Shneiderman, Plaisant and Elmqvist Release New Edition of Classic HCI Textbook

Ben Shneiderman, Catherine Plaisant and Niklas Elmqvist, all of whom hold appointments in UMIACS and the Human-Computer Interaction Lab (HCIL), recently released an updated version of their comprehensive textbook on human-computer interaction (HCI).

Shneiderman, a Distinguished University Professor of computer science, says the sixth edition of “Designing the User Interface” provides an authoritative and up-to-date introduction to the field of HCI and user experience (UX) design. It includes co-authors from Northern Arizona University and Nova Southeastern University.

“Our goal is to provide instructors with the best resource for teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in user interface design,” he says. “There is also strong interest from practitioners—both novices coming into the field and experts who seek the authoritative overviews and extensive fresh references to further resources.”

This edition expands its coverage of design methods, completely redoes the chapter on social media and collaboration, and includes more than 160 new screen grabs and photos of devices.

“Every chapter has had major revisions to deal with the remarkable evolution of user interfaces, which have produced startlingly wide usage around the globe of mobile devices and web-based services,” Shneiderman says. “We continue to track the progress in access and use by diverse users, including those with low literacy and disabilities. HCI researchers and developers have had a transformative effect on the world, so we are pleased to support this admirable community and growing profession.”

Shneiderman says he provided the overview of new developments, universal usability, progress in guidelines/theories, and a new section on grand challenges in HCI. Plaisant, a senior research scientist in UMIACS, led chapters on navigation, natural language and search while Elmqvist, an associate professor in the College of Information Studies (iSchool), worked on design processes, devices and visualization.

Nick Diakopoulos, a UMD assistant professor of journalism and a member of HCIL, also contributed by focusing on the chapter on social media.

—Story by Melissa Brachfeld