INTRODUCTION

The Human-Computer Interface (HCI) deals with the methods by which computers
and their users communicate. It is the process of designing interface software so that
computers are pleasant, easy to use and do what people want them to do. Dealing with HCI
requires the study of not only the hardware of the computer, but that of the human side also.
Therefore attention must be paid to human psychology and physiology. This is because to
build a better two-way communication, one must know the capabilities and limitation of
both sides. This seminar also deals with concepts and guidelines that should be followed in
order to produce a good HCI. Specifically dealt with topics include Dialogue Design,
Presentation Design, General Input and Output.

Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) is a term used to refer to the understanding and

designing of different relationships between people and computers. At the outset, in the late
1970s, the main concern of HCI was ‘usability’. Since then, HCI has established an
impressive track record for developing and applying all manner of design and evaluation
methods to ensure that technologies are easy to learn and easy to use. So, for example, it has
produced a large body of insightful data or evidence on what is ‘good’ and ‘bad’ usability,
developed methods for the production and analysis of such evidence, and developed an
armoury of tried and tested techniques that HCI practitioners can depend upon in daily
practice to ensure usability.

More recently, HCI has begun to develop techniques for inventing things that are not
just usable but useful. It has also begun to investigate the relationships between people that
computers and computer networks enable, such as patterns of behaviour between people and
within social groups. It is hardly surprising that nearly all computer and communications
companies, as well as companies developing Web applications or computer games, have
HCI practitioners either scattered throughout their product development groups, or as
centralised resources, or even both. Nearly every company of any stature in the technology
industry has experts in HCI.

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 As computing technology has begun to pervade a wider spectrum of products,
including vehicles and white goods (such as ovens and fridges for instance), so other
companies are beginning to employ HCI professionals too. And within organisations, HCI
expertise is of increasing importance as efforts are made to improve the efficiency of their
intranets, a concept which covers such things as internal documentation, information
sharing and administrative functions. The result of these developments is that HCI has
become an integral part of the design process across the board, although it can still be the
case that other demands in design and development get prioritised, meaning that the impact
of HCI comes ‘too little, too late’. Irrespective of its success or failure in particular
instances, the importance of HCI is such that knowledge about it (if not about the nuances
of its techniques) has seeped into the consciousness of nearly all members of our society.
Terms such as ‘usability’, ‘user-friendliness’, ‘human factors’ and ‘user experience’ signal
the impact of HCI in such diverse outlets as advice columns, guides to consumers, cartoons
and even advertising. Consumers of all kinds increasingly see usability – as one of the
dimensions that HCI has expertise in – as a way to choose from a vast array of similar
technological products.

THE EVOLUATION OF HCI

Central to the practice of HCI is a set of concepts, techniques and methods that underpin
research, and help practitioners make decisions when designing interaction with technology.
These have evolved over the past 30 years. The earliest techniques and concepts of HCI, many of
which were first formed in the late 1970s, had their roots in an amalgam of thinking that
emphasised the tradition of Human Factors Engineering. This approach saw the

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primary metaphor for human-computer interaction as being one of ‘human-machine coupling’; as
one that entailed optimising the ‘fit’ between the user and machine. Key elements of HCI still
stem from this influence and associated metaphors and models.
For example, a characteristic and successful methodology for predicting and analysing user
behaviour – the idea that a user needs to fit the computer – is through the application of Fitt’s
Law (1954). This is a model of human movement which is used by researchers to predict, for
example, the time required for a user to click on a given sized target using a mouse. It has been
used widely as a method for evaluating systems where the time to physically locate an object is
critical to the task in hand or where there is limited space on the device for the placement of
digital objects in an interface. For instance, anumber of mobile phone companies used it to
predict text entry rates for different input methods using a 12-key cell phone keypad. It can also
be used to determine the size and location of so-called soft keys on smart phones that only have a
touch-sensitive screen and no real buttons.
As HCI has developed, so there has been a turn towards a greater emphasis on aspects of the
mind and less on the behaviour of the body; less on pointing and clicking with fingers and more
with how people understand and come to recognise objects and processes. There was a
‘cognitive revolution’ at the heart of much of HCI research in the 1980s and 1990s that reflected
this shift. This was presented most famously by the Xerox PARC researchers Card, Moran and
Newell in their book, The Psychology of Human-Computer Interaction (1984). In this view, the
human is seen as an information processor, with inputs (mainly visual), mental processing, and
outputs (keyboard strokes, mouse actions and so on), which then in turn ‘input’ information or
data into the computer. This approach enabled the production of generalisable models of human
interaction, somewhat akin to the models produced by the earlier Human Factors approach.
One notable method was the Goals, Operators, Methods and Selection Rules (or ‘GOMS’)
model, which allowed researchers to develop a model of a user undertaking a particular cognitive
task. This allowed them to optimize technology for a particular activity. In one famous study
(Gray et al, 1995), the technique was used to evaluate a novel workstation proposed for telephone
company operators, demonstrating that the operators’ performance on new workstations would,
in fact, be slower than the existing workstations. This new more cognitive approach built on
rather than displaced the prior Human Factors-oriented HCI. The combination produced
considerable dividends. Indeed, many would argue that much of what we now take for granted –

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including advances in the Graphical User Interface, the speed with which ‘points and clicks’ can
be made, and more – are the consequence of this accumulation of cognitive and Human Factors
approaches. During the 1990s, the concerns of HCI started to shift towards communication
between people enabled by computers. This mirrored the growth in communication networks
linking computers together. If, before, the concern of HCI had been to determine how to let users
efficiently and effectively interact with a computer, now researchers started asking how users
might interact with each other via a computer. Researchers with a background in more socially-
oriented sciences, like Anthropology and Sociology, began to engage with HCI. These
disciplines not only emphasised the effects of computing on groups of people (or users) but also
how computers were interpreted and appropriated by those same groups of users. These
disciplines also brought a concern for the social, emotional, as well as technical ways in which
the relationship with technology develops. Eventually the approaches of these disciplines were
amalgamated so that concerns that had been central before, such as those related to cognitive
processing and so forth, were supplemented (and in some ways replaced) by more complex social
modelling views and techniques.

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 FIELD OF HCI

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 HUMAN PSYCHOLOGY & PHYSIOLOGY

This section mainly deals with the way humans communicate.

The human brain is where all the cognitive functions take place. It is ultimately where a
human receives, interprets and stores information. Information can be processed by the
sense organs and sent to the brain faster and more precise than the brain can handle. Many
models have been developed in order to try and use a computer analogy to brain functions
but with mixed success. They are however quite useful because they present to us a model
with which we can illustrate capabilities and limitations.

These models suggest that there are two forms of human memory: short term and long
term. Each sense appears to have its own short-term memory, which acts like a buffer or
staging area for input from the particular sense organ to the brain. Any memory that is not
reinforced and moved to long-term memory is forgotten. Short term memory has a capacity
of about seven blocks of information but this too seems to be able to be increased with
practice and added levels of abstraction and association.

In order for information to be remembered it must be moved into long-term memory.

This can be a conscious act as in deliberately memorizing something through repetition or
unconscious as when a particularly interesting piece of data is retrieved and requires more
thought. No maximum size of long-term memory has yet been determined. This aspect of
memory and the fact that the human brain can only process so much information is
important to the layout of an HCI. People sometimes describe a particular screen as "too
busy". What this means is that there is too much information on the screen at once. The

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 brain is incapable of taking in so much information at once and ambiguity and confusion
results. Precision should be a primary concern for the HCI designer.

Research has also indicated that a person’s ability to receive and interpret data can be
influenced by outside factors like noise, lighting and other ergonomic factors. The operators
stress and fatigue can impair their ability to function as well.

The primary method of receiving information from a computer is visually. The

physiology of the eye will determine what limitations must be placed on an HCI. Current
technology is able to present information at a faster rate then the eye can see. Limitations of
HCI seem to be placed by the Human, not the Computer.

There are two different types of photoreceptors on the retina which are commonly
referred to as "Rods" and "Cones". Rods are very sensitive to light whereas Cones are less
sensitive. The angle of view for which there is a clear image is actually quite small, no more
than 1 or 2 degrees. Clarity decreases rapidly in the optic field of view as one moves away
from the center of the image. The amount of data that can be accurately seen within a single
view is therefore also quite small and the eye must continually be moving in order to see a
complete screen and then must mentally assimilate all the data into a complete mental page.
This, in combination with the capacity of short-term memory sets a relatively low limit on
the amount of data that can be contained on a single screen.

The eye's ability to distinguish colour, luminance, contrast and brightness also is a
factor which must be considered in HCI. The colour of an object is determined by the
frequency of the light that is reflected from it. Colour sensitivity is created by the existence
of three different types of cones in the eye. One for blue, one for green and one for red.
Each type of cone responds to a certain range of wavelengths. Colour blindness is the
inability to distinguish certain colours, notably reds and greens. This fact is also important
to remember when designing an HCI.

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 Luminance is a measure of the amount of light reflected from a surface. It is
determined by the amount of light that is falling on an object and the reflectance of the
surface of the object. Research has determined that there is a range of optimal luminance
levels and that low illumination can be a hindrance to an otherwise good HCI.

Contrast is defined as the difference between the luminance of an object and its
background divided by the luminance of the background. It is a measure of an eyes ability
to distinguish foreground from background easily. It can have both a positive and a negative
number. The higher the absolute value of the contrast the easier it is to distinguish objects.
What this suggests is that in order for a user to be able to assimilate the information on a
screen better, the background colour and the colour of the foreground text should be of
opposing intensity. For example, black writing on a white background is ideal.

Brightness is usually thought of as a subjective property of light. It depends on many

factors, the main one being comparative illumination. Brightness contrast can cause several
common optical illusions as well. A common one is the "Hermann Grid" shown below as
figure 1.0. Due to the comparative black and white sections, gray dots that aren't there are
seen at the intersections.
 

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 Figure 1.0 - The Hermann Grid

The physical characteristics of the eyes and of vision must be taken into consideration
when designing an HCI and knowledge of basic vision principles can greatly aid the HCI
designer.

Although there is no question that visual is the primary means of relaying information
from a computer to a human, practically every personal computer purchased today has a
sound card and speakers. Audio is becoming a common way of relaying information to a
user. Many help packages for software have an audio as well as visual component. Having a
basic understanding of human hearing, capabilities and limitations can also aid the HCI
designer in designing audio HCI components. Hearing involves the same problems inherent
to seeing; reception of the signal, translating it into nerve impulses and attaching meaning to
the messages. Sound waves travel through air. They have two major attributes which will be
of concern to the HCI designer, frequency and amplitude. Frequency determines the pitch of
the sound and amplitude determines the volume. Young children can hear in the range of

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 about 20 Hz to over 15,000 Hz but this range decreases with age. Rarely are sounds of a
single frequency however. Speech, as well as most everyday sounds, is a very complex
mixture of frequencies.

What is more important than the anatomy of the ear and the physics of sound is the ear
and brains ability to interpret sound. The auditory centre of the brain appears to be able to
distinguish three different types of sound; background unimportant sounds (noise),
background sounds that have significance (child's cry, dog's bark, etc.) and speech. The
same sounds can therefore be "heard" differently depending on the context. Speech is a
continuous thing. When analyzed, it doesn't appear as disjointed syllables or phonemes but
as a continuous stream that must be interpreted at a rate of between 160 and 220 words per
minute

The sense of touch is used as a primary input source and rarely as an output. Touch is
mostly used for output when dealing with the disabled; sight and hearing impaired. Some
pagers vibrate to attract the wearer’s attention etc. The use of a keyboard, mouse, joystick,
light pen, touch pad etc. all use the sense of touch and the reason that there are so many
different keyboards, mice etc. on the market is due to the different "touch" that each device
has. The hand shaped mouse and the "split" keyboard are all examples of devices made to
improve the touch of the device.

Vision is the primary sense used in HCI design and any designer should have a
complete understanding of human vision capabilities and limitations. Hearing is the second
most important sense in HCI design and anyone who undertakes a project with an audio
component should have an understanding of how the ear works and the method by which
speech is interpreted in order to aid in design. Touch should be well understood for the
design of hardware and special function devices.
 

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 INTERFACE ANALYSIS AND SPECIFICATION

Before one can design an appropriate HCI one has to know the reason for the interface.
In other words, an HCI will be part of a larger project developing a complete product for
which the HCI is only a component. An HCI can only be designed if the purpose for the
product itself is well known and understood. This is the task of Requirements Engineering
in which the requirements for the system are elicited from the stakeholders, confirmed and
documented in a manner such that a system can be developed from them.

There are several diverse techniques available for the Requirements Engineer to use in
gathering requirements. One of the components of the results of these techniques will be an
interface design. In order to create an interface design one must begin the task of
"Functional Decomposition". Functional Decomposition is the task of examining a system
or set of requirements and breaking it down into its individual components. Determine what
base functionality you want the system to do. Document these singly and also in such a
manner as to show the relationships between the different tasks. Also list each function
using a spreadsheet or matrix. From this list of required functionalities, determine the ones
that require an HCI. Before deciding the specifications of the HCI, the designer must look at
the target market for the product. Four levels of users are generally defined:

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 1. Naive - These are the users who have never encountered or used a computer in their
lives. With the fact that computers now permeate our lives to such an extent, this group
is becoming quite small, but will always exist.
2. Novice - These are users who are slightly familiar with computers but would be quite
unfamiliar with your system and how it would work. They are not computer phobic but
just lack the exposure and experience.
3. Skilled - Skilled users have considerable computer experience and would be quite
comfortable operating most computer systems. They would know where to go for help
with a system functional problem but still would not have the expertise to understand
the internal working of a computer or application.
4. Expert - The expert user is extremely comfortable with many aspects of computers and
systems. They understand how they function and would attempt first to correct many
problems themselves before obtaining professional help.

The majority of users today fall into categories 2 and 3. Caution must be taken when
designing an HCI for a market containing a number of level 1 users.

As well as understanding the types of users that will eventually be using your product, it
is equally important to understand a number of other user and system attributes. Consider
the following user and application characteristics:

1. Frequency of use - How often will this system be used? Some systems, for example,
are to be used only once and once used, discarded. A year 2000 fix program is a prime
example. If the system is to be used only one a year, such as a system for closing year
end financials, then the user cannot be expected to learn and retain system functionality
from one use to the next. Many times it will be a new user each use.
2. Discretionary usage - An application may be used everyday by the same person so that
workarounds, tricks, shortcuts etc. can be used quite frequently. What if the main user is
away and someone who has never used this system suddenly has to step in?

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 3. User knowledge - A user may be a skilled computer user but totally unskilled in this
particular application. You don't want to treat an expert user as a novice nor do you want
to treat every user as an expert.
4. Mental abilities - It is stated that all systems should be "idiot proof". Too "idiot proof"
can prevent a sophisticated user from making the best use out of the system.
5. Physical skills - Most applications assume a normal human that can see, hear, has two
arms etc. A vast number of people don't have these capabilities and the area of
developing interfaces for the handicapped in a large area of research.

Having determined what interfaces are required based on your requirements document
and the type of user that you will be designing the interface for, one must look at the
different components of an HCI. There are the two basic components, that of getting
information into an application and retrieving it from the application. Most decisions made
by an application require more than a single piece of data however. A dialogue must be
created between the application and the user in order to retrieve all the required information,
in the correct order and format, and this is necessary to have the application fulfill its
function.

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 DIALOGUE DESIGN

The intention of an HCI is to construct a mechanism so that a user can communicate

with the desired application. A computer application is a tool and the HCI is the interface
between the tool and the user. Most tools have interfaces of one form or another. For
example, televisions, VCRs, telephones, etc. have HCI's. Common to these HCI's is the fact
that the information is entered or retrieved in a specific format and sequence. The sequence
of events by which a human and a computer communicate is known as a dialogue.

Dialogues occur in HCI's due to the fact that many decisions must be made. Breaks in
the dialogue must occur at decision points. Once the task of determining the functionality
that the system will possess through the Analysis and Specification phase is complete, the
required dialogue must be mapped out. This task is best done visually via a flowchart.
Figure 2.0 shows a simple Interface Structure Diagram for a library system.

Figure 2.0 - Interface Structure Diagram

In the diagram, the rectangles are nodes, which represent decision points or key entry
or exit points in the dialogue. The arrows represent state transitions when the dialogue

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 switches from one participant to the other. This can be the pressing of the Enter key, the
clicking of a mouse button etc. They usually coincide with the completion of a specific
function.

Research has shown that the best dialogues are created with the input from the actual
user. The best designs are collaborative efforts between the HCI designer and the user.
Prototyping is a key tool in this collaboration. If the user can actually sit at a terminal and
use the dialogue, errors or improvements can quickly be found, faster than by the designer
only who, in most cases, is not going to be the end user.

At this stage in the process, the basic structure of the dialogue is known. Even after the
product is delivered to the end user, feedback on the HCI should be retrieved based on use
and this feedback used to improve future versions. The next steps must be to begin to detail
what occurs at the dialogue nodes. This deals with the specifics of how information is
entered into the computer and how it is presented as output.

PRESENTATION DESIGN

This section deals with determining what information should be used at what stages of
the HCI. Presentation design deals with general principles of designing both input and
output.

After the task of mapping the interface is complete, a number of input and output points
in the process must be determined. These points coincide with events in the dialogue where

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 information must be received by one party from the other in order to proceed. In general,
the steps for determining these points and dealing with them are as follows:

1. Identify all system inputs and outputs.

2. Segment the dialogue specification into screens, overlays, windows, using closure
events, such as the hitting of a key or the clicking of a mouse button, to determine
boundaries.
3. Identify user requirements and characteristics. Before designing your display, know
your user. This will help in deciding how much help to give, how many prompts etc.
4. Describe in detail the data that will be on each logical screen.
5. Design screen structure beginning with a general layout and adding additional
information as required.
6. Test the screens with the users. Get their feedback and modify if necessary.

As a result of these steps it is possible to develop a concrete implementation of the

required dialogue.

Data that is on a screen can be from several different categories.

1. Basic identification data must be part of every screen. What is the application? What
is the current screen? Who is the current user?
2. Application data is dependent upon the current functionality. What data is currently
displayed? What data is required input?
3. Support data is intended to aid the user. This comes in the form of help screens,
pulldown lists, prompts etc., all intended to make sure that the user is never in a position
of not knowing what to do or what can be done.
4. Navigation data deals with questions like: How do you leave the application? How can
you undo changes? How can you advance to the next screen?

Also, the designer has to think about errors or extraordinary occurrences. What
happens when the user enters invalid data? What can the user do when they aren't sure what

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 to do? These are the types of questions that must be asked at this stage in the HCI design
and development.
 

DATA ENTRY INERFACES

HCI dialogues require that two parties, namely the Human and the Computer
communicate. At this stage the future dialogue has been determined and the method by
which this dialogue will be implemented has been designed. Once it is determined what
inputs are desired when, it remains to implement those input requirements. This section
deals strictly with the input function. It mainly deals with the options the designer has and
what best practices have been developed that he can utilize?

Many hardware devices exist for data input. Computers have keyboards and mice for
data input, microphones for voice input, scanner for graphics input if desired, modem for
input from fax, phone, and the Ethernet card, for input from the Internet, cable television,
DVD etc. Other devices may include bar code readers, which are commonly used today in
supermarkets, libraries, etc.

Primary methods of input are still the keyboard, mouse and increasingly, the
microphone. The other devices listed tend to be secondary input devices in that the
computer usually accesses them as the result of an instruction originally through one of the
primary devices. Bar code readers can be the primary input devices, which initiate
transactions on devices such as Automated Bank Tellers etc.

The keyboard is used to enter data into specific areas on a screen as the result of a
response required from the computer. A key aspect of HCI is that the user knows what is
required of him in regards to that response. This is done during screen design. As stated

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 above, we know what the screen flow will be and what data we want on or from a specific
screen. Improvements can be done to the screen to remove ambiguity and assist the user in
understanding what is required from him.

Some guidelines that are commonly used to improve the screen layout and usage:

1. Set defaults for commonly entered items.

2. If codes and abbreviations are used, ensure that translations and interpretations are
available.
3. Automatically fill in previously entered fields or data that can be retrieved from a
file.
4. Use selection or pulldown lists if selections are from a previously determined set of
options.
5. If the input screen resembles an already used and accepted form, try to use the form
as a model.
6. Group like data. When data has a logical connection, place them on the same screen
if possible without crowding. For example, all of a customer’s address information
should be entered on a single screen.

A screen consists of fields that, when entered, are processed. Several types of processing
are done, namely unit validation such as confirming that numeric values are only numbers,
dates are valid etc., referential validation such as confirming that an entered customer
number exists etc. Decisions must be made as to when the different types of processing
takes place. Some general guidelines that are followed are:

1. Explicit Enter. Referential validation only occurs when the user presses the enter
key. Unit validation can occur when the focus leaves a specific field.
2. Explicit Movement. If the user can have choices as to which field to enter next, force
the user of the TAB or CR entries or reposition with the mouse.

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 3. Explicit Cancel. If the user interrupts data input, do not erase it but leave it visible
for consideration. Only upon validation should invalid data be removed.
4. Explicit Delete. On any undoable transactions, force a confirmation. The user should
also be warned of the undoability of the transaction so as to minimize any user error.
5. Feedback. Make sure that the user can see what they've entered.
6. Allow editing. While maintaining referential integrity, allow the user the ability to go
back to previous data and modify.
7. Provide Undo. As far as possible, allow the user to undo previously entered
transactions or actions.
8. Autoformat. Where there is a predefined required format, show that format on the
screen or give the user the ability to determine that format.
9. Show valid responses. When the input is from a predetermined list of entries, allow
the user access to that list either through the use of a pulldown list, selection buttons
etc.
10. Let the user control. Let the user determine the rate of data entry. The designer
cannot be assured that the application can handle all eventualities.

When designing a screen, it is essential to understand that a single screen consists of a

number of different components. The following is a description of the user interface of
Microsoft Word, which is used commonly for text processing. The top is the title bar that
describes what the current application is. Beneath that is the menu bar which describes what
the user can do. This consists of various options like File, Edit, Insert, Format, etc. Different
options are clearly spelled out with a comprehensive help function available. Beneath that
are tool bars that vary depending on what the user can do on the current screen. Where
options must be chosen from a predefined list, such as for the font size and font name, a
pulldown list gives all the options. Although this Word Processor has a relatively simple
HCI it is sophisticated in the fact that the user controls the flow, has complete knowledge of
what is expected and what options are available. Its basic features should be utilized in
developing more complex applications.

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 DATA RETRIEVAL INTERFACES

Information can be retrieved from a computer in many ways. It is possible to read the
output either on a screen or from a paper copy. It is also possible to have a voice synthesizer
which will output the data through a speaker if the reader is vision impaired.

Other methods for retrieving information are: printers, plotters, signals to devices to
start a device, stop a device etc., writing to storage devices. HCI deals mainly with screens,
printed material, and audio. Similar principles apply to both screen and printed output as
they are both visual. In other words, visual and audio are the two main HCI interfaces. The
section on human physiology and psychology examined the capabilities and limitations of
the human visual and audio senses. A successful HCI must adapt to these. The following
guidelines should be considered when designing the Computer to Human component of an
HCI.

1. Group data in a logical manner. Data that can be associated and has a logical
relationship should be easily obtainable from the users current position within the
application.
2. Order data according to meaning. People read from left to right. The most important
information should be at the top left of a screen or report.
3. Use lists. When the relationships and similarities between various data can be seen
all within the same field of view the relationships can be assimilated easier.
4. Use appropriate fonts and sizes. The user should not have to search a screen to find
data because it's too small.
5. Provide clear headings, titles and navigational information.

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 6. Use colour to highlight important data. This can be error warnings or any other
information that the application wishes to draw the users’ attention to.
7. Use popup and dialog boxes for extraordinary situations. These can include errors
but also one time date entries, logons etc.
8. Where there are different conventions, show the convention currently in use. For
example, the conventions used for expressing the date vary between places. If the
expected date input format is YYYY/MM/DD, make sure that the user knows this.

When the designer has a chance to use graphics, they should take that opportunity. It is
especially true with HCI that a picture is worth a thousand words. Data that is spatial in
nature should be shown on a map. Graphs or pie charts should be used to represent
statistical data. Ensure that any graphs are well labeled. All axes should be labeled with
legends for all displays. It should also be ensured the scale is known. All key points should
be labeled so that anyone using the graph can clearly see what is being represented.

The software engineering process is followed for the design of an HCI. As with any
stage in systems design, the user must be involved early in the design process. Mockups and
prototypes have clearly been proven as effective tools to improve HCI design and the
sooner the end user gets a chance to comment on the product, the better the product will be.
 

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 FEATURES OF HCI

The features to consider including when providing a sophisticated human/computer interface are
outlined below.

On-line help facility:-

All software packages should have an on-line help facility, where users can get help from the
package rather than having to look through manuals or user guides. But bear in mind that On-line
help packages increase the size of the application.

The screen shot opposite shows the on-line help screen in Microsoft Word. Typing in a word or
phrase produces information on that topic.
.

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Graphical user interface (GUI):-
GUIs need a lot of main memory to enable them to run at a reasonable speed. The use of
Windows-based operating systems and applications software has pushed up the average memory
requirements for computers.

If you are considering writing a program or developing a system with a GUI, you should always
bear in mind the extra resources it requires, which could limit its use for organisations that have
older hardware and thus be unable to run your software. One way around the problem is to use
only a few pictures, fewer graphics, and to limit the range of colours used.

Increased numbers of ways of performing the same operation:-

Many user interfaces offer more than one way to achieve the same result, with the choice left to
the user.
For example, a novice may prefer to use a pull-down menu or click on an icon to print out a file,
whereas the experienced user may find it faster to issue a command using a sequence of keys,
such as Ctrl+P

Multi-tasking capabilities:-
Most modern operating systems support multitasking, which makes it easy for the user to switch
between applications. Multi-processing, where more than one application is open at any one time,
places great demands on the processing power of the chip as well as the main memory
requirements. As users demand this facility, faster processors and more main memory are
needed.

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Faster searching of help files:-
Chips with a higher clock speed are able to search for on-line help faster and display the results
sooner. If help does not appear almost immediately, users may be put off using it.

The resource implications of sophisticated human/computer interfaces

(HCIs):-
Any sophisticated HCI is going to push the existing technology to the limit as graphical user
interfaces need faster processors and more main memory. The easier the interface is to use, the
more demands it places on the computer. As we move towards speech recognition systems
(where the user can simply speak to the computer) the greater the required level of sophistication
of both hardware and software.

Some user interfaces are quite expensive in terms of hardware and software. For example, touch-
screen technology enables people who may have never used a computer before to find out about
a range of products and services, but this requires an expensive screen. CAD work requires
maximum use of the screen uncluttered by toolbars and menus, so these are transferred to an
expensive graphics tablet instead.

Resource implications for the processor:-

The greater the demands placed on the processor by sophisticated operating systems and
applications software, the slower they will run. Processors are continually being developed to
cope with the demands placed on them by new software. Graphics-hungry applications stretch

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the capabilities of the chip, and to run such software quickly requires a processor with a high
clock speed.

Resource implications for the immediate access store (IAS):-

To manipulate large graphics files on the screen the IAS (i.e. the main memory) needs to be
large, otherwise the system will be very slow and frustrating to use. Having a large main memory
[e.g. 256 MB instead of 128 or 64 MB) means that many windows can be opened at the same
time without any appreciable loss of speed.

Resource implications for backing storage :-

The large files associated with a sophisticated HCI will need a high-capacity hard drive as well as
high-capacity removable storage (not floppy disks) such as a Zip drive to enable backup copies to
be taken.

Resources for development:-

If a company is writing software to do a particular task, a sophisticated HCI will take more time
to develop and test which will add to the cost of the project. However, this cost should be
balanced against the lower training and support costs incurred as a result of users not getting into
difficulty so often. With a good HCI they should be able to solve their own problems more often
without ringing the help desk.

The implications for customising software to develop a specialist HCI:-

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Most software packages, for example Microsoft Word, allow users to customise the software to
suit their needs. By taking some time initially to look at the customisation options you can often
save time in the long run. For instance such options in Word include:

 You can create new toolbars or

menus by adding icons or groups
and getting rid of any which you seldom use. In some
cases, the software is automatically configured on the
basis of what is used most often. In other words, it puts only those items that you use
regularly in the toolbars.

 You can customise your

documents by altering templates
(which come with Word) to suit
your preferred document style.
These template files give your
documents a consistent style.

 You can alter the frequency with

which automatic backup copies are
made.

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  You can alter the directory in
which Word stores your data files,
and thus avoid having to use the
`save as' function (which wastes
time as you must select the directory each time).

 It is possible to change the appearance of the Word screen by either hiding or displaying
screen items such as the toolbars, rulers, the menu bar, etc.

Customising:-

Customising is often used to simplify the HCI. For example, you may develop a database using
the relational database Microsoft Access. As its developer, you will understand it fully, but will it
be as simple to use for a novice? The user's job might be simply to input orders or stock details
into the system, and for this task they do not need to understand the intricacies of the package.
Instead, they need to be kept away from the interface supplied with the package, since this is
really only suitable for experienced users. To do this, you as the developer have to develop
menus from which the user can select only what they require for their particular job.

MAJOR RECOMMENDATION

Military research and development efforts at interface design should address only those areas that
are not likely to be improved by industrial investment. Efforts should continue to evaluate the
capabilities of technologies to meet military requirements and provide industry with feedback

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regarding the effectiveness of their products within integrated systems designed to meet military
needs.

Digital technologies have become a central feature of the 21st century and will become an
even more fundamental and critical part of how we live. Our relationship with technology is
changing and these changes raise fundamental questions about what we anticipate of computer
systems in the future. What is clear is that digital technology in the world of 2020 will be as
different from today as technology twenty five years ago was different from what we have now.
These shifts and transformations in technology, and in our judgments about what we want
computing to do, pose fundamental questions to those involved in Human-Computer Interaction.
These questions require the HCI community to bring to the fore the fundamental human values
shaping our everyday world and to use these to guide how HCI helps shape the ways people of
all kinds will relate to computing technologies in 2020. This shift towards an emphasis on being
human leads us to propose seven key recommendations to conclude this report.

CONCLUSIONS

This seminar attempts to give an introduction to the subject of designing and

developing good Human Computer Interfaces. Understanding how the human perceives
information and its capabilities and limitations is of prime importance in developing
workable HCI's. Several proven methods were explored which should assist the HCI
designer in determining what interfaces have to be developed and how to make them so that
they assist the user in accomplishing the desired tasks.

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 The techniques that can be used from a computer perspective are changing quite
rapidly. The fact that this field has undergone and will go through a lot of changes is
reflected in the way computer technology has developed. Only some years back an HCI
involved punch cards, paper tape and massive printouts. Today terminals, keyboards, mice,
speakers, touchpads etc take up the main role. Twenty years from now it is possible to have
highly advanced forms of 3D virtual reality displays and voice interpreters, all which are on
the market now in a primitive way. Recent technology that enables transmission of the sense
of touch is only an indication of the things to come. HCI will be an ongoing area of research
for many years to come.

Virtual environments technology has made significant progress in producing realistic

dynamic environments that can be used for a number of military purposes. The technology,
however, is still in its infancy and some problems exist with the interface technologies that
allow humans to interact with virtual environments. Visual systems are the furthest
advanced. Dramatic growth in capability coupled with lowered prices have made low cost
high fidelity visuals possible. Other technologies are not as advanced. Those that sense body
position are cumbersome, sometimes slow and inaccurate and subject to interference.
Locomotion cannot be accomplished realistically and haptic displays are immature. Also,
immersive Virtual Reality can cause subjects to feel discomfort similar to motion sickness.
Human Factors issues need to remain a driving consideration in improvements to virtual
environments interface devices.

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 REFERENCES

 http://sern.ucalgary.ca
 http://sigchi.org/cdg
 Trends in Software Engineering – The Human Computer Interface- Alan D.
Goodbrand

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