Human Computer Interaction

(HCI)

Faculty of Computing | Bahir Dar Institute of Technology | Bahir Dar University

Content
■ Motivation: User interface, Usability Illustrating example:
■ The Concept, Scope, Focus and goals of HCI
■ The methodology of User-Centered Development
■ Historical root of HCI
■ Future developments of HCI

Faculty of Computing | Bahir Dar Institute of Technology | Bahir Dar University

 Motivation
Interfaces in the Real World
■ Not just only computers!
– Wristwatch
– Phone
– Copier
– Car
– Plane cockpit
– Airline reservation
– Air traffic control
– Car Dashboards

Faculty of Computing | Bahir Dar Institute of Technology | Bahir Dar University

 How do users interact with computers?
■ The user interacts directly with hardware for the human input
and output such as displays, e.g. through a graphical user
interface.
■ The user interacts with the computer over this software interface
using the given input and output (I/O) hardware.

Faculty of Computing | Bahir Dar Institute of Technology | Bahir Dar University

Why HCI?
■ What happens when a human and a computer
system interact to perform a task?
– task - write document, calculate budget, solve equation,
learn about human body, drive home, make a
reservation, land a plane...
– How people interact in getting their jobs done ?

Faculty of Computing | Bahir Dar Institute of Technology | Bahir Dar University

Why is this important?
1. Computer systems affect every person
2. Safety, satisfaction, utility is critical
3. Product success depends on ease of use
– Good (usable) interfaces determines the products usability
– Affects competitiveness and profitability
■ Bad interfaces are frustrating for the user and will influence the
productivity
– Good user interface are hardly noticed, bad ones are!
– It is easier to make a bad interface than a good one.
■ Competitors may have better systems
Bad
interface

Faculty of Computing | Bahir Dar Institute of Technology | Bahir Dar University

 So what?
■ You can design user interfaces that
– Are pleasant and convenient for your users
– Let them accomplish their goals
■ The key: think about your users
– What do they need?
■ Learn about them
■ Watch them work, in their workplace
■ Interview them, also in their workplace….
■ Meet their needs

Faculty of Computing | Bahir Dar Institute of Technology | Bahir Dar University

Benefits of Usable User Interfaces
1. Reducing development and maintenance costs
– Learn about users first, and you will avoid
■ Implementing features users don’t want
■ Creating features that are annoying or inefficient
■ Reduce high cost of making changes late in the development cycle
– E.g. Apple collects thousands of mobile products
2. Improving productivity
– Productivity means employees become more efficient and
effective because the system supports their tasks in an easy
way.
3. Lowering support costs
– Calls to customer support are very expensive for the vendor
4. Gaining a competitive edge
– Having a better system attracts customers and helps one gain
a competitive advantage over the other

Faculty of Computing | Bahir Dar Institute of Technology | Bahir Dar University

What is HCI?

■ “Human Computer Interaction(HCI) is a discipline

concerned with the design, evaluation and
implementation of interactive computing systems for
human use and with the study of the major
phenomena surrounding them.”
■ HCI consists of three parts: the user, the computer
itself, and the ways they work together.

■ Alternative names of HCI

– Man-machine-interaction (MMI)
– Computer-Human-Interaction (CHI)

Faculty of Computing | Bahir Dar Institute of Technology | Bahir Dar University

What is HCI?
– Studies
■ Interaction between human beings and the computing
environment
■ interaction between people, computers, and the work
environment
– Outcome
■ The knowledge gained from this study is used to create
information systems and work environments which help to
make people more productive and more satisfied with
their work life”

– The main advantages of HCI are simplicity, ease of

deployment & operations and cost savings – for smaller set-
ups.

Faculty of Computing | Bahir Dar Institute of Technology | Bahir Dar University

SCOPE OF HCI study
■ The scope of HCI includes:
– The problems people have with computers
– The impact of computers upon people in both individual and
organizational contexts
– The determinants of utility, usability and acceptability
– The appropriate allocation of tasks between computers and
people
– Modeling the user need as an aid to better system design
– Harmonizing the computer to the characteristics and needs of the
user.
■ Due to wider scope, the tendency is towards general
principle rather than specific system.

Faculty of Computing | Bahir Dar Institute of Technology | Bahir Dar University

FOCUS OF HCI
■ The focus of HCI is on the design, implementation,
and evaluation of interactive computer-based system.
■ Ensuring safety, utility, effectiveness, efficiency,
accessibility, and usability of systems is the focal
concern of HCI.
■ It is also concerned about with multidisciplinary study
of various issues affecting this interaction.

Faculty of Computing | Bahir Dar Institute of Technology | Bahir Dar University

 Goals of HCI
To develop or improve the
■ Safety
■ Utility
■ Effectiveness
■ Efficiency
■ Usability
■ Appeal (attitude)
. . . of systems that include computers

Faculty of Computing | Bahir Dar Institute of Technology | Bahir Dar University

Safety
■ Safety of Users—think of
– Air traffic control
– Hospital intensive care
■ Safety of Data—think of
– Protection of files from interfering
– Privacy and security

Faculty of Computing | Bahir Dar Institute of Technology | Bahir Dar University

 Utility, Effectiveness, Efficiency
■ Utility: what services a system provides
– Does a system provide all necessary services ?
e.g. Ability to print documents

■ Effectiveness: user’s ability to achieve goals

■ Does the available services help the user meet his/her own
goals, e.g.
– How to enter the desired information
– How to print a report
■ Efficiency: A measure of how quickly users can accomplish their
goals or finish their work using the system

Faculty of Computing | Bahir Dar Institute of Technology | Bahir Dar University

Usability
■ Definitions
– “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)
– “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)

Faculty of Computing | Bahir Dar Institute of Technology | Bahir Dar University

Usability (2)
■ Main concerns
– Ease of learning !
– Ease of use !
– Appeal/ attitude !
■ How well users like the system
■ First impressions
■ Long-term satisfaction

Faculty of Computing | Bahir Dar Institute of Technology | Bahir Dar University

Usability (3)
■ Main questions
– How can we measure usability?
– How can we develop a system to ensure usability?

■ The way out

– Principles
■ Independent on Technology
– Paradigms
■ E.g Based on new technology like WIMP interface
– Quality affairs, quality assurance, standards

Faculty of Computing | Bahir Dar Institute of Technology | Bahir Dar University

 User-Centered Development Methodology (1)
■ Traditional System-Centered design:
– Emphasis on the functionality,
– UI is added at the end
– Emphasis on correct software rather than on ease of use
– User has to adapt himself to the system
■ Things are changing: User-Centered design
– UI more important
– Emphasis on end-users’ tasks,
– Early end-user participation: in analysis and design
– Evaluation by end-users
– The only consequence:
■ more work for UI-designer and UI-programmer

Faculty of Computing | Bahir Dar Institute of Technology | Bahir Dar University

User Centered Development (summary)

■ User-centric, not data-centric

– Involves users in the design process
– Usability can be quantified and measured
■ Highly Iterative
– Involves testing and revision
■ Interdisciplinary, building on a dozen different
disciplines

Faculty of Computing | Bahir Dar Institute of Technology | Bahir Dar University

 HISTORICAL ROOTS OF HCI
■ Human-computer interaction arose as a field from intertwined
roots in:
– The systems part of computer science
– Computer graphics
– Operating systems
– Human factors
– Ergonomics
– Industrial engineering
– Cognitive psychology

Faculty of Computing | Bahir Dar Institute of Technology | Bahir Dar University

HISTORICAL ROOTS OF HCI (1)
■ Computer Science
– Implementation of software
■ Engineering
– Faster, cheaper equipment
■ Ergonomics
– Design for human factors
■ Graphic design
– Visual communication
■ Technical writing
– Textual communication

Faculty of Computing | Bahir Dar Institute of Technology | Bahir Dar University

HISTORICAL ROOTS OF HCI (2)
■ Linguistics, artificial intelligence
– Speech recognition, natural language
processing
■ Cognitive psychology
– Perception, memory, mental models
■ Sociology
– How people interact in groups
■ Anthropology
– Study of people in their work settings

Faculty of Computing | Bahir Dar Institute of Technology | Bahir Dar University

Likely future developments of
HCI
■ H-C-I meanness continues to evolve rapidly
■ Harmonizing curriculums in HCI
■ Thinking of future computing: researches
■ Human-computer interaction continues shaping the nature of
future computing

Faculty of Computing | Bahir Dar Institute of Technology | Bahir Dar University

 Future of HCI (1)
■ Forces impact future outcomes:
– Decreasing hardware costs leading to larger memories and faster
systems.
– Reduction in the size of hardware leading to portability
– Reduction in power requirements leading to portability
– New display technologies leading to the packaging of
computational devices in new forms.
– Assimilation of computation into the environment
– Specialized hardware leading to new functions (e.g. rapid text
search).

Faculty of Computing | Bahir Dar Institute of Technology | Bahir Dar University

Future...(2)
■ Forces impact future outcomes :...(cont’d)
– Increased development of network communication and
distributed computing.
– Increasingly widespread use of computers, especially
by people who are outside of the computing
profession.
– Increasing innovation in input techniques (e.g., voice,
gesture, pen), combined with lowering cost, leading to
rapid computerization by people previously left out of
the "computer revolution."
– Wider social concerns leading to improved access to
computers by currently disadvantaged groups (e.g.,
young children, the physically/visually disabled, etc.).

Faculty of Computing | Bahir Dar Institute of Technology | Bahir Dar University

Future...(3)
■ Generally, expect a future for HCI with some of the following
characteristics:
1. Ubiquitous (everywhere) communication.
2. High functionality systems
3. Mass availability of computer graphics
4. Mixed media
5. High-bandwidth interaction
6. Large and thin displays
7. Embedded computation
8. Group interfaces
9. User Tailorability
10. Information Utilities

Faculty of Computing | Bahir Dar Institute of Technology | Bahir Dar University

Future...(3)
■ Generally, expect a future for HCI with some of the following
characteristics:
1. Ubiquitous (everywhere) communication.
 Computers will communicate through high speed 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.

Faculty of Computing | Bahir Dar Institute of Technology | Bahir Dar University

Future...(4)
2. High functionality systems
– Systems will have large numbers of functions associated
with them.
– There will be so many systems that most users, technical
or non-technical, will not have time to learn them in the
traditional 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 as
inexpensive chips become available for inclusion in
general workstations.

Faculty of Computing | Bahir Dar Institute of Technology | Bahir Dar University

 Future...(5)
4. Mixed media
– Systems will handle images, voice, sounds, video, text,
formatted data.
– These will be exchangeable over communication links among
users.
– The separate worlds of consumer electronics (e.g., stereo
sets, VCRs, televisions) and computers will partially merge.
– Computer and print worlds will continue to cross assimilate
each other

5. High-bandwidth interaction
– 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.
– This will lead to some qualitatively different interfaces, such
as virtual reality or computational video.

Faculty of Computing | Bahir Dar Institute of Technology | Bahir Dar University

Future...(6)

6. Large and thin displays

– New display technologies will finally mature enabling
very large displays and also displays that are thin, light
weight, and have low power 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.

Faculty of Computing | Bahir Dar Institute of Technology | Bahir Dar University

Future...(7)
7. Embedded computation
– Computation will pass beyond desktop computers into
every object for which uses can be found.
■ Example: embedding computation in greeting cards.
– Human interfaces to these embedded devices will in
many cases be very different from those appropriate to
workstations.

Faculty of Computing | Bahir Dar Institute of Technology | Bahir Dar University

Future...(8)
8. Group interfaces
– Interfaces to allow groups of people to coordinate will be
common (e.g., for meetings, for engineering projects, for
authoring joint documents).
– These will have major impacts on the nature of
organizations and on the division of labour
– Others also:
■ Groupware
■ Social computing
■ Crowdsourcing

Faculty of Computing | Bahir Dar Institute of Technology | Bahir Dar University

 Future...(9)
9. User Tailorability
– Ordinary users will routinely tailor applications to their own
use and will use this power to invent new applications based
on their understanding of their own domains.
– Users, with their deeper knowledge of their own knowledge
domains, will increasingly be important sources of new
applications at the expense of generic systems programmers
(with systems expertise but low domain expertise).
10. Information Utilities
– Public information utilities (such as CompuServe, Prodigy,
home banking and shopping, etc.) and specialized industry
services (e.g., weather for pilots) will continue to proliferate.
– The rate of proliferation will accelerate with the introduction of
high-bandwidth interaction and the improvement in quality of
interfaces.

Faculty of Computing | Bahir Dar Institute of Technology | Bahir Dar University

Future...(10)
■ One consequence of the above developments:
– computing systems will appear partially to
dissolve into the environment and become
much more intimately associated with their
users' activities.

Faculty of Computing | Bahir Dar Institute of Technology | Bahir Dar University

Summary
■ Motivation behind HCI
■ The Concept, Scope, Focus and goals of
HCI
■ The methodology of User-Centered
Development
■ Historical root of HCI
■ Future developments of HCI
■ Characteristics expected in the future for
HCI

Faculty of Computing | Bahir Dar Institute of Technology | Bahir Dar University