Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)

• AP. Bernard G. Sanidad, DIT, DBA is the course facilitator for the "Introducing HCI" course

Learning Objectives

• Students completing the course will be able to:
• Discuss the history of HCI, including contributing individuals
• Discuss examples of Human-Computer Interaction
• Explain the importance of HCI
• Identify the goals of HCI
• Discuss the relationship of HCI with other disciplines
• Identify different design needs
• Discuss the HCI Theories Timeline
• Explain the role of Usability in HCI
• Identify the fields and topics HCI covers

Defining Human-Computer Interaction

• Human-computer interaction (HCI) is a discipline concerned with:
• The design of interactive computing systems for human use
• The evaluation of these systems
• The implementation of these systems
• The study of major phenomena surrounding them
• HCI focuses on understanding and creating user-friendly technology.
• HCI aims to make the interaction between computers and users more effective and enjoyable.
• HCI concerns the processes of design, evaluation and implementation
• HCI focuses on interactive computing systems for human use
• HCI studies major phenomena surrounding the interaction of humans and computers

Humans, Computers, Interactions

• Humans are adept at:
• Sensing low-level stimuli
• Pattern recognition and inductive reasoning
• Applying multiple strategies
• Adapting to "hard and fuzzy things"
• Computers excel at:
• Counting and measuring
• Accurate data storage and recall
• Rapid and consistent responses
• Data processing and calculations
• Repetitive actions and performance over time
• Handling "simple and sharply defined things"
• The skills of humans and computers are complementary

History of HCI

• 1945: Vannevar Bush publishes "As We May Think" in The Atlantic Monthly
• 1962: Ivan Sutherland develops Sketchpad
• 1963: Douglas Engelbart invents the computer mouse
• 1981: Xerox Star launched
• 1982: ACM SIGCHI formed
• 1983: Card, Moran, and Newell publish The Psychology of Human-Computer Interaction
• 1984: Apple Macintosh launched
• 2007: the 25th Anniversary of CHI

Mechanical Computers

• 1623: Schickard creates the "Calculating Clock", a 6-digit machine that can add, subtract, and indicates overflow.
• 1674: Leibniz designs the "Stepped Reckoner" which can multiply with operands of up to 5 and 12 digits, operated by turning a crank.
• 1820: de Colmar makes the "Arithmometer", the first mass-produced calculator that performs multiplication and division, remaining reliable for about 90 years.
• 1889: Felt invents the first printing desk calculator.
• 1935: IBM introduces the "IBM 601", a punch card machine capable of 1 multiplication per second, with 1500 units made.
• 1945: Mauchly & Eckert create "ENIAC" for ballistics, weighing 30 tons and consuming 140 kilowatts of electricity via 17,468 vacuum tubes

Vannevar Bush

• Bush wrote "As We May Think" in The Atlantic Monthly in 1945
• The article highlights that publications have extended far beyond our present ability to make real use of the record
• Bush postulated the Memex device:
• Storing all records, articles and communications
• Items are retrieved by indexing, keywords, cross-references (now called hyperlinks)
• Envisioned as microfilm, not computer
• Including interactive and nonlinear components.

Joseph Carl Robnett Licklider

• In 1960, Licklider postulated "Man-Computer Symbiosis"
• The concept involves tightly coupling human brains and computing machines to revolutionize information handling

Mid 1960's

• Timesharing mode of computing emerged
• Computers were too expensive for individuals
• Timesharing increased accessibility
• Interactive systems, not jobs
• It included text processing, editing, email, and shared file systems

Sketchpad

• In 1962, Ivan Edward Sutherland created Sketchpad
• It featured direct manipulation, including:
• Visibility of objects
• Incremental action and rapid feedback
• Reversibility and exploration
• Syntactic correctness of all actions
• Replacing language with action
• The term "direct manipulation" was coined by Ben Shneiderman

Invention of the mouse

• Douglas Engelbart invented the mouse in 1963

HCI's First User Study

• Evaluated mouse input relative to joystick, lightpen, Grafacon and knee-controlled lever

Alan Kay

• Credited with "Personal Computing"
• Creator of the Dynabook, which was imagined as notebook sized, loaded with multimedia, and capable of storing everything
• Also responsible for the desktop interface metaphor

Theodor Holm Nelson

• Believed that computers can help people, not just business
• Coined the term "hypertext"

Personal Computers

• 1974: IBM 5100
• 1981: Datamaster and IBM XT/AT
  • Text and command-based
  • Sold lots and performed many various general tasks
  • Had good basic toolkit
• 1978: VisiCalc

Personal Computing Qualities

• A system is more powerful if it's easier to use
• Small, powerful machines should be dedicated to individuals
• Networks and time-sharing are important
• Kay's Dynabook and IBM PC impacted development
• "The Computer" was named Time's Man of the Year in 1982

WIMP

• Stands for Windows, Icons, Menus, Pointers
• Timesharing = multiusers
• Requiring multitasking
• WIMP interface facilitates doing several simultaneous things
• It has become the familiar GUI interface seen in Xerox Alto, Star, and early Apple systems

PCs with GUIs

• Xerox PARC in the mid-1970s created the Alto
• Local processor, bitmap display, and mouse
• It was a precursor to modern GUIs, windows, menus, and scrollbars
• LAN - ethernet

Xerox Star (1981)

• The first commercial PC designed for "business professionals"
• Provided desktop metaphor, with pointing, WYSIWYG, consistency, and simplicity
• First system based on usability
• Using paper prototyping and analysis
• Applying Usability testing & iterative refinement
• The Xerox Star was a commercial flop, costing $15k and lacked key functionality (spreadsheet)

Apple Lisa (1982)

• Based on ideas of Star system
• Designed as more personal rather than office tool
• Was still expensive and had difficulties

Apple Macintosh (1984)

• Used aggressive pricing model at $2500
• Not a trailblazer, but a smart copier of technology
• Had good interface guidelines
• Leveraged 3rd party applications
• Offered high-quality graphics and came with a laser printer

Windows 95

• Microsoft Windows 95

Handhelds

• Combines portable computing and phone
• Newton, Palm, Blackberry, iPhone

Examples of HCI

• 1873: QWERTY keyboard layout by Christopher Latham Sholes, designed to prevent typewriter jams by placing frequently used letter pairs apart.
• 1946: ENIAC by John Mauchly and John Presper Eckert, the first general-purpose computer, used for calculating artillery firing tables.
• 1952: The DATAR trackball by Tom Cranston, Fred Longstaff, and Kenyon Taylor, used a bowling ball for sonar and radar data transfer on ships.
• 1967: The Gaming Joystick by Ralph Baueckert, first used in SEGA's Missile
• 1968: Virtual Reality by Ivan Sutherland with the Sword of Damocles, the first virtual reality head-mounted display system.
• 1972: Multi-Touch Technology by Control Data Corporation, released a terminal using single-touch points in a 16x16 array, with the PLATO IV computer using a touch panel for graphic interaction.
• 1984: 3D Printing by Dr. Kodama used a photosensitive resin which polymerised using UV light
• 1998: The Smartwatch by Steve Mann, the first Linux-powered smartwatch with a 16-bit processor and wireless communication capabilities.
• 2006: Nintendo Wii uses natural user interface and gesture recognition to track a user's motions via gyroscopes and controller-based accelerometers.
• 2011: Google Voice Search App allows users to make Google queries with their phones by voice on Android cellphones.
• 2016: Dexmo Exoskeleton by Dexta Robotics, uses "switching force feedback" to simulate touching virtual objects.
• 2018 and beyond:
• Emotion sensing being explored for human-computer interaction, with focus on emotion-sensing technologies reading facial expressions.
• Brain-computer interfaces (BCI) are becoming more advanced used for thought-to-text translation or to control movements from prosthetic limbs.

HCI Theories

• 1967: Grounded Theory
• 1970: Distributed Cognition
• 1988: CSCW
• 1990: Situated Action
• 2000: Activity Theory
• 2003: Ethnomethodology and Ethnography
• 1995: Turn to the Wild
• 2001: Turn to the Embodiment
• 2004: Turn to Design
• 2007: Human Values
• 2008: Turn to the Culture
• 2010: Turn to Space

Goals of HCI

• Includes understanding how people use technology
• Developing tools and techniques to enables building suitable systems
• Achieving efficient, effective, and safe interaction
• Putting people first

Usability

• Ensure usable software systems support effective and efficient task completion within a given work context
• Bottom-line benefits of a more usable software system for 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
• Benefits of usability to development organizations include
• Greater profits due to competitive products and services
• Decreased overall development and maintenance costs
• Decreased customer support costs
• More follow-on business due to satisfied customers
• Avoid using the term 'user-friendly
• Design of user interface to any interactive product should account for these factors
• Cognitive, perceptual, and motor capabilities and constraints of people in general
• Special and unique characteristics of the intended user population
• Unique characteristics of the users' physical and social work environment
• Unique characteristics and requirements of the users' tasks
• Capabilities and constraints of the chosen software and/or hardware and platform
• Extent to which a system, product, or service can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use

Characteristics of Usability

• Easy to learn and remember how to use
• Effective and efficient to use
• Safe and enjoyable to use

Dimensions of Usability

• Effectiveness
• Efficiency
• Safety
• Utility
• Learnability
• Memorability

Measuring Usability Using ISO 9241-11:2018

• Effectiveness: accuracy and completeness with which specified users achieve goals
• Efficiency: resources expended in relation to accuracy and completeness of goals achieved
• Satisfaction: comfort and acceptability of the work system to its users

Importance of HCI

• In software development and system design methods
• In future legal requirements for software
• As the basis for usability criteria to evaluate competing products
• In strategies for the home and small business user.

Why HCI is Important

• It studies our interface with information
• It is not just about 'how big should I make buttons' or 'how to layout menu choices'
• Affects effectiveness, productivity, morale and safety

Different Design Needs

• There are three broad categories of computer users:
• Expert users with detailed knowledge of a particular system
• Occasional users who know how to perform the tasks they need to perform frequently
• Novices who have never used the system before
• Users may be novices at one computer application but experts at another

Visibility & Affordance:

• Visibility: what is seen
• Affordance: what operations and manipulation can be done to a particular object
• Visible elements have a good mapping to their effect on system
• Perceived affordance - what a person thinks can be done to the object

Topics and Fields Relevant to HCI

• Computer Science, Mathematics, Web Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Economics, Philosophy, Law
• Ergonomics, Psychology, Sociology, Media, Biology, Ecology, Design, Management & Information Sciences

Topics in HCI

• HCI uses and takes place in context of U1 Social Organization and Work, U2 application Areas and U3 Human-Machine Fit and Adaptation
• It addresses Human in form of H1 information processing, H2 language and communication, and H3 ergonomics
• It uses Computer via C2 techniques, C3 dialog genre, C4 graphics and C5 architectures
• It takes into account D1 design approaches, D2 implementation techniques and D4 example systems and D3 evaluations

This quiz explores the core principles of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). It covers topics like usability, cognitive modeling, and the relationship between humans and computers. It also touches on Brain-Computer Interfaces and design considerations.