Multi-media Information Systems Introduction Brian Whitworth © 2001.

Multi-media Information Systems

Introduction

Brian Whitworth © 2001

© 2001 Brian Whitworth 2

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


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)


What you do

(given) (given)

Human theory

Computertechniques

Connectingthese

(you do individuallyand uniquely)


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


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


CIS 270 Syllabus www.cis.njit.edu/bwhitworth/CIS270-syllabus.html

• 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

YES

THEY STILL APPLY

Read what applies to you


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


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


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


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


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


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


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

Multi-media Information Systems Introduction Brian Whitworth © 2001.

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