practical workbook = assignments) Combine theory and practice - choose examples from the world wide web, and create your own (each person does this differently = assignment appearance and effectiveness)

© 2001 Brian Whitworth4 What you do (given) Human theory Computer techniques Connecting these (you do individually and uniquely)

© 2001 Brian Whitworth5 Your goal is to avoid this … Isn’t it great! Movies! Animation! Flash! Its got everything!!! Ugh! What’s that? I hate it !!! The Web You certainly spent a lot of time on it All that flashes is not great

© 2001 Brian Whitworth6 How is this course assessed? By your ability to –Remember key facts and principles –Produce practical results on the computer –Understand principles and apply them in practice Answer? ALL OF THE ABOVE

© 2001 Brian Whitworth7 CIS 270 Syllabus This is the course“rules” Read it carefully! Do I have to read it all? Do these rules really apply? But do they really apply to me? What if I don’t understand them? YES THEY STILL APPLY Read what applies to you

© 2001 Brian Whitworth8 Your instructors goal is that? Everyone passes a “cakewalk” course We all have a good happy, happy time To do as little work as possible You learn something useful and get a fair grade This is a busy course! You will have to work hard to get an A We will be disappointed only if you don’t feel you learned anything useful 

© 2001 Brian Whitworth9 Why learn about the mind? 1970s - computers were “number crunchers” 1980s - the Personal Computer (PC) led to interface design 1990s - communication and human interaction 2000s - online groups and social systems The trend? Computing is more and more about people

© 2001 Brian Whitworth10 Example You have to review a web site for its creator and recommend changes With valid reasons –your changes will tend to be accepted –without good reasons you may have a conflict Reasons give people confidence The best reasons for designing this way and not that way are based on human nature

© 2001 Brian Whitworth11 Mind Book Required textbook: Gregory, R. L., 1998, The Oxford Companion to the Mind, Oxford University Press, New York Must read this to understand the lecture notes –2-3 pages may be summarized in a single slide –The Gregory references are given in the slides they refer to This book gives over 100 years of research into the mind as an information processor

© 2001 Brian Whitworth12 Why learn HTML not FrontPage? Why learn C when there are 4GL C code generators? The answer is flexibility –There are things you cant do in the generator –Generators get tangled, and must be fixed in the source code –Generators bloat code, direct HTML is simple, small and hence loads much faster –You understand what is possible from the source –You end up back in the source code in the end Companies like IBM expect all work to be done directly in HTML for these reasons

© 2001 Brian Whitworth13 Course Overview 1.Brain vs Computer – the whole course in one lesson 2.Attention – to see anything one must notice it 3.Perception – low level processing (e.g. color) 4.Recognition – carrying knowledge forward by patterns 5.Space & Movement – mental models of space 6.Integration – combining the senses 7.Interactivity – driving the feedback loop 8.Learning – changing how we process

© 2001 Brian Whitworth14 To Do 1.Read the syllabus, so you know the course rules 2.Get MIND book. Find “Nervous System” (p514) and read first three pages, then skim the rest. You now are ready for lesson 1 3.Do assignment 1 (make contact) in ten minutes 4.Read assignment 2, so you know what is needed 5.Read the chapters 1-3 of the practical text, so you know what HTML is 6.Install the HTML editor from the CD, if you don’t already have one. Likewise other software – e.g. graphics package