Chapter One & Two

Introduction & The

Human In HCI
 Chapter Content

1. Definition
2. Why HCI is Important
3. Historical Background
4. Information input/output Channels
5. Memory
6. Thinking, Reasoning and Problem solving
7. Error and Mental Modes
8. Emotion
9. Individual Difference
 Definition (1)

HCI is
– “the study of the interaction between people, computers
and tasks” (Johnson)
– “a very difficult business. It combines two awkward
disciplines: psychology and computer science”
(Thimbleby)
– “The ideal designer of an interactive system would have
expertise in … psychology … cognitive science …
ergonomics … sociology …computer science … engineering
… business … graphic design …technical writing … and so it
goes on” (Dix et. al)
– Teamwork and a recognition of non-Computer Science
specialisms.
 Why HCI is Important (2)

• HCI can assist in building products/systems that are

– useful – accomplish what is required: play music, cook dinner,
format a document
– usable – do it easily and naturally, without danger of error, etc.
– used – make people want to use it, be attractive, engaging, fun,
etc.
• Increasing participation
• Ensuring interfaces and systems are accessible
• International Directives and Standards (EC Directive
90/270/EEC; ISO 9241) place requirements on systems in
terms of usability
• Safety and Security
 Historical Background (3)

• The term human–computer interaction has only been in

widespread use since the early 1980s, but has its roots in
more established disciplines.
• The Second World War provided the impetus for studying
the interaction between humans and machines, as each
side strove to produce more effective weapons systems.
• This led to a wave of interest in the area among
researchers, and the formation of the Ergonomics Research
Society in 1949.
• Traditionally, ergonomists have been concerned primarily
with the physical characteristics of machines and systems,
and how these affect user performance.
 Historical Background (3)

• As computer use became more widespread, an

increasing number of researchers specialized in
studying the interaction between people and
computers, concerning themselves with the
physical, psychological and theoretical aspects of
this process.
• This research originally went under the name
man–machine interaction, but this became
human–computer interaction in recognition of
the particular interest in computers and the
composition of the user population!
 Historical Background (3)

• However, when we talk about human–computer interaction, we do not

necessarily envisage a single user with a desktop computer. By user we
may mean an individual user, a group of users working together, or a
sequence of users in an organization, each dealing with some part of the
task or process. The user is whoever is trying to get the job done using the
technology.
• By computer we mean any technology ranging from the general desktop
computer to a large-scale computer system, a process control system or
an embedded system. The system may include non-computerized parts,
including other people.
• By interaction we mean any communication between a user and
computer, be it direct or indirect. Direct interaction involves a dialog with
feedback and control throughout performance of the task. Indirect
interaction may involve batch processing or intelligent sensors controlling
the environment.
• The important thing is that the user is interacting with the computer in
order to accomplish something.
 Information Input/output Channels (4)

• Input in the human occurs mainly through the senses

and output through the motor control of the effectors.
There are five major senses: sight, hearing, touch,
taste and smell.
• Of these, the first three are the most important to
HCI. Taste and smell do not currently play a significant
role in HCI, and it is not clear whether they could be
exploited at all in general computer systems, although
they could have a role to play in more specialized
systems (smells to give warning of malfunction, for
example) or in augmented reality systems. However,
vision, hearing and touch are central.
 Information Input/output Channels (4)

• Information is received and responses given

via a number of input and output channels:
– visual channel
– auditory channel
– haptic channel
– movement
Information Input/output Channels>Vision
• Human vision is a highly complex activity with
a range of physical and perceptual limitations,
yet it is the primary source of information for
the average person.
• Two stages in vision
• Physical reception of stimulus
• Processing and interpretation of stimulus
Stage 1: Physical Reception of Stimulus - The Eye
• Mechanism for receiving light and transforming it
into electrical energy
• Light reflects from objects
• Images are focused upside-down on retina
• Retina contains rods for low light vision and
cones for colour vision
• Ganglion cells (brain!) detect pattern and
movement
Stage 2: Interpreting the Signal
• Size and depth
– visual angle indicates how much of view object
occupies
(relates to size and distance from eye)

– visual acuity is ability to perceive detail (limited)

– familiar objects perceived as constant size
(in spite of changes in visual angle when far away)

– cues like overlapping help perception of size and

depth
• This has been exploited for humor in
advertising:
– one advertisement for beer shows a man walking
away from a bottle in the foreground. As he walks,
he bumps into the bottle, which is in fact a giant
one in the background!
• Brightness
– Brightness is in fact a subjective reaction to levels of light.
– affected by luminance of object which is the amount of
light emitted by an object.
– Although brightness is a subjective response, it can be
described in terms of the amount of luminance that gives a
just noticeable difference in brightness. (measured by just
noticeable difference)
– visual acuity increases with luminance as does flicker
• Colour
– Color is usually regarded as being made up of three
components: hue, intensity and saturation.
• Hue is determined by the spectral wavelength of the light. (Blues have
short wavelengths, greens medium and reds long.)
• Intensity is the brightness of the color.
• Saturation is the amount of whiteness in the color.
– The eye perceives color because the cones are sensitive to
light of different wavelengths.
– 8% males and 1% females colour blind
• The visual system compensates for:
– Movement (Although the retinal image is moving, the image
that we perceive is stable)
– changes in luminance. (Color and brightness of objects are
perceived as constant, in spite of changes in luminance)
• Context is used to resolve ambiguity (The ability to
interpret and exploit our expectations can be used to resolve
ambiguity)
• Optical illusions sometimes occur due to over
compensation (Optical illusions highlight the differences
between the way things are and the way we perceive them – and
in interface design we need to be aware that we will not always
perceive things exactly as they are.)
 Optical Illusions

The Muller Lyer illusion

The Ponzo illusion

Proof reading illusion
Reading
• Several stages:
– visual pattern perceived
– decoded using internal representation of language
– interpreted using knowledge of syntax, semantics, pragmatics

• Reading involves saccades and fixations (During reading, the eye

makes jerky movements called saccades followed by fixations)
• Perception occurs during fixations which account for approximately
94% of the time elapsed.
• The eye moves backwards over the text as well as forwards, in
what are known as regressions. If the text is complex there will be
more regressions.
• Word shape is important to recognition
• Negative contrast improves reading from computer screen.
Information Input/output Channels>Hearing
• Provides information about environment:
distances, directions, objects etc.
• Physical apparatus:
– outer ear – protects inner and amplifies sound
– middle ear – transmits sound waves as
vibrations to inner ear
– inner ear – chemical transmitters are released
and cause impulses in auditory nerve
• Sound Characterstics
– pitch – sound frequency
– loudness – amplitude
– timbre – type or quality
• Humans can hear frequencies from 20Hz to 15kHz
– less accurate distinguishing high frequencies than low.

• Auditory system filters sounds

– can attend to sounds over background noise.
– for example, the cocktail party phenomenon.
Sound Design Issues
• Speech sounds can obviously be used to
convey information. This is useful not only for
the visually impaired but also for any
application where the user’s attention has to
be divided (for example, power plant control,
flight control, etc.).
• Uses of non-speech sounds include the following:
– Attention – to attract the user’s attention to a critical
situation or to the end of a process, for example.
– Status information – continuous background sounds can
be used to convey status information. For example,
monitoring the progress of a process (without the need for
visual attention).
– Confirmation – a sound associated with an action to
confirm that the action has been carried out. For example,
associating a sound with deleting a file.
– Navigation – using changing sound to indicate where the
user is in a system. For example, what about sound to
support navigation in hypertext?
Information Input/output Channels>
Touch (haptic perception)
• Provides important feedback about environment.
• May be key sense for someone who is visually impaired. (For such users,
interfaces such as braille may be the primary source of information in the
interaction)
• Stimulus received via receptors in the skin:
– thermoreceptors – heat and cold
– nociceptors – pain
– mechanoreceptors – pressure
(some instant, some continuous)
• Some areas more sensitive than others e.g. fingers.
• Kinethesis - awareness of body position
– affects comfort and performance.
Illustrations - Handling the Goods
• E-commerce has become very successful in some areas of sales, such as travel services,
books and CDs, and food. However, in some retail areas, such as clothes shopping, e-
commerce has been less successful. Why?
• When buying train and airline tickets and, to some extent, books and food, the experience of
shopping is less important than the convenience. So, as long as we know what we want, we
are happy to shop online. With clothes, the experience of shopping is far more important.
We need to be able to handle the goods, feel the texture of the material, check the weight to
test quality. Even if we know that something will fit us we still want to be able to handle it
before buying.
• Research into haptic interaction (see Chapter 2 and Chapter 10) is looking at ways of solving
this problem. By using special force feedback and tactile hardware, users are able to feel
surfaces and shape. For example, a demonstration environment called TouchCity allows
people to walk around a virtual shopping mall, pick up products and feel their texture and
weight. A key problem with the commercial use of such an application, however, is that the
haptic experience requires expensive hardware not yet available to the average e-shopper.
However, in future, such immersive e-commerce experiences are likely to be the norm. (See
www.novint.com/)
Information Input/output Channels>Movement
• Time taken to respond to stimulus:
reaction time + movement time
– A simple action such as hitting a button in response to a
question involves a number of processing stages. The
stimulus (of the question) is received through the sensory
receptors and transmitted to the brain. The question is
processed and a valid response generated. The brain then
tells the appropriate muscles to respond. Each of these
stages takes time, which can be roughly divided into
reaction time and movement time.
• Movement time is dependent largely on the physical characteristics
of the subjects: their age and fitness.
• Reaction time varies according to the sensory channel through
which the stimulus is received. (dependent on stimulus type)
– visual ~ 200ms
– auditory ~ 150 ms
– pain ~ 700ms
• Increasing reaction time decreases accuracy in the unskilled
operator but not in the skilled operator.
– Studies of keyboard operators have shown that, although the
faster operators were up to twice as fast as the others, the
slower ones made 10 times the errors.
• Speed and accuracy of movement are
important considerations in the design of
interactive systems, primarily in terms of the
time taken to move to a particular target on a
screen. The target may be a button, a menu
item or an icon, for example.
• The time taken to hit a target is a function of
the size of the target and the distance that
has to be moved.
• Fitts' Law describes the time taken to hit a screen target:
Mt = a + b log2(D/S + 1)
where: a and b are empirically determined constants
Mt is movement time
D is Distance
S is Size of target

• This affects the type of target we design. Since users will find
it more difficult to manipulate small objects, targets should
generally be as large as possible and the distance to be
moved as small as possible.
 Memory (5)

There are three types of memory function:

Types>Sensory Memory
• Act as buffers for stimuli received through senses
– iconic memory: visual stimuli
– echoic memory: aural stimuli
– haptic memory: tactile stimuli
• These memories are constantly overwritten by new
information coming in on these channels.
• Information is passed from sensory memory into short-
term memory by attention, thereby filtering the stimuli
to only those which are of interest at a given time.
Attention is the concentration of the mind on one out
of a number of competing stimuli or thoughts.
Types>Short-term memory (STM)
• Acts as a ‘scratch-pad’ for temporary recall of information.
• It is used to store information which is only required fleetingly.
– rapid access ~ 70ms
– rapid decay ~ 200ms
– limited capacity - 7± 2 chunks
• Examples
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HEC ATR ANU PTH ETR EET

Types>Long-term memory (LTM)
• Repository for all our knowledge
– slow access ~ 1/10 second
– slow decay, if any
– huge or unlimited capacity

• Two types of Long-term memory structure

– episodic – serial memory of events
– semantic – structured memory of facts, concepts, skills

semantic LTM derived from episodic LTM

• Semantic memory structure
– provides access to information
– represents relationships between bits of information
– supports inference

• Model: semantic network

– inheritance – child nodes inherit properties of parent nodes
– relationships between bits of information explicit
– supports inference through inheritance
Semantic Network Model
• Items are associated to each other in classes, and
may inherit attributes from parent classes. This
model is known as a semantic network.
• Semantic networks represent the associations
and relationships between single items in
memory
• As an example, our knowledge about dogs may
be stored in a network such as that shown in
below.
Semantic Frame Model
• Structured representations such as frames and
scripts organize information into data structures.
• Slots in structure instantiated with values for
instance of data.
• Type–subtype relationships
• Frames extend semantic nets to include
structured, hierarchical information. They
represent knowledge items in a way which makes
explicit the relative importance of each piece of
information.
 DOG COLLIE

Fixed Fixed
legs: 4 breed of: DOG
type: sheepdog
Default
diet: carniverous Default
sound: bark size: 65 cm
Variable Variable
size: colour
colour
Semantic Script Model
• Model of stereotypical information required to
interpret situation.
• Script has elements that can be instantiated with
values for context.
• Consider the following sentence:
“John took his dog to the surgery. After seeing the vet, he left.”

From our knowledge of the activities of dog owners and vets, we may fill in a
substantial amount of detail. The animal was ill. The vet examined and
treated the animal. John paid for the treatment before leaving. We are less
likely to assume the alternative reading of the sentence, that John took an
instant dislike to the vet on sight and did not stay long enough to talk to him!
 Script for a visit to the vet

Entry conditions: dog ill Roles: vet examines

vet open diagnoses
owner has money treats
owner brings dog in
Result: dog better
pays
owner poorer
takes dog out
vet richer
Scenes: arriving at reception
Props: examination table
waiting in room
medicine
examination
instruments
paying
Tracks: dog needs medicine
dog needs operation
Semantics – Production Rules Model
• Representation of procedural knowledge.
• Condition/action rules
if condition is matched
then use rule to determine action.

IF dog is wagging tail

THEN pat dog

IF dog is growling
THEN run away
Long-term Memory Processes
• There are three main activities related to long-
term memory:
– storage or remembering of information
– forgetting and
– information retrieval
Storage of Information
• Rehearsal
– information moves from STM to LTM

• Total time hypothesis

– amount retained proportional to rehearsal time (The amount learned
was directly proportional to the amount of time spent learning)

• Distribution of practice effect

– optimized by spreading learning over time (learning time is most
effective if it is distributed over time)

• Structure, meaning and familiarity

– information easier to remember
Forgetting
• There are two main theories of forgetting: decay and
interference.
– Decay
• information is lost gradually but very slowly

– Interference
• new information replaces old called retroactive interference
• old may interfere with new called proactive inhibition

• Forgetting is also affected by emotional factors– can subconsciously

`choose' to forget.
Retrieval
• There are two types of information retrieval:
recall and recognition
– Recall
• information reproduced from memory can be assisted by
cues, e.g. categories, imagery

– Recognition
• information gives knowledge that it has been seen before
• less complex than recall - information is cue
 Thinking, Reasoning and Problem Solving (6)

Thinking
• Thinking can require different amounts of knowledge.
– Some thinking activities are very directed and the knowledge
required is constrained.
– Others require vast amounts of knowledge from different
domains.
• For example, performing a subtraction calculation requires a
relatively small amount of knowledge, from a constrained domain,
whereas understanding newspaper headlines demands knowledge
of politics, social structures, public figures and world events.
• There are two categories of thinking: reasoning and problem
solving.
Reasoning
• Reasoning is the process by which we use the
knowledge we have to draw conclusions or infer
something new about the domain of interest.
• There are a number of different types of
reasoning: deductive, inductive and abductive.
• We use each of these types of reasoning in
everyday life, but they differ in significant ways.
• Deduction Reasoning:
– derive logically necessary conclusion from given premises.
e.g. If it is Friday then she will go to work
It is Friday
Therefore she will go to work.

• Logical conclusion not necessarily true:

e.g. If it is raining then the ground is dry
It is raining
Therefore the ground is dry
• Induction Reasoning:
– generalize from cases seen to cases unseen
e.g. all elephants we have seen have trunks
therefore all elephants have trunks.

• Unreliable:
– can only prove false not true

• Humans not good at using negative evidence

e.g. Wason's cards.
 Wason's cards

7 E 4 K
If a card has a vowel on one side it has an even number on the other

Is this true?

How many cards do you need to turn over to find out?

…. and which cards?

Adductive Reasoning
• reasoning from event to cause (reasones from a
fact to the action or state that caused it)
e.g. Sam drives fast when drunk.
If I see Sam driving fast, assume drunk.

• Unreliable:
– can lead to false explanations
• this too is unreliable since there may be another reason
why she is driving fast: she may have been called to an
emergency, for example.
Problem Solving
• If reasoning is a means of inferring new information from
what is already known, problem solving is the process of
finding a solution to an unfamiliar task, using the knowledge
we have.
• Process of finding solution to unfamiliar task using knowledge.
• Several theories:
• Gestalt
– problem solving both productive and reproductive
– productive draws on insight and restructuring of problem
– attractive but not enough evidence to explain `insight' etc.
– move away from behaviourism and led towards
information processing theories
Problem space theory
– problem space comprises problem states
– problem solving involves generating states using legal operators
– heuristics may be employed to select operators
e.g. means-ends analysis
– operates within human information processing system
e.g. STM limits etc.
– largely applied to problem solving in well-defined areas
e.g. puzzles rather than knowledge intensive areas
Analogy in Problem Solving
– analogical mapping:
• novel problems in new domain?
• use knowledge of similar problem from similar domain
– analogical mapping difficult if domains are semantically
different
• A doctor is treating a malignant tumor. In order to destroy it he needs to
blast it with high-intensity rays. However, these will also destroy the
healthy tissue surrounding the tumor. If he lessens the rays’ intensity the
tumor will remain. How does he destroy the tumor?
• A general is attacking a fortress. He can’t send
all his men in together as the roads are mined
to explode if large numbers of men cross
them. He therefore splits his men into small
groups and sends them in on separate roads.
• Skill acquisition
– skilled activity characterized by chunking
• lot of information is chunked to optimize STM
– conceptual rather than superficial grouping of problems
– information is structured more effectively
 Error and Mental Modes (7)

Types of Error
• Slips
– right intention, but failed to do it right
– causes: poor physical skill, inattention etc.
– change to aspect of skilled behaviour can cause slip

• mistakes
– wrong intention
– cause: incorrect understanding
humans create mental models to explain behaviour.
if wrong (different from actual system) errors can occur
 Emotion (8)

• Various theories of how emotion works

– James-Lange: emotion is our interpretation of a physiological response
to a stimuli
– Cannon: emotion is a psychological response to a stimuli
– Schacter-Singer: emotion is the result of our evaluation of our
physiological responses, in the light of the whole situation we are in
• Emotion clearly involves both cognitive and physical
responses to stimuli
• The biological response to physical stimuli is called affect

• Affect influences how we respond to situations

– positive  creative problem solving
– negative  narrow thinking

• “Negative affect can make it harder to do even

easy tasks; positive affect can make it easier to
do difficult tasks”
Implications for Interface Design
– stress will increase the difficulty of problem
solving
– relaxed users will be more forgiving of
shortcomings in design
– aesthetically pleasing and rewarding interfaces
will increase positive affect
 Individual Differences (9)

• long term
– sex, physical and intellectual abilities
• short term
– effect of stress or fatigue
• changing
– age
Ask yourself:
will design decision exclude section of user
population?
 Summary

• Humans are limited in their capacity to process

information. This has important implications for design.
• Information is received and responses given via a number
of input and output channels:
– visual channel
– auditory channel
– haptic channel
– movement
• Information is stored in memory:
– sensory memory
– short-term (working) memory
– long-term memory
• Information is processed and applied:
– reasoning
– problem solving
– skill acquisition
– error
• Emotion influences human capabilities
• Users share common capabilities but are
individuals with differences, which should not be
ignored