IMPROVING USABILITY OF PEDAGOGICAL COMPUTER EMULATION INTERFACES By Stephen D. Williams (
[email protected]) Submitted to the Faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences of American University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science In Computer Science Chair: Michael Black, PhD Mohammad Owrang Ojaboni, PhD Chris Powell, DM Dean of the College Date 2013 American University Washington, D.C. 20016 c COPYRIGHT by Stephen D. Williams (
[email protected]) 2013 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii IMPROVING USABILITY OF PEDAGOGICAL COMPUTER EMULATION INTERFACES by Stephen D. Williams (
[email protected]) ABSTRACT Computer emulations, simulating real or imagined computer systems, are a valuable tool to quickly gain understanding of computer architecture and software. Existing computer emulation systems offer useful but limited visualization and in- teraction. This paper addresses improving usability of pedagogical computer em- ulator interfaces with the application of published design principles informed by research into visuospatial ability. The results include a survey of promising tech- niques addressing similar problems and suggestions for application. Along with sup- porting work extending a publicly available Java-based PC emulator to enable use of the popular Processing visualization development environment, this provides a well-developed design and implementation framework for future improvements by interested parties. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I want to thank my committee for their time, diligence, and attention. I want to particularly thank Dr. Michael Black for attention, patience, flexibility, and enthusiasm for this subject. I appreciate the opportunity to be involved in an interesting project that promises to develop into an effective, useful, and fun asset to computer architecture, computer science, and human computer interaction education and practice.