1. Research Scott Klemmer · 15 April 2008
In the first week of class, we thought about where we came from and how we got here. (Seated, able-bodied users.) In the second week, we thought about what are two broad directions of current research: work that more deeply embraces our social environment, and work that more deeply embraces our physical environment. With that setting established, we’ll spend the next chunk of the course exploring two questions. First, what constitutes knowledge and research in HCI? Second, what are different ways we can go about producing it? To frame why we’re asking this question here, I’d like to go back to the goal of the course. The goal of this course is for you, upon completion, to be able to undertake your own research project.
Scott Klemmer · 15 April 2008

2. The goal of this course is for you, upon completion, to be able to undertake a research project of your own design
To accomplish this, we’ll engage in three activities. The first is reading some “greatest hits”, so we get a sense of what kind of work has been done and how to go about it. In part this is the learning-by-example approach to research. The second is for you to undertake your own project, because I think we learn much more deeply when we’re doing at the same time. And the third – which is what today is about – is to explicitly think about what constitutes research, and over the next few days, what constitutes a research program.

3. What is Research?

4. What is Not Research?

5. How do you tell the difference?

6. Research is, by and large, a persuasive enterprise
Research is, by and large, a persuasive enterprise. By that I mean that there isn’t a fully-determined mapping between empirical work and theory-building. In the abstract, one could claim almost any theory from almost any empirical work, and one could refuse to be convinced of almost any theory from almost any empirical work. But in practice, as the evidence mounts, some theories become much more persuasive. And if one decides to not believe an explanation, it is incumbant to offer an alternate one. As evidence mounts, the scope of realistic alternatives becomes more constrained – this is what Bruno Latour calls the proof race of science: keep going, or submit.

7. What is the Relationship between research and design?
Design as a domain of research study i.e., “What do designers do when they do design?”
Design as a method of research inquiry i.e., using iterative exploration to produce knowledge

8. What is the relationship between research and development?
Basic applied
Basic -> applied -> development -> production
Pasteur’s Quadrant
Basic research is motivated by understanding; applied research is motivated by use.
The false belief that science is “exogenous” to technology

9. How can you get a research idea?
Read a paper; find something they didn’t do
Read a paper; find something you disagree with
Have lots of experiences

11. AIP MEMO 1 Emerging theory permits calculation of behavior.
Computing tasks within early scope of theory.
Computer science one-sided.
Payoff for knowing how humans process.
An Applied Psychology Unit would be ultimately profitable.
Slide courtesy Stu Card

12. Big Project Big Idea Small Idea Small Project
How can I make my idea bigger?
Given a pair of ideas, how do I tell which is larger?
As Bruno Latour writes, science is the transformation of rats and chemicals into paper.
Small Project

13. PhD as simulated annealing