A series of annual interactive satellite broadcasts (1988-1997)
User Interface Strategies (UIS) was a series of annual interactive satellite broadcasts that addressed cutting-edge issues in human-computer interaction. These broadcasts bought some of the best minds in the field together for nearly five hours of thought-provoking presentations and question-and-answer sessions. Dr. Ben Shneiderman, Head of the Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory at the University of Maryland, College Park, facilitated this dynamic event that opened the mind of attendees (remote located or in person) to new ideas.

Something is missing?
We were able to digitize most of the UIS historical recordings from old VHS tapes, but some of the tapes were missing or compromised. The lectures of Ben Shneiderman were digitized earlier and in general more available, and also split in shorter videos for each section of the lecture. In some cases the entire course is available as a single tape plus individual separate sections.
See also the original announcement of UIS ’97
This last course of the series was tied to the publication of the third edition of Designing the User Interface, and only features Ben Shneiderman.
1) User Interface Design Goals(14:05) MPG (170 Mb) YouTube
- Cognitive
- Affective
2) Scientific Approach (3:59) MPG (279MB) YouTube
- Specify users and tasks
- Predict and measure
- Assess subjective satisfaction
- Accommodate individual differences
- Consider social, organizational and cultural context
3) Three pillars(19:34) MPG (1.33 GB)
- Usability Lab and Iterative Testing
- User Interface Management Systems
- Guidelines Documents
4) Logical User centered interactive design (3:59) MPG (279MB) YouTube
- Design Methodology
- Stage 1) – Develop Product concept
- Stage 2) – Research and Needs Analysis
- Stage 3) – Design concepts and key screen prototype
- Stage 4) – Iterative design and refinement
- Stage 5) – Implement Software
- Stage 6) – Provide roll-out support
- Survey of ROI Research
5) Information Visualization Part 1 (see full event recording above)
6) Information Visualization Part 2(5:30) (see full event recording above)
- Dewey Decimal System
- Visual Human
- SDM System Demo
- Video conferencing Demo
- Windows 95 demo
- Elastic Windows
See the Original Announcement with abstracts and bios
UIS ‘1996 – Part 1 – User Interface Update
Ben Shneiderman
1) Serving the User(6:05) MPG (137 Mb) YouTube
- Scientific Approach
2) Three Pillars(5:30) MPG (92 MB) YouTube
- Usability Lab and Iterative Testing
- User Interface Management Systems
- Guidelines Documents
3) Demos and Information Visualization – Part 1(5:30) MPG (1.08 GB) YouTube
- IVEE (precursor of Spotfire), treemap (Dewey Decimal System and Winsurfer – on slides),
- Also includes demo of early handheld devices e.g. Franklin Complete Columbia Encyclopedia i.e. a book reader, Sharp organizer wizard with pen, calendar and notes, Texas Instrument PS 3600 Data Bank and another TI calculator, cellular phone, voice storing forward for memo, magnavox voice recognition demo of early devices.
- Microsoft BOB (early agent / social interface)
- Visual Human Interactive exploration Demo
- Lifelines for Juvenile Justice Application
- 3D demo of SDM
4) Demos and Information Visualization – Part 2 (5:30) MPG (363 MB) YouTube
- Video conferencing Demo (Intel Proshare for lawyers)
- Windows 95 demo (with Jay Leno explaining the mouse)
- Elastic Windows
UIS ‘1996 – Part 2 – Designing and Evaluating Effective Web Sites
Ben Shneiderman
1) World Wide Web(6:05) MPG (253 Mb) YouTube
(about the emergence of the WWW)
Mockup of low-cost tablet to browse the web
2) Website Genres(5:30) MPG (88 MB) YouTube
3) Website Concepts and goal setting(5:30) MPG (94MB) YouTube
4) Identify Users(5:30) MPG (156 MB) You ube
5) Identify Tasks(5:30) MPG (116MB) YouTube
- Specific Fact finding
- Open ended Fact finding
- Browsing
- Explorations of availability
6) Syntactic Semantic Events/Actions (5:30) MPG (179 MB) YouTube
5) Design Semantic of Tasks(5:30) MPG (225 MB) YouTube
- Unstructured Menus
- Linear Structures
- Arrays of Tables
- Hierarchies
- Networks
6) Design Semantic of Access(5:30) MPG (298 MB) You Tube
- String Search Features
- Multi-attribute selections
- Menu browse and navigation
5) Design Metaphor and Affordances(5:30) MPG (324 MB) YouTube
6) Build Prototype – Conduct User Tests(5:30) MPG (104 MB) You Tube
UIS’ 96 Part 3 – Designing Software for Usability: The Cognetics Design Methodology
Charles B. Kreitzberg, President Cognetics Corp. Available in the UMd Digital Archive (starts at 1:13)
– Discuss early stages of high concept formation, task analysis, key-screen design, and usability testing
– Learn how to decrease the cost and time of software development and how to increase return on investment by using six stages of development; 1. Product Concept, 2. Project Planning, 3. Design Concepts, 4. Iterative Design Refinement, 5. Implementation and 6. Rollout
UIS ’96 – Part 4: Software Engineering Strategies for User Interface Design
Ed Yourdon, Yourdon, Inc. Available in the UMd Digital Archive (starts at 57:15)
– Learn about strategies and tools to develop systems with good user interfaces and a well-engineered architecture for today’s GUI-based applications and the next-generation of user interfaces
– Discuss interface design and how to avoid a software engineering disaster
UIS ’96 – Discussion: Panel discussion with all three speakers MISSING
See the Original Announcement of UIS ’95
UIS ’95 – Part 1 –
Ben Shneiderman
1) Serving the User(1:15) MPG (38 Mb) YouTube
- Scientific Approach
2) Three Pillars(0:40) MPG (46 MB) YouTube
- Usability Lab and Iterative Testing
- User Interface Management Systems
- Guidelines Documents
3) Principles, goals and actions(7:06) MPG (77MB) YouTube
- Government Action
4) Communities along the highway(1:05) MPG (76 MB) YouTube
- Applications
5) Exploding Network Usage(1:58) MPG (138 MB) YouTube
- Good Use
- Bad Use
6) Controllable user interfaces(11:09) MPG (80 MB) YouTube
7) Agents(1:27) MPG (101 MB) You Tube
- Pluses
- Minuses
8) Visual Information Seeking(3:41) MPG (258 MB) YouTube
- Dynamic Queries
- Star field Display
- Tight Coupling
9) Other Strategies(8:10) MPG (572 MB) Missing/file compromised
- Tree
- Maps
10)Emergence of Graphical user interface(5:25) MPG (379 MB) YouTube
- Command Line
- Window Managers
- Docu-centric interfaces
- Personal role managers
UIS ’95 – Part 2 – Interactive TV: Reality Behind the Hype
Frank Stein, IBM MISSING
- Discuss the current status of interactive television
- Describe the system architecture
- Explain necessary technological developments
- Predict the future of interactive television
UIS ’95 – Part 3 – Reshaping Training and Education
Kent Norman MISSING
- Summarize the importance of interactive television in education and training
- Diagram the electronic classroom
- Estimate the impact of multimedia, interactivity, and collaborative learning on performance measures
UIS ’95 – Part 4 – The Process for Developing Usable Interfaces
H. Rex Hartson and Deborah Hix, Virginia Tech MISSING
- Demonstrate ease and efficiency of the Information Superhighway
- Control and redesign the iterative process
- Ensure universal access
UIS ’95 – Part 5 – Panel Discussion: Utilization of the Information Superhighway MISSING

See also the Original Announcement of UIS ’94, with abstracts and bios
UIS ’94 – Part 1 – Next Generation of User Interface
Ben Shneiderman
1) Serving the User(0:34) MPG (38 Mb) YouTube
- Scientific Approach
2) Three Pillars(0:55) MPG (64 MB) YouTube
- Usability Lab and Iterative Testing
- User Interface Management Systems
- Guidelines Documents
3) Next Generation Hardware(8:34) MPG (596 MB) YouTube
- Parallel Distributed
4) Next Generation Software(2:30) MPG (37 MB) File compromised – no youtube
- Advanced Graphical User Interfaces
5) Advanced Graphical Interface(16:34)
- Coordinated Multiple Windows MISSING
UIS ’94 – Part 2 – Usability engineering
Jakob Nielsen, Bellcore
UIS ’94 – Part 3 – Groupware: Supporting Group Work with Technology
Judy Olson, University of Michigan
UIS ’94 – Part 4 – Virtual Reality: Where Users Become Participants
Myron Krueger, Artificial Reality Corp.
UIS ’94 – Part 3 – Groupware: Supporting Group Work with Technology
Judy Olson, University of Michigan
UIS ’94 – Part 5 – Panel Discussion

See the original Announcement of UIS ’93
UIS ’93 – Part 1 – Information Visualization: Sight for Sore Eyes
Ben Shneiderman
1) Serving the User(0:41) MPG (49 Mb) You Tube
- Scientific Approach
- Right set of functions
- good security, safety, availability
- Standardization, portability, integration
- Speed response time and display rate for keeping users happy.
2) Three Pillars(1:07) MPG (77 MB) You Tube
- Usability Lab and Iterative Testing
- User Interface Management Systems
- Guidelines Documents
3) Information Visualization(4:30) MPG(38 MB) You Tube
- Sight for sore eyes
- Opportunities
4) Telepresence(2:34) MPG (35 MB) You Tube
- Definition
- Opportunities
5) Virtual Reality(3:50) MPG (26 MB) You Tube
- Definition
6) Information Visualization Part 1(0:47) MPG (56 MB) You Tube
- Direct Manipulation
7) Dynamic Queries(5:12) MPG(363 MB) You Tube
- Dynamic Home finder Demo
8) Tree Maps(12:47) MPG (896 MB) You Tube
- Statistics for National Basketball Association
- Macintosh Hard Disk
UIS ’93 – Part 2 – Computer Supported Collaborative Work
Marylin Mantei, University of Toronto MISSING
UIS ’93 – Part 3 – Virtual Worlds: Why? and When?
Tom Furness, University of Washington YouTube (1st hour only)
UIS ’93 – Part 4 – Enterprise Visualization and Object-Oriented Modeling
James Martin, Author/Consultant YouTube (starts at Second hour)
UIS ’93 – Part 4 – Discussion
Phoned-in and faxed questions discussed by the speakers. YouTube

See the original Announcement of UIS ’92 with abstracts and bios
UIS ’92 Part 1 – User Interfaces for Information Visualization
Ben Shneiderman
1) Overcoming Limitations to Access(12:46) MPG (194 Mb) You Tube
- Opportunities
- Problems
2) Boolean Queries(4:59) MPG (348 MB) You Tube
- Boolean Queries by Visual Selectors
- Boolean Queries By Filter/Flow
3) Dynamic Queries(7:31) MPG (526 MB) You Tube
- Sun Workstation demo for chemical table elements
- Realtors Demo
- Challenges
4) Treemaps(8:14) MPG (576 MB) You Tube
- Sun Workstation Demo
- Macintosh Demo
- Examples
- Challenges
5) Questions(1:31) MPG (106 MB) You Tube
UIS ’92 – Part 2 – Helping people get more information out of text
Thomas K. Landauer, Bellcore MISSING
UIS ’92 – Part 3 – Extending direct manipulation: Demonstrational interfaces and User Interface Development Environments
Brad A. Myers, Carnegie Mellon University Youtube (1st hour)
UIS ’92 – Part 4 – Be There Here: An Introduction to Telepresence
Brenda Laurel, Telepresence Research Youtube (starting at 52:30)
UIS ’92 – Part 5 – Discussion Youtube
Phoned-in and faxed questions are discussed live by the four speakers.
See the original Announcement of Managing the Human-Computer Interface
Part 1 – Ben Shneiderman
1) Serving the User(0:41) MPG (49 Mb) You Tube
- Task Suitability and functionality
- Security ,Reliability
- Standardization, portability
- Speed
2) Design Issues (1:07) MPG (77 MB) You Tube
- Input devices and strategies
- Direct Manipulation
- Output devices and formats
- Manuals, training ,tutorial
3) Scientific Approach (4:30) MPG (38 MB) You Tube
- Specify users and tasks
- Predict and measure
- Assess subjective satisfaction
- Accommodate individual differences
- Consider social, organizational, cultural context
4) Three Pillars (2:34) MPG (35 MB) You Tube
- Usability Lab and Iterative Testing
- User Interface Management Systems
- Guidelines Documents
Interview with James Martin (3:50) MPG (26 MB) YouTube
Author of 80 books, lecturer, consultant, Pulitzer Prize nominee
Interview with David Nagel MISSING
Senior Vice President, Advanced Technology Group, Apple Computers
See the original Announcement of UIS ’91 (with abstracts and bios)
UIS ’91 – Part 1 – User Interface Update
Ben Shneiderman
1) Motivation for increased interest in USI(0:23) MPG (12.1 Mb) You Tube
- Lifecycle critical systems for expert Users
- High Volume commercial applications
- Novice, discretionary and intermittent users
- Exploration and creativity
1) Serving the User(0:23) MPG (12.1 Mb) You Tube
- Right set of functions
- Good security, safety, availability
- Standardization, portability, integration
- Speed: response time and display rate for keeping users happy.
2) Scientific Approach(0:26) MPG (15.2 MB) You Tube
- Start with theoretical base
- Specify users an dtasks
- Predict and measure time to learn, speed of performance, human errors
- Assess subjective satisfaction by using questionnaire
- Distinguish users while designing user interfaces like for e.g. elderly people
3) Design Issues(0:18) MPG (9.65 MB) You Tube
- Input devices
- Menus, commands, forms
- Direct manipulation
- O/p devices and formats
4) Successful User Interfaces(0:19) MPG (10 MB) You Tube
- Usability Lab and iterative testing
- UI Management Systems
- Guidelines documents
5) Public Access Computing(3:28) MPG (106 MB) You Tube
- Zero trial Learning
- Engaging color graphics, video, text, sound
- Clear Purpose
- Touch screens for museums, libraries,
- National Gallery of art demoTech 2000
- Sales and Information
- Keyboard demo
- Message board demo
6) Home Automation Control(3:09) MPG (96.4 MB) You Tube
- Demo by Custom Commands
- Toggle Demo
- Playpen Demo
7) Collaborative Technology(5:30) MPG (363 MB) You Tube
- Synchronous and remote (Multiple people at the same time)
- Synchronous and Local( Electronic meeting rooms, group decision support systems, electronic classrooms)
- Teaching theater
8) Goals(0:19) MPG (11 MB) You Tube
- Research: theory and experimentation
- Practical approaches
- Usability labs and iterative testing
- UI Management Systems
- Guideline Documents
- Impact on users in terms of quality, productivity and satisfaction
- Impact on Society: peace health food, safety, comfort, pleasure, self actualization
UIS ’91 – Part 2 – Electronic Books: User Controlled Animation in a Hypermedia Framework
Andries van Dam, Brown University MISSING
UIS ’91 – Part 3 – Interactive Learning Environments
Elliot Soloway, University of Michigan Available in the UMd Digital Archive (first hour)
UIS ’91 – Part 4 – Advanced User Interface Architectures and Software Tools
Bill Curtis, MCC Human Interface Laboratory Available in the UMd Digital Archive (at 53:12)
UIS ’91 – Part 5 – Discussion MISSING
Presenters take phoned-in questions from the live satellite audience.

See the original Announcement of UIS ’90 with abstracts and bios
UIS ’90 – Part 1 – Breakthroughs in User Interface Design
Ben Shneiderman
1) Practical approaches to development(14:05) MPG (170 Mb) You Tube
- Three Pillars
2) Theories(3:59) MPG (279MB) You Tube
- Syntactic /Semantic Models
- Foley’s four levels
- Card, Moran and Novell’s COMS Model
3) Applications(19:34) MPG(1.33 GB) You Tube
- Individual Differences
- Tasks
- Social Environment
UIS ’90 – Part 2 – Graphic Design and the Ten Commandments of Color
Aaron Marcus
UIS ’90 – Part 3 – The Nurnberg Funnel: Minimalist Instruction for Computer Skill
John M. Carroll
UIS ’90 – Part 4 – Navigation of Multi-Media Data
S. Joy Mountford
UIS ’90 – Part 5 – Discussion
Original the Announcement of UIS ’88
UIS ’88 – Part 1 – User Interfaces Strategies
Ben Shneiderman Available in the UMd Digital Archive
1) Motivation(14:05) MPG (170 Mb) You Tube
- Use of Computers in Life critical systems
- Need for high volume commercial systems
- Used by diverse population with limited training
- Opportunity to enhance human intellect
2) Serving the User(3:59) MPG (279MB) You Tube
- Task suitable functionality
- Security, reliability, availability
- Standardization, portability, Integration
- Speed: Response time and display rate
- Input devices and strategies
- Menus, forms and commands
- Natural language and direct manipulation
- Output devices and formats
We can measure
- subjective satisfaction
- Time to learn
- Speed of performance
- rate of human errors
- human retention over time
3) Three Pillars(19:34) MPG (1.33 GB) You Tube
- Usability Lab and Iterative Testing
- User Interface Management Systems
- Guidelines Documents
4) Direct Manipulation(3:05) MPG (23.07MB) You Tube
- Visual representation of world action
- Rapid, incremental and reversible action
- Replace typing with pointing/selecting
- Immediate visibility of results of actions
- Benefits
- Concerns
5) Limitations of Natural Language Interaction(3:04) MPG (0.1875MB) You Tube
- Reducing syntactic load is not enough
- Computer and task semantics are hard part
- Syntactic and Semantic scopes are not visible
6) Advanced Workstation concepts(2:13) MPG (16.2MB) You Tube
- Potential productivity boosters
- Cooperation & Collaboration across workstations
7) Multiple window strategies(3:59) MPG (29.5MB) You Tube
- Cluttered desktop
- Task related layouts
- Coordination strategies across windows
8) Adaptable Systems(00:50) MPG (7MB) You Tube
- Computer adjusts interface
- User controls interface features
- Potential Items
9) Emerging Technologies – Demos (12:49) MPG (22.4MB) You Tube
- Digital photography
- Tele-operation
- Collaboration
- 3-D Typing
- Home Automation
- Demo e.g. Playpen
UIS ’88 – Part 2 – Hypertext: Hype or Help?
Ben Shneiderman Available in the UMd Digital Archive (starting at 58:30)
UIS ’88 – Part 3 and 4 – Computer Supported Collaborative Work
Using information technology for coordination
Tom Malone Available in the UMd Digital Archive

UIS ’88 – Part 5 – Discussion
Ben Shneiderman, Tom Malone and Jim Foley Available in the UMd Digital Archive
Ben first discusses user testing, and demo the Hypertext system Hyperties (using arrow keys)
+ at 9:00: Panel with Tom Malone and Jim Foley – Discussion of AI vs UI, and more.
UIS ’88 – Part 6 – User Centered System Design:
Emphasizing usability and understandability
Donald A. Norman Available in the UMd Digital Archive (starting at 50:00)
UIS ’88 – Part 6- User Centered System Design:
Practical principles for designers
Donald A. Norman Available in the UMd Digital Archive
UIS ’88 – Part 7: Software tools for designing and implementing user-computer interfaces
Jim Foley Available in the UMd Digital Archive (start at 50:40)
UIS ’88 – Part 8 – User Interface Management Systems (UIMSs)
Jim Foley Available in the UMd Digital Archive

Discussion Hour
Ben Shneiderman, Jim Foley and Don Norman Available in the UMd Digital Archive (start at 1h01)
The broadcast of the shows and sale of the videotapes were managed by:
Instructional Television System, University of Maryland.