Article Notes: What is a PhD in HCI?

Craig Johnson, Glasgow University

http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~johnson/papers/phd.html

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Many people challenge the idea that there is a 'theory of HCI' (Dowell and Long, 1989)

This view argues that we are part of a craft discipline.

I should learn about this concept of  a “craft discipline” and challenge this idea back if possible (or agree with it!)

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For instance, an academic interpretation of this criteria might centre upon the strengths and weaknesses of the Seeheim model. A commercial view might focus instead upon the cost-effectiveness of VisualBasicTM compared to other implementation platforms.

There’s a lot in that I did not understand. I should know what those things are and how this difference is germane…

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The toy problems and limited case studies that are used to analyse user interface toolkits and design methodologies bear little relationship to the ill-defined and poorly structured problems that frustrate the commercial development of real-world interfaces. Again, such applications cannot easily be written up for presentation during PhD vivas.

Maybe this is a valid argument for why PhD’s should be in relationship to a company when possible?? Google, ProQuest, Tableau, Microsoft, Adobe?

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References to follow

Jean Gasen, Support for HCI Educators: A View from the Trenches. In M. Kirby, A.Dix and J. Finlay (eds.), People and Computers X, pages 15-20. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1995.

J. Dowell and J. Long, Towards A Conception For An Engineering Discipline Of Human Factors, Ergonomics,(32)11:1513-1535, 1989.