Current Topics in HCI - Winter Semester 2004/2005

In this assignment, you will explore zoomable user interfaces (ZUIs) in a little more detail.

The University of Maryland has a group doing research on Zoomable User Interfaces. They have designed Jazz and Piccolo, a framework for building ZUI-based applications.

Download and read the paper, "Toolkit Design for Interactive Structured Graphics" from IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (2004). To show that you have read and understood the paper, write a summary in 500 words or less and submit this summary by the due date.

For extra credit, download the Piccolo.Java library and write a simple program using the piccolo library.

This assignment is to be completed on your own.

Hand in your submission before the end of the lecture on Thursday, November 25.

If you wish to submit your assignment electronically, email a PDF to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. before the due date. Please note that no other format (Word, OpenOffice, etc...) will be accepted. The subject of your email should be "CTHCI Assignment 5"; be sure to use this exact subject line as it will be used to filter assignment submissions for grading.

If you choose to do the programming part of the assignment, be sure to include a README file with specific instructions on how to compile and run your code. You should also include a short description of what your program does.

The assignment will be graded on the following rough scale:

• 1.0 - exceptional work that clearly went above and beyond what was expected from the exercise
• 2.0 - exercise was completed satisfactorily as per the assignment specification
• 3.0 - exercise was completed, but has some problems
• 4.0 - incomplete exercise
• 5.0 - little or no effort was put into the exercise

Late assignments will be graded with a penalty of 0.5 per 24 hour period after the due date.