Lecture # 2

HCI can assist in building products/systems that

are:
Useful, accomplish what’s required
Usable, do it easily and naturally
Used, make people want to use them
For a product to be successful, the above three “use”
must be true.
Increases participation
HCI Ensures that interactions and systems are more
accessible.
International Directives and Standards (EC Directive
90/270/EEC; ISO 9241) place directions/requirements
on systems in terms of usability: which make system
more useable and useful.
HCI tackles important questions like:
Are computers intuitive or complicated?
Are computers rewarding or frustrating?
How can computers be made accessible to everybody?
To what level can computer interaction be standardized?
Are computers “user-friendly”?
What does it mean to be “user-friendly”?
For building suitable GUI’s for computing systems
HCI principles guide the developers to design suitable
and useable GUI;s.
A good GUI design leads to a really useable computing
system.
To evaluate performance & the alternatives of
computing systems
HCI methods helps to evaluate the system performance
and also consider the alternatives choices for the
underlying system.
Determine affordance (cost) of computing systems
HCI also take the costs of computing systems into
account. And it determines that what are affordable
systems and how it can built upon the principles of HCI?
Describes the perceived and actual properties of an
object
The study of HCI explores the complete actual
properties of the objects and it gives a sketch between
the actual characteristics and the its perceived
(interpretable as a developed system object) properties.
HCI determines the constraints of computing
systems
The study of HCI considers the limitation and restraints
to build and operate the developed computing systems
in terms of interactions
Major shift in computing systems
50 years ago the cost of a computer was equal to the
salaries of 200 programmers but now in the salary of
one programmer will buy 200 computers, each more
powerful than the early machines, this phenomenon
needs more serious attentions in terms of their
interactions
Improved Quality of Life
HCI application also improves the quality of human
life as more computing machines are being made
more accessible, easy and useful for human
beings.
Growth of the computer and communications
industries
Application of HCI theories and principles are useful
for the growth of computer and communication
industries.
Goals of HCI
• Safety
• Utility
• Effectiveness
• Efficiency
• Usability
• Safety of Users—think of
• Air traffic control
• Hospital intensive care

• Safety of Data—think of
• Protection of files from tampering
• Privacy and security
•Utility: what services a system provides
e.g. Ability to print documents

•Effectiveness: user’s ability to achieve goals, e.g.

•How to enter the desired information
•How to print a report
Utility and effectiveness are distinct. A system might
provide all necessary services, but if users can’t find
the services items, the system lacks effectiveness
A measure of how quickly users can accomplish their
goals or finish their work using the system
“a measure of the ease with which a system can be
learned and used, its safety, effectiveness and
efficiency, and attitude of its users towards it” (Preece et
al., 1994)
“the extent to which a product can be used by specified
users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness,
efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use”
(ISO 9241-11)
Usability concerned with making systems easy to learn
and use. A system is useable if it is:
•easy to learn (the system & its usage components)
•easy to remember how to use
•effective to use
•efficient to use
•safe to use
•comfortable to use
End Lecture