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My college is changing over from C++ to Java right now. Here's their plan http://www.cs.depaul.edu/news/news.asp?theID=445

I agree.

If anyone's interested in the theory behind usability, I recommend this book on Human Computer Interaction as an introduction.

Also, here are some web-sites I found useful:

- Cooper design
Excellent collection of articles, case studies and, for students who want bullet-point summaries for ease of recall, a nice list of HCI design axioms. See in particular http://www.cooper.com/design/ where there is a series of articles, including one entitled "The myth of metaphor". Cooper is also the author of two excellent books on interface design.

- Ask Tog Design
Bruce "Tog" Tognazzini developed the first version of the Apple Human Interface Guidelines in 1978, moved to Sun, and is currently lead designer at Healtheon. He has published two excellent books on interface and software design and at this web site, he answers questions and discusses interface issues with wit and insight.

- Jacob Nielsen's website
Nielsen produces a bi-weekly column on web usability and has also just published a book called Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity which is getting rave reviews. He is widely regarded as a leader in the field of web site design and usability testing.

- Interface Hall of Shame
An excellent collection of scathing but accurate reviews of user interface disasters of one sort or another. The ultimate depressing experience for any interface designer must be to end up here.

- HCI Reading List
If you want an exhaustive list of HCI reading materials, this is a good place to look. It is reasonably up-to-date (Feb 98) and has useful comments on the majority of textbooks in this area.

- University of Maryland Human-Computer Interaction Lab
The Human-Computer Interaction Lab (HCIL) at the University of Maryland conducts research on advanced user interfaces and their development processes. They study areas such as new approaches to information visualization, interfaces for digital libraries, multimedia resources for learning communities, zooming user interfaces (ZUIs), technology design methods with and for children, and instruments for evaluating user interface technologies. The director is Ben Schneiderman, author of the book "Designing the user interface".

I havn't found any references, much less links, to other universities offering similar programs. One option is to do ye web crawl (which I did but didn't turn up any schools in the US- like the two I had heard about), and the other option is to ask the HCI program director, Dr. Rosalee Wolfe. I'd recommend asking about the program itself before asking about other universities with competing programs, and even then to put it in the context of comparing universities to apply to.

Hopefully either link will be of some use to those searching for a program of study in HCI.

--The name has been removed to protect the guilty party.

I havn't found any references, much less links, to other universities offering similar programs. One option is to do ye web crawl (which I did but didn't turn up any schools in the US- like the two I had heard about), and the other option is to ask the HCI program director, Dr. Rosalee Wolfe. I'd recommend asking about the program itself before asking about other universities with competing programs, and even then to put it in the context of comparing universities to apply to.

Hopefully either link will be of some use to those searching for a program of study in HCI.

--The name has been removed to protect the guilty party.