CS 451

Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)

Dr. Saleh Mesbah
Dept. of IS, CCIT, AAST
[email protected]
 Lecture 01

Introduction
to
Human-Computer Interaction
(HCI)
 Human–Computer Interaction
• Human–computer interaction, HCI, is the
study of how people interact with computers
 Human–Computer Interaction
• The Association for Computing Machinery
defines human-computer interaction as "a
discipline concerned with the design,
evaluation and implementation of interactive
computing systems for human use and with
the study of major phenomena surrounding
them."
 Human–computer interaction (HCI)
• Human–computer interaction (HCI) is the
study of interaction between people (users)
and computers.
 Human–computer interaction (HCI)
• It is often regarded as the intersection of
computer science, behavioral sciences, design
and several other fields of study.
• Interaction between users and computers
occurs at the user interface (or simply
interface), which includes both software and
hardware, for example, general-purpose
computer peripherals.
• Because human-computer interaction studies
a human and a machine in conjunction, it
draws from supporting knowledge on both the
machine and the human side.
• On the machine side, techniques in computer
graphics, operating systems, programming
languages, and development environments
are relevant.
• On the human side, communication theory,
graphic and industrial design disciplines,
linguistics, social sciences, cognitive
psychology, and human factors are relevant.
 Importance of HCI
• A basic goal of HCI is to improve the
interactions between users and computers by
making computers more usable and receptive
to the user's needs.
 Specifically, HCI is concerned with:
1. Methodologies and processes for designing interfaces
2. Methods for implementing interfaces (software; algorithms)
3. Techniques for evaluating and comparing interfaces
4. Developing new interfaces and interaction techniques
5. Developing descriptive and predictive models and theories of
interaction
• Professional practitioners in HCI are usually
revolves around designing graphical user
interfaces and web interfaces.
• Researchers in HCI are interested in
developing new design methodologies,
experimenting with new hardware devices,
prototyping new software systems
 Design principles
• When evaluating a current user interface, or
designing a new user interface, it is important
to keep in mind the following experimental
design principles:
1. Focus on user(s) and task(s)
2. Empirical measurement
3. Iterative design
 Design principles
1. Focus on user(s) and task(s)
• how many users are needed to perform
the task(s)
• who are the appropriate users
• define the task(s) the users will be
performing and how often the task(s) need
to be performed.
 Design principles
2. Empirical measurement
• Test the interface early on with real users
• Keep in mind that results may be altered if the
performance level of the user is not an accurate
representation of the real human-computer
interaction.
• Establish quantitative usability specifics:
• number of users performing the task(s)
• time to complete the task(s)
• number of errors made during the task(s)
 Design principles
3. Iterative design: After determining the users,
tasks, and empirical measurements to include,
perform the following iterative design steps:
1. Design the user interface
2. Test
3. Analyze results
4. Repeat
• Repeat the iterative design process until a
sensible, user-friendly interface is created
 Design methodologies
• Most design methodologies stem from a
model for how users, designers, and technical
systems interact.
– User-centered design
– Principles of User Interface Design
 Design methodologies
• User-centered design:
• UCD is a modern rooted in the idea that users
must take center-stage in the design of any
computer system.
• Users, designers and technical practitioners
work together to express the wants, needs and
limitations of the user and create a system that
addresses these elements.
• End-users contribute actively through shared
design sessions and workshops.
Principles of User Interface Design
• Principles of User Interface Design: principles to
be considered during the design of a user
interface:
1. Tolerance
2. Simplicity
3. Visibility
4. Affordance
5. Consistency
6. Structure
7. Feedback
 Display Design
• Displays are designed to support the perception
of relevant system variables and to facilitate
further processing of that information.
• Before a display is designed, the task that the
display is intended to support must be defined
(e.g. navigating, controlling, decision making,
learning, entertaining, etc.).
• A user or operator must be able to process
whatever information that a system generates
and displays.
 Thirteen Principles of Display Design

• These principles can be utilized to create an

effective display design.
• A reduction in errors, a reduction in required
training time, an increase in efficiency, and an
increase in user satisfaction are a few of the
many potential benefits that can be achieved
through utilization of these principles.
 Thirteen Principles of Display Design

• These principles can be categorizes into:

1. Perceptual principles
2. Mental Model Principles
3. Principles Based on Attention
4. Memory Principles
 Thirteen Principles of Display Design
• These principles can be categorizes into:
1. Perceptual principles
– Make displays legible (understandable )
– Avoid absolute judgment limits
– Top-down processing
– Redundancy gain
– Similarity causes confusion:
2. Mental Model Principles
3. Principles Based on Attention
4. Memory Principles
 1. Perceptual Principles
1. Make displays legible (clear-understandable)
– If the characters or objects being displayed
cannot be clear, then the operator cannot
effectively make use of them.
2. Avoid absolute judgment limits
– Do not ask the user to determine the level of a
variable on the basis of a single sensory variable
(e.g. color, size, loudness). These sensory variables
can contain many possible levels.
 1. Perceptual Principles
3. Top-down processing
– Signals are perceived and interpreted in
accordance with what is expected based on
a user’s past experience..
4. Redundancy gain
• If a signal is presented more than once, it
will be understood correctly. This can be
done by presenting the signal in alternative
physical forms (color , shape, voice and
print)
 1. Perceptual Principles
5. Similarity causes confusion:
– Use discriminable elements
– Signals that appear to be similar will likely
be confused. For example, A423B9 is more
similar to A423B8 than 92 is to 93.
– Unnecessary similar features should be
removed and dissimilar features should be
highlighted.
 Thirteen Principles of Display Design
• These principles can be categorizes into:
1. Perceptual principles
2. Mental Model Principles
– Principle of pictorial realism
– Principle of the moving part
3. Principles Based on Attention
4. Memory Principles
 2. Mental Model Principles
1. Principle of pictorial realism
– A display should look like the variable that it
represents, like it would in the represented
environment.
2. Principle of the moving part
– Moving elements should move in a pattern and
direction compatible with the user’s mental model
of how it actually moves in the system(altimeter
should move upward)
 Thirteen Principles of Display Design

• These principles can be categorizes into:

1. Perceptual principles
2. Mental Model Principles
3. Principles Based on Attention
– Minimizing information access cost
– Proximity compatibility principle
– Principle of multiple resources
4. Memory Principles
 3. Principles Based on Attention
1. Minimizing information access cost
• When the user’s attention is moved from one
location to another there is an associated cost in
time or effort.
2. Proximity compatibility principle
• Divided attention between two information sources
may be necessary for the completion of one task.
3. Principle of multiple resources
• A user can more easily process information across
different resources. For example, visual and
auditory information can be presented
simultaneously
 Thirteen Principles of Display Design

• These principles can be categorizes into:

1. Perceptual principles
2. Mental Model Principles
3. Principles Based on Attention
4. Memory Principles
– Replace memory with visual information
– Principle of predictive aiding
– Principle of consistency
 4. Memory Principles
1. Replace memory with visual information: A user
should not need to retain or retrieve important
information from memory. A menu or checklist help
the user by easing the use of their memory.
2. Principle of predictive aiding: A display should
attempt to eliminate resource-demanding cognitive
tasks and replace them with simpler perceptual
tasks to reduce the use of the user’s mental
resources. (e.g. progress bar)
3. Principle of consistency: Old habits from other
displays will easily transfer to support processing of
new displays if they are designed in a consistent
manner.
 Future developments
• Decreasing hardware costs
• Miniaturization of hardware leading to portability
• Reduction in power requirements leading to
portability
• New display technologies leading to the
packaging of computational devices in new forms
• Specialized hardware leading to new functions
• Increased development of network
communication and distributed computing
• Increasingly widespread use of computers
• Increasing innovation in input techniques (i.e.,
voice, gesture, pen)
The future for HCI is expected to include the following
characteristics:
• Ubiquitous communication: Data and
computational services will be portably
accessible from many if not most locations to
which a user travels.
• High functionality systems: Systems will have
large numbers of functions associated with
them
• Mass availability of computer graphics:
Computer graphics and interactive animation
will become widespread.
• Mixed media: Systems will handle images,
voice, sounds, video, text, formatted data.
• High-bandwidth interaction: High rate of
interaction due to the changes in speed and
new input/output devices leading to different
interfaces, such as virtual reality.
• Large and thin displays: Large displays, thin,
light weight, and low power consumption.
This will increase portability and will enable
the development of paper-like, pen-based
computer interaction systems.
• Embedded computation: The environment will
be alive with little computations from
computerized cooking appliances to lighting and
plumbing fixtures to window blinds to
automobile braking systems to greeting cards.
Networked communications that will allow many
of these embedded computations to coordinate
with each other and with the user.
• Augmented reality: Refers to the notion of
layering relevant information into our vision of
the world. It might include augmenting our social
interactions by providing additional information
about those we converse with.
• Group interfaces: Interfaces to allow groups
of people to coordinate will be common
(meetings).
• User Tailorability: Ordinary users will
routinely tailor applications to their own use
and will use this power to invent new
applications based on their understanding of
their own domains.
• Information Utilities: Public information
utilities (home banking and shopping) and
specialized industry services (weather for
pilots) will continue to grow.
 Human–Computer Interface
• The human–computer interface can be described
as the point of communication between the
human user and the computer. The flow of
information between the human and computer is
defined as the loop of interaction. The loop of
interaction has several aspects to it including:
• Task Environment: The conditions and goals set
upon the user.
• Machine Environment: The environment that the
computer is connected to, i.e a laptop in a college
student's dorm room.
 Human–Computer Interface
• Areas of the Interface: Non-overlapping areas
involve processes of the human and computer
not pertaining to their interaction.
Meanwhile, the overlapping areas only
concern themselves with the processes
pertaining to their interaction.
• Input Flow: Begins in the task environment as
the user has some task that requires using
their computer.
 Human–Computer Interface
• Output: The flow of information that
originates in the machine environment.
• Feedback: Loops through the interface that
evaluate, moderate, and confirm processes as
they pass from the human through the
interface to the computer and back.
 Source Reference:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_comput
er_interaction