1/16/2025

HUMAN COMPUTER
INTERACTION
Lec 2-Design

Dr. Anjali
(Assistant Professor)

What is HCI?

• HCI (human-computer interaction) is the

study of how people interact with
computers and to what extent computers
are or are not developed for successful
interaction with human beings.

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• A usable system is easy to learn, easy to remember how to use, effective,

efficient, safe, and enjoyable to use.
• Usability is only one part of HCI, but has been one of the main goals
• For example, HCI has contributed to the development of guidelines and
standards that support designers
HCI != • HCI has also developed methods of evaluation that help us to evaluate the

Usability
usability of a given product/system (and other aspects of the user
experience)
• In addition, HCI uses mathematical models to predict users’ performance
with a system (e.g., Fitt’s law to predict mouse movement time, or models
that predict search time or mental effort)
• HCI also investigates new interaction paradigms or new ways of integrating
technology in our daily lives (think smart clothes, touch displays, VR/AR, Voice-
based interfaces … )

HCI is an extension of traditional CS

disciplines

• We design, scale, and evaluate computing systems for particular tasks (e.g., parallel
programming, network routing)

• HCI incorporates humans into the computing system

• Humans as an additional constraint

• Any computer system must be designed taking into account

• the physical constraints of the machine (e.g., processor speed, networking capabilities)
• the human physical and mental constraints (e.g., attention, memory)
• (should we add, social level constraints?)

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A history of HCI

Calculating
devices in
antiquity

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Konrad Zuse (1910-

1995)

• Invented the world’s first programmable computer

(in 1941)
• This remained the only working computer in Europe
up to 1951

Three distinct eras:

• batch interfaces (1945 – 1968)

• text or command line interfaces (1969 – 1983)
• graphical user interfaces (1984 – present)

Didn’t just disappear from one era to the next

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ENIAC (~1946)

• First electronic numerical integrator and computer

in the US
• Construction contract was signed in 1943
• The first programmers of the ENIAC were six women
(“Refrigerator Ladies”)

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◾ Batch interface:
 First type of interface available for computers
 These computers had one or more interfaces that
let users pre-program specially formatted cards
with punch holes
 The cards would be read in a card reader that
supplied the information to the computer to
process
 Problem: couldn’t interact with the computer
while the computer was processing the cards

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◾ First interactive computer

graphics interface
◾ Nearly all computers of
time ran batches
 MIT hadTX-2
◾ First interactive system
 dials and buttons
 object oriented design
◾ Uncomfortable sitting
position
 display was input device

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◾ Father of a revolution
in HCI
 mouse
 light pen (bug)
 joystick
 knee input device

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First mouse by Engelbard at

Stanford (1963)

https://www.slideshare.net/agaszostek/history-and-future-of-human-computer-interaction-hci-and-interaction-design

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◾ Command-Line Interface:
 Displays a command prompt
 User can then type in a command using the keyboard and
submit the command for processing - provides text output
 CLI provided the possibility of interactivity with the computer –
major leap in usability
 Problem: users have to learn a list of commands to instruct the
computer to do what you want
 DOS for the IBM PC and compatible computers was the most
popular operating system
 Still used by many network administrators and programmers
today
 The development of CLIs isn’t standing still
▪ Microsoft PowerShell for Exchange Server 2007
▪ Unix Bash (BorneAgain SHell)

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◾ TextUser Interface:
 Unlike CLIs, aTUI uses the entire screen area to
perform tasks
 Provide greater functionality and usability for conducting
tasks
 Like CLI, require keyboard but not mouse to
interact.
 Users are not required to remember long lists of
commands, but can select operations to perform
from screen
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Nothing eventful happened in

the next 10 years…

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Xerox Alto
(1973)

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Xerox Alto

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VisiCalc
(1979)

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VisiCalc was the Killer App

for Personal Computers

• Turned the microcomputer from a

hobby for nerds into a serious thing
• Because of it, IBM
introduced the IBM P C 2 years
later Suddenly, small and large
business bought computers

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With the emergence of personal

computing in the late 1970s, everyone
became a potential computer user

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With the emergence of personal computing

in the late 1970s, everyone became a
potential computer user…

… but computer users still had to deal

with arcane commands and system
dialogs

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Xerox Star
(1981)

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Xerox Star

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Apple Lisa
(1981)

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Apple Lisa
(1981)

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◾ Have been the standard user interface since the

1990s
◾ Availability ofWindows on the popular IBM PC
and compatible platforms drove GUIs to
widespread acceptance
◾ You use your mouse to click on icons and menus
◾ GUIs are typically based on a metaphor of some
type where the visual elements match
something in our everyday experience with
physical reality
◾ Another hallmark of GUIs is the customizability
of the interface

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Apple Mac
(1984)

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Windows
1.0 (1985)

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Windows
1.0 (1985)

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Windows
1.0 (1985)

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Windows
2.0 (1987)

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Windows
2.0 (1987)

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Windows
3.0 (1990)

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Windows
3.0 (1990)

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World
Wide Web
(1990)

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• https://ucldigitalpress.co.uk/Book/Article/
17/42/1216/

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• "HCI is concerned with understanding the

influence technology has on how people
think, value, feel, and relate and using this
understanding to inform technology design."
Wright & McCarthy (2008)

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HCI’s impact on society

• We can now use computers as an

every-moment- partner

• Less and less training is required for most

application and devices

• Some examples
• Touch screen: direct interaction with
objects
• Voice control: for some people
the only way to interact with
computers

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HCI’s impact on culture

• Smartphones have changed how we spend

our "empty times": should we read the news?
answer emails? chat with friends? play "2
Dots"? should we just be bored?

• Social Media have influenced how we stay in

touch with each other and how find new friends.

• Games, more than entertainment, can be used

as social and even productive tools.

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HCI’s impact on
economy

• Massive increase in productivity

• HCI found how to speed up input and
reduce its complexity People can perform
tasks faster than they used to

• Reduced need for training

• More people can use technology than

ever before

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What now???

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Fabrication (3D Printing) in HCI

1987
The first commercial 3D printer 1992
SLA-1 printer by 3D Systems Inc. The first commercial FDM printer
Invented by Charles Hull 3D Modeler by Stratasys, Inc.
Invented by Scott & Lisa Crump

“The idea for the technology came to Crump in 1988

when he decided to make a toy frog for his young
daughter using a glue gun loaded with a mixture of
polyethylene and candle wax. He thought of creating
the shape layer by layer and of a way to automate the
process. In April 1992, Stratasys sold its first product,
the 3D Modeler.”

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3D Printing houses using FDM

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3D Printing pancakes using FDM

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Society as the next platform

https://internetofthingsagenda.techtarget.com

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And beyond (VR/AR)

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Activity

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Activity (10 minutes)

In groups of 2…

How would you change this thing?

Make sure your idea is innovative!

Sketch out your design on a piece of paper

and write your names on it
(this time I will collect it :) )

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ASK ME SOMETHING!

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