Human Computer

HCI
Interaction
(HCI)
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Chapter One

HCI
Introduction

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 HCI
• HCI is emerged discipline concerned basically on the
interaction between human beings and the
computing environment.

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• Alternative names:

HCI
• Man-machine-interaction (MMI) and
• Computer-human-interaction (CHI)
• all concerned about the interaction between people
(user) and the computer.
• HCI “is the scientific study of the interaction between
people, computers, and the work environment. 3
 HCI
The term HCI was adopted in mid-1980s:
• Association for Computing Machinery (ACM):
“discipline concerned with the design, evaluation &
implementation of interactve computer systems for

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human use and with the study of major phenomena
surrounding them” (1992)

HCI
• Dix: “HCI is study of people, computer technology and
the ways these influence each other. We study HCI to
determine how we can make this computer technology
more usable by people” (1998)
• Carroll: “HCI is the study and practice of usability. It is
about understanding and creating software and other 4
technology that people will want to use, will be able to
use, and will find effectve when used.” (2002)
HCI
Human:
• Individual user, a group of users working together,
a sequence of users in an organization

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Computer:
• Desktop computer, large-scale computer system, Pocket

HCI
PC, embedded system (e.g., photocopier, microwave oven),
sofware (e.g., search engine, word processor)
User interface:
• Parts of the computer that the user interacts with
Interacton:
• Usually involve a dialog with feedback and control 5
throughout performing a task (e.g., user invokes “print”
command and then interface replies with a dialog box)
HCI is about
• Understanding the users
• Understanding users tasks
• Understanding the surrounding
environment
• GUI requirements gathering and analysis
• Design prototype
• Evaluate the system
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 SCOPE OF HCI
• The scope of HCI includes:
• The problems people have with computers
• The impact of computers upon people in

HCI
both individual and organizational contexts
• The determinants of utility, usability and
acceptability
• The appropriate allocation of tasks between
computers and people 7
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Scope
• Modeling the user as an aid to better
system design

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• Harmonizing the computer to the
characteristics and needs of the user.

HCI
• Due to wider scope, the tendency is
towards general principle rather than
specific system.

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 Scope

HCI 30-Mar-17
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Goal Of HCI
• The focus of HCI is on the design,
implementation, and evaluation of interactive

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computer-based system.

HCI
• It is also concerned about with
multidisciplinary study of various issues
affecting this interaction.
• Ensuring safety, utility, effectiveness,
efficiency, accessibility, and usability of
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systems is the focal concern of HCI.
Goal
• Safety: protecting the user from dangerous
conditions and undesirable situations

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• Users operators should interact with computer-
based systems remotely

HCI
• Nuclear energy plant or bomb-disposal
• Medical equipment in intensive care unit (ICU)
• Data Prevent user from making serious errors by
reducing risk of wrong keys/buttons being
mistakenly activated
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 Goal
• Utlity: extent of providing the right kind of
functionality so that users can do what they need or
want to do

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• High utility

HCI
• Scientific calculator provides many mathematical operations,
built-in formulae, and is programmable
• Low utility
• Sofware drawing tool does not allow free-hand drawing but
supports polygon shape drawing
• Effectveness: concern a user’s ability to accomplish
a desired goal or to carry out work
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Goal
• Efficiency: a measure of how quickly

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users can accomplish their goals or finish
their
work

HCI
• Usability: ease of learning and ease of use
• Appeal: how well the user likes the system
• First impression
• Long-term satisfaction
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 Goal

HCI 30-Mar-17
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HCI Benefits
• Gaining market share
• Improving productvity

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• Lowering support costs

HCI
• Reducing development cost

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HISTORICAL ROOTS OF HCI
• Human-computer interaction arose as
a field from intertwined roots in:

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• Computer graphics

HCI
• Operating systems
• Human factors
• Ergonomics
• Industrial engineering
• Cognitive psychology 16

• The systems part of computer science

 HCI 30-Mar-17
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 HISTORICAL ROOTS OF HCI
• Computer graphics was born from the use of CRT (Cathode
ray tube) and pen devices very early in the history of
computers.

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• This led to the development of several human-computer
interaction techniques. Many techniques date from

HCI
Sutherland's Sketchpad Ph.D. thesis (1963) that essentially
marked the beginning of computer graphics as a discipline.
• Work in computer graphics has continued to develop
algorithms and hardware that allow the display and
manipulation of ever more realistic-looking objects (e.g.,
CAD/CAM machine parts or medical images of body parts).
• Computer graphics has a natural interest in HCI as "interactive 18
graphics" (e.g., how to manipulate solid models in a
CAD/CAM system).
HISTORICAL ROOTS OF HCI
• A related set of developments were attempts to pursue:
• “Man-machine symbiosis" (Licklider, 1960),
• The "augmentation of human intellect" (Engelbart, 1963),

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• The "Dynabook" (Kay and Goldberg, 1977).

HCI
• Out of this line of development came a number of
important building blocks for human-computer
interaction.
• The mouse
• Bitmapped displays
• Personal computers
• Windows
• The desktop metaphor 19

• Point-and-click editors
HISTORICAL ROOTS OF HCI
• Work on operatng systems developed techniques
for interfacing input/output devices

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• Examples (contribution of OS to HCI):
• Tuning system response time to human

HCI
interaction times
• Multiprocessing
• Supporting windowing environments and
animation.
• This strand of development has currently given
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rise to "user interface management systems" and
"user interface toolkits".
HISTORICAL ROOTS OF HCI
• Human factors derives from the problems of designing
equipment operable by humans during World War II
(Sanders & McCormick, 1987).

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• Many problems faced by those working on human factors
had strong sensory-motor features (e.g., the design of flight

HCI
displays and controls).
• The problem of the human operation of computers was a
natural extension of classical human factors concerns,
except that the new problems had substantial cognitive,
communication, and interaction aspects not previously
developed in human factors, forcing a growth of human
factors in these directions. 21
HISTORICAL ROOTS OF HCI)
• Ergonomics is similar to human factors, but it arose from
studies of work. As with human factors, the concerns of

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ergonomics tended to be at the sensory-motor level, but
with an additional physiological flavor and an emphasis on
stress.

HCI
• Human interaction with computers was also a natural topic
for ergonomics, but again, a cognitive extension to the field
was necessary resulting in the current "cognitive
ergonomics" and "cognitive engineering."
• Because of their roots, ergonomic studies of computers
emphasize the relationship to the work setting and the 22
effects of stress factors, such as the routinization of work,
sitting posture, or the vision design of CRT displays.
 HISTORICAL ROOTS OF
HCI
• Industrial engineering arose out of attempts to raise
industrial productivity starting in the early years of this
century.

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• The early emphasis in industrial engineering was in the design
of efficient manual methods for work (e.g., a two-handed

HCI
method for the laying of bricks (bar)),
• The design of specialized tools to increase productivity and
reduce fatigue (tiredness)
• Brick pallets at waist height so bricklayers didn't have to bend over
• The design of the social environment
• The invention of the suggestion box
• Interaction with computers is a natural topic for the scope of 23
industrial engineering in the context of how the use of
computers fit into the larger design of work methods.
HISTORICAL ROOTS OF HCI
• Cognitive psychology derives from atempts to study sensation
experimentally at the end of the 19th century.
• In the 1950's, an infusion of ideas from communications

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engineering, linguistics, and computer engineering led to an
experimentally-oriented discipline concerned with human

HCI
information processing and performance.
• Cognitive psychologists have concentrated on the learning of
systems, the transfer of that learning, the mental representation
of systems by humans, and human performance on such
systems.
• The growth of discretionary computing and the mass personal
computer and workstation computer markets have meant
that
sales of computers are more directly tied to the quality of their 24
interfaces than in the past.
HISTORICAL ROOTS OF HCI
• The result has been the gradual evolution of a
standardized interface architecture from hardware

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support of mice to shared window systems to
"application management layers."

HCI
• Along with these changes, researchers and designers
have begun to develop specification techniques for user
interfaces and testing techniques for the practical
production of interfaces.

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FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS OF HCI
• Decreasing hardware costs leading to larger memories and
faster systems.
• Smallness of hardware leading to portability.

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• Reduction in power requirements leading to portability.

HCI
• New display technologies leading to the packaging of
computational devices in new forms.
• Assimilation of computation into the environment (e.g.,
VCRs, televisions).
• Specialized hardware leading to new functions (e.g. rapid
text search).
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Future
• Increased development of network communication
and distributed computing.

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• Increasingly widespread use of computers,
especially by people who are outside of the

HCI
computing profession.
• Increasing innovation in input techniques
• Wider social concerns leading to improved access
to computers by currently disadvantaged groups
(e.g., young children, the physically/visually
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disabled, etc.).
Future
• Based on the above trends, we expect a future for
HCI with some of the following characteristics:

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1. Ubiquitous (everywhere) communication.
Computers will communicate through high speed

HCI
local networks, nationally over wide-area
networks, and portably via infrared, ultrasonic,
cellular, and other technologies.
Data and computational services will be portably
accessible from many locations to which a user
travels. 28
 Future
2. High functionality systems.
• Systems will have large numbers of functions
associated with them. There will be so many

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systems that most users, technical or non-technical,
will not have time to learn them in the traditional

HCI
way (e.g., through thick manuals).
3. Mass availability of computer graphics.
• Computer graphics capabilities such as image
processing, graphics transformations, rendering,
and interactive animation will become widespread
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as inexpensive chips become available for inclusion
in general workstations.
Future
4. Mixed media.
• Systems will handle images, voice, sounds, video,

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text, formatted data. .
5. High-bandwidth interaction.

HCI
• The rate at which humans and machines interact
will increase substantially due to the changes in
speed, computer graphics, new media, and new
input/output devices.

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Future
6. Large and thin displays.
• New display technologies will finally mature

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enabling very large displays and also displays that
are thin, light weight, and have low power

HCI
consumption.
• This will have large effects on portability and will
enable the development of paper-like, pen-based
computer interaction systems very different in
feel from desktop workstations of the present.
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Future
7. Embedded computation.
• Computation will pass beyond desktop computers into every

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object for which uses can be found.
• Example: embedding computation in greeting cards.

HCI
• To some extent, this development is already taking place. The
difference in the future is the addition of networked
communications that will allow many of these embedded
computations to coordinate with each other and with the
user.
• Human interfaces to these embedded devices will in many
cases be very different from those appropriate to
workstations. 32
Future
8. Group interfaces.
• Interfaces to allow groups of people to

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coordinate will be common (e.g., for
meetings, for engineering projects, for

HCI
authoring joint documents).
• These will have major impacts on the nature
of organizations and on the division of labor.
• Models of the group design process will be
embedded in systems and will cause 33

increased rationalization of design.

Future...(cont’d)
9. User Tailorability.
10. Information Utilities.

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• Public information utilities (such as Compuserve,
Prodigy, home banking and shopping, etc.) and

HCI
specialized industry services (e.g., weather for
pilots) will continue to proliferate. The rate of
explosion will accelerate with the introduction of
high-bandwidth interaction and the
improvement in quality of interfaces.
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Future
• One consequence of the above developments is that
computing systems will appear partially to dissolve into the

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environment and become much more intimately associated
with their users' activities.
• Personal computers in some form will continue to exist

HCI
(although many might take the form of electronic notebooks)
and there will still be the problem of designing interfaces so
that users can operate them.
• The rapid pace of development means that the preparation of
students must address not only the present state of
technology, but also provide the foundations for future
possibilities.
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