Students Spy on Computer Users to Build Better Software

Ever get the feeling you’re being watched? You are, if you are in the new Usability Studies Lab in Pell Hall at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University.

Using video cameras and special network connections, the lab lets students and faculty in the College of Information and Computer Science observe computer users at work -- every movement of their hands and eyes, every click of the mouse.

If the computer user has to repeatedly scan the screen or search though numerous pull-down menus to find the button they need, the observers will know it -- and they’ll use that information to create better and more user-friendly software.

“At the Usability Lab, we are starting to understand what makes some systems easier to use than others,” said C.W. Post Professor Steven Heim, co-director of the lab with Professor Qiping Zhang, and author of a new book on human-computer interaction or HCI.

The first of its kind on Long Island, the Usability Studies Lab is used by students studying HCI or testing software they have written in class. The College of Information and Computer Science also expects technology companies to use the lab to test their own new software.

For more information e-mail steven.heim@liu.edu