Human Computer Interaction

People in HCI
• Interactive / Interaction Designers
– People involved in the design of all the interactive aspects of a product
• Usability Engineers
– People who focus on evaluating products using usability methods and principles
• UI Designers
– People experienced in user-centered design methodologies
• UI Design Engineers
– People who develop and model the end user experience
• Web Designers
– People who develop and create the visual design of websites, such as layouts &
animations
• Information Architects
– People who come up with ideas of how to plan and structure interactive products
• User Experience Designers
– people who do all the above
 HCI Goals
• Use Microsoft WORD as an example:
 Benefits of HCI
• Gaining market share
– People intend to buy/use products with higher usability ƒ
e.g., Google’s search engine has the largest market share
because it is easy to use with higher efficiency
• Improving productivity
– Employees in a company perform their jobs in a faster
manner
• e.g., Workers in a mainland company needed to press a lengthy
sequence of buttons in performing a task.
– An Information Academic System (IAS) student helped to
increase their productivity via writing a batch program for
the button pressing operation
• e.g., Intranet can increase employees’ efficiency
 Benefits of HCI
• Lowering support costs
– If the product is not usable, calls to customer support
can be enormous (huge).
• e.g., If a washing machine is difficult to use even after
reading the instruction manual, many users will call the
customer service and the cost per call can be over $100
• Reducing development cost
– Avoid implementing features users don’t want and
creating features that are annoying or inefficient
• e.g., If there are too many unnecessary confirmation dialog
boxes in using a word processor, it is likely this product needs
to be redeveloped
 HCI and Academic Disciplines
• Computer Science
– Develop programming languages, system architectures, etc. of the
computing systems ƒ
• Engineering
– Provide faster and cheaper equipment
• Linguistics, Artificial Intelligence
– Speech synthesis and recognition, natural language processing, etc.
• Psychology
– Provide information about human mental capabilities (e.g., memory,
decision making)
• Ergonomics (Human Factors)
– Provide information about human physical capabilities
• Sociology
– How people interact in groups
 Human Computer Interaction
• Human: Individual user, a group of users working
together, a sequence of users in an organization
• Computer: Desktop computer, large-scale computer
system, Pocket PC, embedded system (e.g.,
photocopier, microwave oven), software (e.g., search
engine, word processor)
• User interface: Parts of the computer that the user
contacts with
• Interaction: Usually involve a dialog with feedback &
control throughout performing a task (e.g., user
invokes “print” command and then interface replies
with a dialog box)
 The Computer
a computer system is made up of various elements

each of these elements affects the interaction

– input devices – text entry and pointing
– output devices – screen (small&large), digital paper
– virtual reality – special interaction and display devices
– physical interaction – e.g. sound, haptic, bio-sensing
– paper – as output (print) and input (scan)
– memory – RAM & permanent media, capacity & access
– processing – speed of processing, networks
 Interacting with computers
to understand human–computer interaction
… need to understand computers!

what goes in and out

devices, paper,

sensors, etc.

what can it do?

memory, processing,

networks
 A ‘typical’ computer system
• screen, or monitor, on which there are windows
• keyboard
?
• mouse/trackpad
window 1

• variations
window 2
– desktop
– laptop
– PDA

12-37pm

the devices dictate the styles of interaction that the system supports
If we use different devices, then the interface will support a different style of
interaction
 How many computers …
in your house? in your pockets?
– PC – PDA
– TV, VCR, DVD, HiFi, – phone, camera
cable/satellite TV – smart card.
– microwave, cooker, washing – electronic car key
machine – USB memory
– central heating
– security system
try your pockets and bags

can you think of more?

Richer interaction

sensors

and devices

everywhere
The Human
 Interacting with Computers
• While there are other means of controlling
interfaces, including direct thought control(!),
it is still the case that interaction with a
machine is usually achieved by manipulating
and touching buttons and displays under
visual guidance.
• Desktop computers still use a mouse.
• Tablets and smartphones use a growing range
of gestures.
 ?
• How do people point to an icon or move a mouse
pointer to a target?
• How do people detect when a warning light is
activated on a display?
• Easy to take for granted but actually these are
complex control problems.
• how do people make use of information?
• how do people control the forces applied by the
strength in the arm, hand, and eye so as to guide
a pointer to the target?
 the human
• Information i/o …
– visual, auditory, touch
• Information stored in memory
– sensory, short-term, long-term
• Information processed and applied
– reasoning, problem solving, skill, error
• Emotion influences human capabilities
• Each person is different
 Assignment
• One of the main design principles which Nielsen has
proselytized, especially for website design, is
simplicity. He proposes that designers go through all
of their design elements and remove them one by
one. If a design works just as well without an
element, then remove it. Do you think this is a good
design principle?
• If you have your own website, try doing this and
seeing what happens. At what point does the
interaction break down?