Introduction to Human

Computer Interaction
(HCI)
Chapter One

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Introduction

 Interacting with technology has become an essential

part of everyday life for the majority of people.
 The average user of a computer system is now less likely
to understand the technology. Since, there are different
types of technology they have to use.
 People are busy and may spend little or no time actually
learning a new system.

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Introduction..(cont.)

 Therefore, computer systems should be easy to use,

easy to learn, and with no errors.

 To design and develop of such a system is a major

concern of HCI

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 Introduction..(cont.)
• Now a days technology has advanced to an extent
that almost everyone come in contact with computers
• You can think about what you use in a typical day:
• ATM, Cell phone, VCR, Remote control,
• Ticketing machine, Digital personal organizers,
• Calculator, Watch, Photocopier, Toaster, Bank,
• Air conditioner, Broadcasting, Satellite,
• Microwave, Medical equipment, Factories,
• Companies….the list is endless
• Computers are everywhere, surrounded us
• Now they are part of our everyday life, penetrating
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in every aspect of our life
• Therefore, we are already utterly, irreversibly
dependent on these Machines
 Introduction

• So, we will have to think about them

• We need to fundamentally think how human and machines
interact,
• We will have to think how we can make them better, and
rethink the relationship in deep and novel ways,
• This lead us to the discipline known as HCI

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What is HCI?

 Human-computer interaction (HCI):

◦ is a discipline concerned with the design,
evaluation and implementation of interactive
systems for human use and
◦ with study of major phenomena surrounding
them.
HCI
• HCI is an emerged discipline concerned basically on
the interaction between human beings and the
computing environment.
• Alternative names:
• Man-machine-interaction (MMI) and
• Computer-human-interaction (CHI)
• All concerned about the interaction between people
(user) and the computer.
• HCI “is the scientific study of the interaction between
people, computers, and the work environment”.
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HCI
The term HCI was adopted in mid-1980s:
• Association for Computing Machinery (ACM):
“Discipline concerned with the design, evaluation &
implementation of interactive computer systems for human use
and with the study of major phenomena surrounding them”
(1992)
• Dix: “HCI is study of people, computer technology and the ways
these influence each other. We study HCI to determine how we can
make this computer technology more usable by people” (1998)
• Carroll: “HCI is the study and practice of usability. It is about
understanding and creating software and other technology that
people will want to use, will be able to use, and will find effective
when used.” (2002)
Human: 5
• Individual user, a group of users working together, a
sequence of users in an organization
HCI
Computer:
• Desktop computer, large-scale computer system, Pocket PC,
embedded system (e.g., photocopier, microwave oven),
• Software (e.g., search engine, word processor)
User interface:
• Parts of the computer that the user interacts with
Interaction:
• Usually involve a dialog with feedback and control
throughout performing a task (e.g., user invokes “print”
command and then interface replies with a dialog box)
HCI is about
• Understanding the users, Understanding users tasks
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• Understanding the surrounding environment
• GUI requirements gathering and analysis, Design prototype
• Evaluate the system
 Scope of HCI
• 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 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 7
principle rather than specific system.
Scope of HCI

8
The HCI Challenge

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HCI is Not about

 Making the interface look pretty

 Only desktop computers (and that goes for

computing as well!)

 Something that would be nice to do but

usually there’s no time for it

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HCI is about

 Understanding the users

 Understanding users tasks
 Understanding the surrounding
environment
 GUI requirements gathering and analysis
 Design prototype
 Evaluate the system

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What is Usability?

 A usable system is:

◦ easy to use
◦ easy to learn
◦ easy to remember how to use
◦ effective to use
◦ efficient to use
◦ safe to use
◦ enjoyable to use

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Why is usability important?

A Good user-interface can:

1. Earn a company billions.

2. Increase users loyalty.

3. Increase users trust.

4. Makes users happy : )

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Why ..(cont.)

A Bad user-interface can:

1. be annoying, embarrassing, frustrating,
and even deadly.
2. Increase mistakes in data entry and
system operation.
3. Makes functions become completely
inaccessible.
4. System failure because of user rejection.

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 Goal of HCI
• The focus of HCI is on the design, implementation, and
evaluation of interactive computer-based system.
• It is also concerned about with multidisciplinary study
of various issues affecting this interaction.
• Ensuring safety, utility, effectiveness, efficiency,
accessibility, and usability of systems is the focal
concern of HCI.
• Safety: protecting the user from dangerous conditions and
undesirable situations
• Users operators should interact with computer- based
systems remotely
• Nuclear energy plant or bomb-disposal
• Medical equipment in intensive care unit (ICU) 9

• Data Prevent user from making serious errors by reducing

risk of wrong keys/buttons being mistakenly activated
• Utility: extent of providing the right kind of functionality so that
users can do what they need or want to do
• High utility
• Scientific calculator provides many mathematical operations,
built-in formulae, and is programmable 10
• Low utility
• Software drawing tool does not allow free-hand drawing but
supports polygon shape drawing
Goal of HCI
• Effectiveness: concern a user’s ability to accomplish a desired
goal or to carry out work
• Efficiency: a measure of how quickly users can accomplish
their goals or finish their work
• Usability: ease of learning and ease of use
• Appeal: how well the user likes the system
• First impression
• Long-term satisfaction

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 The goals of HCI

Ensuring usability.
“A usable software system is one that supports the effective and
efficient completion of tasks in a given work context” (Karat and
Dayton 1995).

The benefits of more usable software system to business users

include:
◦ Increased productivity
◦ Decreased user training time and cost
◦ Decreased user errors
◦ Increased accuracy of data input and data interpretation
◦ Decreased need for ongoing technical support
 The goals of HCI

The benefits of usability to development organizations

include:
 Greater profits due to more competitive products/services
 Decreased overall development and maintenance costs
 Decreased customer support costs
 More follow-on business due to satisfied customers

 Not to use the term ‘user-friendly’ which intended to mean

a system with high usability but always misinterpreted to
mean tidying up the screen displays to make it more pleasing
 The goals of HCI

 To achieve usability,
 the design of the user interface to any interactive product, needs to
take into account and be tailored around a number of factors,
including:
◦ Cognitive, perceptual, and motor capabilities and constraints of
people in general
◦ Special and unique characteristics of the intended user population
in particular
◦ Unique characteristics of the users’ physical and social work
environment
◦ Unique characteristics and requirements of the users’ tasks, which
are being supported by the software
◦ Unique capabilities and constraints of the chosen software a nd/or
hardware and platform for the product
It is not Simple to Make Good
User Interfaces

Basic misconceptions:
• If I (the developer) can use it, everyone can use it

• If our non-technical staff can use it, everyone can

• Good user interfaces are applied common sense

• A system is usable if all style guidelines are met

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Disciplines Contributing to Human-
Computer Interaction

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 Fact
- “: 85% of Software projects are
Fletcher Buckley

either late or delivered without satisfying

the specification.”

But WHY?

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Reasons for Failures

Projects in general fail for various reasons:

•lack of senior management commitment
•lack of user involvement
•lackof user requirements
specifications
•poor project planning and team problems

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Traditional approaches to system
development

 Is concerned with producing software, software

specification, maintainability, and testing

 Generally considers the interface to be just another

software component.

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Example of traditional approach

Requirements
Requirements
specification
specification

Analysis
Analysis

Design
Design

Implementation
Implementation

The waterfall model Testing

Testing

Operation
Operation and
and
maintenance
maintenance

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Introduction to User Centered
approach

This approach normally involves a number of key

activities throughout the development of the
software including:
• Involving users
• Obtaining their feedback on the design
• Providing prototypes for system evaluation and re-
design in light of user feedback and comments.

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User Centered approach

• Real users involved at each step of the

process

• Find out about the users before

requirement specification

• Design and implementation

• Review (usability test) with the users

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The life cycle for interactive systems

cannot assume a linear

sequence of activities
as in the waterfall model

user
user needs
needs Requirements
Requirements
specification
specification

Analysis
Analysis

lots of feedback! Design

Design

Implementation
Implementation

Testing
Testing

Operation
Operation and
and
maintenance
maintenance

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User Centered Development

1. Data Collection
2. Data Analysis
3. Prototyping
4. Design
5. Evaluation

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HCI Benefits

• Gaining market share

• Improving productivity
• Lowering support costs
• Reducing development cost
• Can Preventing accidents
• Health and safety concerns
• Can reduce the cost of customer training and support
• Direct correlation between HCI and sales
• HCI can provide you a job. 12
Historical Roots of HCI

• Human-computer interaction arose as a field from intertwined

roots in:
• Computer graphics
• Operating systems
• Human factors
• Ergonomics
• Industrial engineering
• Cognitive psychology, the systems part of computer science
Historical Roots of HCI

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 Historical Roots of HCI
• Computer graphics
• was born from the use of CRT (Cathode ray tube) and pen devices
very early in the history of computers.
• This led to the development of several human-computer
interaction techniques.
• Work in computer graphics has continued to develop algorithms
and hardware that allow the display and manipulation of ever more
realistic-looking objects
(e.g., CAD/CAM machine parts or medical images of body parts).
• Computer graphics has a natural interest in HCI as "interactive
graphics"
(e.g., how to manipulate solid models in a CAD/CAM system). 14
Historical Roots of HCI
• Out of this line of development came a number of
important building blocks for human-computer
interaction
• The mouse
• Bitmapped displays
• Personal computers
• Windows
• The desktop metaphor
• Point-and-click editors 15
 Historical Roots of HCI

• Work on Operating systems developed techniques for interfacing

input/output devices
• Examples (contribution of OS to HCI):
• Tuning system response time to human interaction
times
• Multiprocessing
• Supporting windowing environments and animation.
• This strand of development has currently given rise to "user
interface management systems" and "user interface toolkits".
• Human factors derives from the problems of designing equipment
operable by humans during World War II (Sanders & McCormick,16
1987).
Historical Roots of HCI
• Many problems faced by those working on human factors had
strong sensory-motor features (e.g., the design of flight displays
and controls).
• The problem of the human operation of computers was a natural
extension of classical human factors concerns, except that the new
problems had substantial cognitive, communication, and
interaction aspects not previously developed in human factors,
forcing a growth of human factors in these directions.
• Ergonomics is similar to human factors, but it arose from studies
of work. As with human factors, the concerns of ergonomics
tended to be at the sensory-motor level, but with an additional
physiological flavor and an emphasis on stress.
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• Human interaction with computers was also a natural topic for
ergonomics, but again, a cognitive extension to the field was
necessary resulting in the current “cognitive ergonomics” and
“cognitive engineering.”
 Historical Roots of HCI
• Because of their roots, ergonomic studies of computers
emphasize the relationship to the work setting and the effects of
stress factors, such as the routinization of work, sitting posture, or
the vision design of CRT displays.
• Industrial engineering arose out of attempts to raise
industrial productivity starting in the early years of this
century.
• The early emphasis in industrial engineering was in the design of
efficient manual methods for work (e.g., a two-handed method for
the laying of bricks (bar)),
• The design of specialized tools to increase productivity and
reduce fatigue (tiredness)
• Brick pallets at waist height so bricklayers didn't have to bend over
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• The design of the social environment
• The invention of the suggestion box
Historical Roots of HCI
• Cognitive psychology derives from attempts to study sensation
experimentally at the end of the 19th century.
• Inthe 1950's, an infusion of ideas from communications
engineering, linguistics, and computer engineering led to an
experimentally-oriented discipline concerned with human
information processing and performance.
• Cognitive psychologists have concentrated on the learning of
systems, the transfer of that learning, the mental representation of
systems by humans, and human performance on such systems.
• The growth of discretionary computing and the mass personal
computer and workstation computer markets have meant that sales
of computers are more directly tied to the quality of their
interfaces than in the past.

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 Historical Roots of HCI
• The result has been the gradual evolution of a
standardized interface architecture from hardware
support of mice to shared window systems to
"application management layers."
• Along with these changes, researchers and designers
have begun to develop specification techniques for user
interfaces and testing techniques for the practical
production of interfaces.

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 Future Development of HCI
• Decreasing hardware costs leading to larger
memories and faster systems.
• Smallness 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

(e.g., VCRs, televisions).

• Specialized hardware leading to new functions
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 (e.g. rapid text search).
• Increased development of network communication and

distributed computing.
• Increasingly widespread use of computers,

especially by people who are outside of the

computing profession.20
 Future Development of HCI
• Increasing innovation in input techniques
• Wider social concerns leading to improved access to computers
by currently disadvantaged groups (e.g., young children, the
physically/visually disabled, etc.).
• Based on the above trends, we 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.
2. High functionality systems
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• 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).
Future Development of HCI
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.
4. Mixed media
• Systems will handle images, voice, sounds, video, text, formatted data.
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.
6. Large and thin displays
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• New display technologies will finally mature enabling very large
displays and also displays that are thin, light weight, and have low
power consumption.
 Future Development of HCI
• 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.
7. Embedded computation.
• Computation will pass beyond desktop computers into every
object for which uses can be found.
• Example: embedding computation in greeting cards.
• To some extent, this development is already taking place.
• The difference in the future is the addition of networked
communications that will allow many of these embedded
computations to coordinate with each other and with the user.
• Human interfaces to these embedded devices will in many
cases be very different from those appropriate to workstations.
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 Future Development of HCI
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 labor.
• Models of the group design process will be embedded in systems and will
cause increased rationalization of design.
9. 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 explosion will accelerate with the introduction of high-
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bandwidth interaction and the improvement in quality of interfaces.
Future Development of HCI
• One consequence of the above developments is that
computing systems will appear partially to dissolve into the
environment and become much more intimately associated
with their users' activities.
• Personal computers in some form will continue to exist
(although many might take the form of electronic notebooks)
and there will still be the problem of designing interfaces so
that users can operate them.
• The rapid pace of development means that the preparation of
students must address not only the present state of technology,
but also provide the foundations for future possibilities.

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