LECTURE TWO:

Foundations of Human–Computer Interaction

Introduction to HCI
 FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN–COMPUTER INTERACTION

• THE HUMAN CAPABILITIES

• These are the various human capabilities that influences

human interaction with computer system, hence have
important implications for design.
• The main factors are:
• Input/Output (I/O) channels
• Human Memory
• Reasoning and problem solving
 FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN–COMPUTER INTERACTION
• THE HUMAN CAPABILITIES

• Input/Output (I/O) channels

• Humans interact with (the outside world) computer
system through sending and receiving information
• The user’s output becomes the computer’s input and
vice versa.

• Example, the human eye may be used primarily in

receiving information from the computer, but it can also
be used to provide information to the computer, for
example by fixating on a particular screen point when
using an eye-gaze system
 FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN–COMPUTER INTERACTION

• THE HUMAN CAPABILITIES

• Input/Output (I/O) channels

• Input in human occurs mainly through the senses
whilst output occurs via the motor control of the
effectors
• Five Main Senses
• Sight
• Hearing
• Touch
• Taste
• Smell
• Of these only sight, hearing and touch are central to HCI
 FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN–COMPUTER INTERACTION

• THE HUMAN CAPABILITIES

• Input/Output (I/O) channels

• The effectors, includes the limbs, fingers, eyes, head
and vocal system

• In interaction, how humans perceive things like

brightness, size, colour, etc. and also how humans
read, touch, process sound, hear and move their
bodies are very pertinent to be considered
 FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN–COMPUTER INTERACTION

• THE HUMAN CAPABILITIES

• Input/Output (I/O) channels
• How the human eye perceive size
 FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN–COMPUTER INTERACTION

• THE HUMAN CAPABILITIES

• Human Memory
• The human memory is the second part of human model
as an information-processing system
• It allows repeated actions, use of language, and the use
of new information received via the senses
• It also gives the human the sense of identity, by
preserving information from past experiences.
 FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN–COMPUTER INTERACTION

• THE HUMAN CAPABILITIES

• Types of the Human Memory

• The human memory functions in three separate but
interactive ways
1. As a sensory buffers,
2. As short-term memory or working memory, and
3. As the long-term memory.
 FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN–COMPUTER INTERACTION
• THE HUMAN CAPABILITIES
• Types of the Human Memory
1. Sensory memories
• They act as buffers for stimuli received through the senses
• Iconic: visual stimuli,
• Echoic: aural stimuli, and
• Haptic: touch
• 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.
• Attention is the concentration of the mind on one out
of a number of competing thoughts.
 FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN–COMPUTER INTERACTION
• THE HUMAN CAPABILITIES
• Types of the Human Memory
2. Short-term memory / Working Memory
• It acts as a ‘scratch-pad’ for temporary recall of
information.
• It stores information fleetingly and it can be accessed
rapidly.
• It has a limited capacity
• Example: multiply 23 by 6
• Chances: either 6 x 3 and 20 x 6, then add up the result.
• To perform such calculations, we need to store the
intermediate stages for use later. And that is stored in
the short-term memory
 FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN–COMPUTER INTERACTION
• THE HUMAN CAPABILITIES
• Types of the Human Memory
2. Short-term memory / Working Memory…
• Two methods of measuring memory capacity
1. Determining the length of a sequence which
can be remembered in order
2. Allowing items to be freely recalled in any order.
• Using the first measure, the average user can remember
7±2 digits
• 342355675
• 342 355 675
• Grouped or chunked
 FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN–COMPUTER INTERACTION
• THE HUMAN CAPABILITIES
• Types of the Human Memory
3. Long-term memory
• Intended for the long-term storage of information
• Information is placed there from the working memory
through rehearsal
• It stores factual information, experiential knowledge,
procedural rules of behaviour and almost everything
we ‘know’.
• Even if forgetting occur at all, it is very slow in the
long-term memory
 FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN–COMPUTER INTERACTION
• THE HUMAN CAPABILITIES
• Types of the Human Memory
3. Long-term memory…
• Two main types
1. Episodic memory
2. Semantic memory
Episodic memory represents our memory of events and
experiences in a serial form.
• Actual events that took place at a given point are
reconstructed here
Semantic memory, is a structured record of facts, concepts
and skills that we have acquired.
The information here is derived from that in our episodic
memory
 FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN–COMPUTER INTERACTION
• THE HUMAN CAPABILITIES
• Types of the Human Memory
3. Long-term memory…
• Three main activities related to long-term memory:
1. Storage or remembering of information
2. Forgetting
3. Information retrieval
 FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN–COMPUTER INTERACTION
• THE HUMAN CAPABILITIES
• Types of the Human Memory…
• Three main activities related to long-term memory:
1. Storage or remembering of information
1. If information is not meaningful, it is more difficult to
remember.
2. If information is meaningful and familiar, it can be related to
existing structures and more easily incorporated into memory
2. Forgetting
• Two main theories of forgetting, namely decay and
interference
• The Decay theory suggests that information held in long-
term memory may eventually be forgotten.
• The interference theory simply means that information is lost
from memory through interference
 FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN–COMPUTER INTERACTION
• THE HUMAN CAPABILITIES
• Types of the Human Memory…
• Three main activities related to long-term memory:
3. Information retrieval
• Two types of information retrieval, recall and
recognition
• In recall, the information is reproduced from memory
• In recognition, the presentation of the information
provides the knowledge that the information has been
seen before
 FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN–COMPUTER INTERACTION
• THE HUMAN CAPABILITIES
• Thinking: Reasoning and Problem Solving

• What is Reasoning?
The process of using acquired knowledge to draw
conclusions or make new inference about the domain of
interest
Types of reasoning:
1. Deductive
2. Inductive
3. Abductive
 FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN–COMPUTER INTERACTION
• THE HUMAN CAPABILITIES
• Thinking: Reasoning and Problem Solving
Types of reasoning:
1. Deductive Reasoning
• Derives the logically necessary conclusion from the given
premises.
• Example:
• If it is Sir Matthew then He is an ICT Lecturer
• Deductively, it is Sir Matthew, therefore He is an ICT
Lecturer
2. Inductive Reasoning
• Induction is generalizing from cases we have seen to
infer information about cases we have not seen
 FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN–COMPUTER INTERACTION
• THE HUMAN CAPABILITIES
• Thinking: Reasoning and Problem Solving
Types of reasoning:
3. Abductive Reasoning
• Abduction reasons from a fact to the action or state that
caused it
We use abductive reason to derive explanations for the
events we observe.

• If an event always follows an action, the user will infer

that the event is caused by the action unless evidence
to the contrary is made available.
 FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN–COMPUTER INTERACTION
• THE HUMAN CAPABILITIES
• Thinking: Reasoning and Problem Solving

What is Problem Solving?

• The process of finding a solution to an unfamiliar task, using
the knowledge we have
• It is the ability to adapt the information we have to deal with
new situations.
• Problem Solving Theories
• Gestalt theory,
• Problem Space theory,
• Analogy theory, etc
 FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN–COMPUTER INTERACTION
• THE HUMAN CAPABILITIES
• Thinking: Reasoning and Problem Solving

• Problem Solving Theories

• Gestalt theory
• This theory claims that, problem solving is both
reproductive and productive.
• Reproductive problem-solving draws on previous
experience (reproducing known responses)
• Productive problem solving involves insight and
restructuring of the problem
 FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN–COMPUTER INTERACTION
• THE HUMAN CAPABILITIES
• Thinking: Reasoning and Problem Solving
• Problem Solving Theories
• Problem space theory
• Proposed in the 1970s by Newell and Simon.
• In this theory, people solve problems by searching in a
problem space.
• The problem space consists of the initial (current)
state, the goal state, and all possible states in
between.
• The actions that people take in order to move
from one state to another are known as
operators
 FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN–COMPUTER INTERACTION
• THE HUMAN CAPABILITIES
• Thinking: Reasoning and Problem Solving

• Problem Solving Theories

• Analogy in problem solving
• This element involves the use of analogy.
• Similarities between the known domain and the new one
are noted and operators from the known domain are
transferred to the new one.
 FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN–COMPUTER INTERACTION

• THE COMPUTER CAPABILITIES

• In order to understand how humans interact with

computers, there is the need to understand both
capabilities (Computers and Humans).
• Computer system comprises various elements, each of
which affects the user of the system.
 FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN–COMPUTER INTERACTION

• THE COMPUTER CAPABILITIES

• Various Computer Elements

• Input devices for interactive use, allowing text entry,
drawing and selection from the screen:
• Text entry: traditional keyboard, phone text entry,
speech and handwriting
• Pointing: principally the mouse, but also touchpad,
stylus and others
• 3D interaction devices.
 FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN–COMPUTER INTERACTION

• THE COMPUTER CAPABILITIES

• Various Computer Elements

• Output display devices for interactive use:
• Different types of screen mostly using some form of
bitmap display
• Large displays and situated displays for shared and
public use
• Digital paper may be usable in the near future.
 FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN–COMPUTER INTERACTION

• THE COMPUTER CAPABILITIES

• Various Computer Elements

• Virtual reality systems and 3D visualization which have
special interaction and display devices.

• Various devices in the physical world:

• Physical controls and dedicated displays
• Sound, smell and haptic feedback
• Sensors for nearly everything including movement,
temperature, bio-signs.
 FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN–COMPUTER INTERACTION

• THE COMPUTER CAPABILITIES

• Various Computer Elements

• Paper output and input: the paperless office and the less-
paper office:
• Different types of printers and their characteristics,
character styles and fonts
• Scanners and optical character recognition.
• Memory:
• Short-term memory: RAM
• Long-term memory: magnetic and optical disks
• Capacity limitations related to document and video
storage
 FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN–COMPUTER INTERACTION

• THE COMPUTER CAPABILITIES

• Various Computer Elements

• Processing:
• The effects when systems run too slow or too fast
• the myth of the infinitely fast machine
• Limitations on processing speed
• Networks and their impact on system performance.
 FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN–COMPUTER INTERACTION

• THE COMPUTER CAPABILITIES

• Various Computer Elements

• Network Hubs:
• Switches
• Bridges
• Routers
• Gateways
• Network interface cards (NICs), ISDN adapters, and
system area network cards
• Wireless access points (WAPs)
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