CMSC 838G - Fall 2005
Prof Guimbretière

Advanced Introduction to HCI

Homework #3 (due 11/15/05):
Homework #5 (due 12/06/05):
Paper review

The goal of this homework is for you to review 2 papers from another group in this class. You will present your review in class.

Key points of a review

Your review should focus on the following points:

• What is the key contribution of the paper?

• Is this contribution well presented and the paper well structured?

• Is the experiment design adequate to test the authors' hypothesis?

• Is the experimental design sound (issues such as measurement validity, external validity and internal validity should be considered),

• Can it be easily reproduced by a skilled graduate students?

• In their analysis, do authors take into account the possible shortcoming (if any) of their design?

• Are the results supporting the authors' hypothesis?

• Do authors work help us understand HCI better?

When writing a review, it is important to point out both positive and not so positive aspects of the work, to support all your points, and to be precise enough so that authors might address all your comments. As a rule of thumb your reviews should be written so that if the authors were to address all your remarks and submit the paper again you will most probably accept the paper. In all case it is important to stay polite.

Assignment

For this homework, you are asked, for each paper, to write a ~1.5 page review addressing the points above. Please note that your reviews will be forwarded anonymously to authors.

Grading

Grading will be based on the soundness of the argumentation and the usefulness of the suggestions toward improving the presentation of the paper.