Ionrock Dot Org

Well, since I am going to be working on user interfaces and HCI issues this summer I figure I should brush up my interest in the subject. But, what does that mean? One of the things I have learned about myself this past recruiting season is that I am the kind of person who is able to get excited about many different subjects. While I have been working with Dr. Lee I have been really excited about search technologies and databases. Now, with a sweet internship on the horizon in HCI, I find myself becoming increasingly interested in user interfaces and more specifically how search technology and data management fits into the equation. In other words I am very fickle! I really do see this as a good thing though. It makes it possible for me to enjoy the most boring of activities associated with computers so that must be good for something.

With that said, I do have an interest in HCI. I have always been fascinated with web design and being an artist (more in the music than visual), I can really appreciate the hard work that can go into an interface or design. Beyond the aesthetic reasons, HCI is of interest to me because I enjoy being more productive on my computer! Not to mention the fact that HCI is one of those things that really is a part of all kinds of technology uses. For example, we are going to make a blogging tool for a class I am in. The idea is to integrate some meta-data into the blogs that will allow users to search and make connections between posts after a while. Blogs contain tons of interesting information but very little of it gets used in a meaningful way. The idea is to take these blogs and show the ideas of them in a visual way that could be manipulated similar to the way a spatial file manager works. The other important addition is some drawing type abilities that allow the user to draw boxes and group ideas together. You could then have things like unions and intersections that are the basis of relational databases in a visual way! Imagine taking the diagrams you see in class and getting real result by simply drawing them.

What I think is innovative here is that it doesn't change much between what users know already. I think too much time is spent creating interfaces that are "innovative" and "new". A good example is the qwerty keyboard. If everyone was forced to switch to dvorak then I would imagine there would a week of work where billions could be lost just b/c people could type as fast as they could before! It goes to say that using proven interfaces (even if they are sub-optimal) can be the best way to be productive. The innovation in our blogging tool is that it allows for a visual interface to a non-trivial amount of data. This could make those forced to learn it have huge benefits while those that are already familiar with it (basic visual file management) could be creative and "play" with it to see the best means of usage.

We will be doing some user testing on our ideas so we'll see what happens. At the very least I think I will be able to put together a pretty cool concept from the database management standpoint so that should be fun. Wish us luck!