Introduction to Human-Computer Interaction PDF

INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION HCI (human-computer interaction) is the study of the interaction between people (users) and computers. “Is a discipline concerned with the design, evaluation, and implementation of interactive systems for human use and with the study o...

INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION HCI (human-computer interaction) is the study of the interaction between people (users) and computers. “Is a discipline concerned with the design, evaluation, and implementation of interactive systems for human use and with the study of major phenomena surrounding them.” (ACM SIGCHI) HCI consists of three parts: Human: could be an individual user or a group of users working together. Computer: could be any technology ranging from the general desktop computer to a large-scale computer system. Interaction: any direct or indirect communication between a human and computer. USABILITY Usability is one of the key concepts in HCI. It is concerned with making systems easy to learn and use. is important because it can make the users complete the task accurately, and users can operate it with a pleasant mood rather than feeling stupid. HCI is ABOUT Understanding the users Understanding users’ tasks Understanding the surrounding environment GUI requirements gathering and analysis Design Prototype Evaluate the system HCI is NOT ABOUT Making the interface look pretty Only about desktop computers (and that goes for computing as well!) Something that would be nice to do but usually there’s no time for it  OVERVIEW OF HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION Cognitive psychology Limitations, information processing, performance prediction, cooperative working, and capabilities. is one of the major contributors to Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research by providing and applying psychological principles to understand and help develop models that explain and predict human performance. Computer Science Including graphics, technology, prototyping tools, user interface management systems, software design, development & maintenance o User Interface Management Systems (UIMS) & User Interface Development Environments (UIDE) Socio Psychology Imported into HCI from the field of psychology, the social psychological theories are useful for researchers in HCI to analyze situations involving groups of people and how they may collaborate. 5 Applications of Human-Computer Interaction 1. Everyday Life Today, technology has infiltrated every area of our life. Even if a person does not directly own or use a computer, computers have an impact on their lives. 2. Industry and Business HCI is significant for any company that relies on technology or computers in its day-to-day operations. Staff is more content and productive when working with well-designed usable systems since they are not irritated. 3. Accessibility When building systems that are not just functional but also accessible to persons with impairments, human-computer interaction (HCI) is a critical factor to consider. 4. Users who are untrained Today, only a small percentage of computer users read the software's documentation, assuming one exists. Only the most specialist and complex programs need intensive training and a handbook. 5. Other Applications Virtual reality is an excellent example of human-computer interaction in the workplace. The interaction between the computer and the user is meant to provide the user with a new viewpoint. USER-CENTERED DESIGN User-centered design (UCD) is an iterative design process in which designers focus on the users and their needs in each phase of the design process. MULTI-DISCIPLINARY DESIGN TEAMS FOR UCD ENGINEER DESIGNER RESEARCHER MARKETER STAKEHOLDER THE INTERACTION ERGONOMICS The word ergonomics comes from the Greek word “ergon” which means work and “nomos” which means laws. It’s essentially the “laws of work” or “science of work”. seeks to match the design of machines, jobs, and workplaces with the capabilities, limitations, and needs of people. seeks to maximize ease of use and optimize operator productivity, comfort, and health. is the scientific study of how people interact effectively with products, equipment, facilities, procedures, and environments used at work and in everyday living. INTERACTION STYLES Interaction can be seen as a dialog between the computer and the user. The choice of interface style can have a profound effect on the nature of this dialog. The concept of Interaction Styles refers to all the ways the user can communicate or otherwise interact with the computer system. There are a number of common interface styles including: TYPES OF INTERACTION STYLES 1. Command language (or command entry) Command language is the earliest form of interaction style and is still being used, though mainly on Linux/Unix operating systems. These "Command prompts" are used by (usually) expert users who type in commands and possibly some parameters that will affect the way the command is executed. 2. Menu Selection Is a set of options displayed on the screen where the selection and execution of one (or more) of the options results in a state change of the interface (Paap and Roske-Hofstrand, 1989, as cited in Preece et al. 1994). 3. Natural language interfaces allow the user to interact using written or spoken 'human' commands instead of computer language. Words are used to instigate functionality such as creating, selecting, and modifying data. For example, Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant, or Cortana are natural language interfaces that allow you to interact with your device's operating system using your own spoken language. 4. Question/answer and query dialog Question and answer dialog is a simple mechanism for providing input to an application in a specific domain. The user is asked a series of questions (mainly with yes/no responses, multiple choice, or codes) and so is led through the interaction step by step.  5. Form Fill-in The form fill-in interaction style (also called "fill in the blanks") was aimed at a different set of users than command language, namely non-expert’s users. 6. WIMP Currently many common environments for interactive computing are examples of the WIMP interface style, often simply called windowing systems. WIMP stands for windows, icons, menus, and pointers sometimes windows 7. Point and click In most multimedia systems and in web browsers, virtually all actions take only a single click of the mouse button. 8. Three-dimensional interfaces There is an increasing use of three-dimensional effects in user interfaces. The most obvious example is virtual reality, but VR is only part of a range of 3D techniques available to the interface designer. ELEMENTS OF THE WIMP INTERFACE 1. Windows 2. Icons 3. Menus 4. Pointers 5. Buttons 6. Toolbars 7. Palettes 8. Dialog boxes. Together, these elements of the WIMP interfaces are called Widgets, and they comprise the toolkit for interaction between user and system DESIGN PROCESS WHAT IS DESIGN  Interaction design is about creating interventions in often complex situations using technology of many kinds including PC software, the web and physical devices. Interaction design is about how the artifact produced is going to affect the way people work: the design of interventions. The design process has several stages and is iterative and never complete. Goals: the purpose of the design we are intending to produce Constrain: the limitations on the design process by external factors Trade-off: choosing which goals or constraints can be relaxed so that others can be met. THE GOLDEN RULE OF DESIGN Understand your material: computers (limitations, capacities, tools, platforms) and people (psychological, social aspects, human error) TO ERR IS HUMAN It is the nature of humans to make mistakes and systems should be designed to reduce the likelihood of those mistakes and to minimize the consequences when mistakes happen. THE CENTRAL MESSAGE: THE USER During design, always concentrate on the user. Design Validation is a process of evaluating the software product for the exact requirements of end-users or stakeholders. The purpose of design validation is to test the software product after development to ensure that it meets the requirements in terms of applications in the user's environment. is concerned with demonstrating the consistency and completeness of design with respect to the user needs. This is the stage where you actually build a version of the product and validate against the user requirements. Design Verification is a method to confirm if the output of a designed software product meets the input specifications by examining and providing evidence. The goal of the design verification process during software development is ensuring that the designed software product is the same as specified. VALIDATION AND VERIFICATION THE PROCESS DESIGN 1. What is wanted ❑ Requirements simply means looking for what you wanted. ❑ The first stage of the design process is establishing what exactly is needed or identifying what exactly you want the system to accomplish. ❑ There are a number of techniques used for this in HCI: Interviewing people. Videotaping them. Looking at the documents and objects that they work with, – observing them directly. 2. Analysis The results of observation and interview need to be ordered in some way to bring out key issues and communicate with later stages of design. which are a means to capture how people carry out the various tasks that are part of their work and life. 3. Design There is a central stage when you move from what you want, to how to do it. There are numerous rules, guidelines and design principles that can be used to help with this. 4. PROTOTYPE Humans are complex and we cannot expect to get designs right first time. We therefore need to evaluate a design to see how well it is working and where there can be improvements. 5. Implement and deploy Finally, when we are happy with our design, we need to create it and deploy it. This will involve writing code, perhaps making hardware, writing documentation and manuals – everything that goes into a real system that can be given to others. HCI IN SOFTWARE PROCESS SOFTWARE ENGINEERING  Within computer science, there is already a large sub-discipline that addresses the management and technical issues of the development of software systems Software engineering provides a means of understanding the structure of the design process, and that process can be assessed for its effectiveness in interactive system design. THE SOFTWARE LIFE CYCLE is an attempt to identify the activities that occur in software development. These activities must then be ordered in time in any development project and appropriate techniques must be adopted to carry them through. In the development of a software product, we consider two main parties: the CUSTOMER who requires the use of the product and the DESIGNER who must provide the product. ACTIVITIES IN THE LIFE CYCLE 1. Requirements specification the designer and customer try to capture a description of what the eventual system will be expected to provide. 2. Architectural design An architectural design performs this decomposition. It is not only concerned with the functional decomposition of the system, determining which components provide which services. 3. Detailed design the designer must provide a sufficiently detailed description so that they may be implemented in some programming language. 4. Coding and unit testing The detailed design for a component of the system should be in such a form that it is possible to implement it in some executable programming language. After coding, the component can be tested to verify that it performs correctly, according to some test criteria that were determined in earlier activities. 5. Integration and testing Once enough components have been implemented and individually tested, they must be integrated as described in the architectural design. Further testing is done to ensure correct behavior and acceptable use of any shared resources. 6. Maintenance Maintenance involves the correction of errors in the systems, which are discovered after release and the revision of the system services to satisfy requirements that were not realized during previous development. THE WATERFALL MODEL The traditional software engineering life cycles arose out of a need in the 1960s and1970s to provide structure to the development of large software systems. ITERATIVE DESIGN AND PROTOTYPING There are three main approaches to prototyping: Throw-away The prototype is built and tested. The design knowledge gained from this exercise is used to build the final product, but the actual prototype is discarded. Incremental The final product is built as separate components, one at a time. There is one overall design for the final system, but it is partitioned into independent and smaller components. The final product is then released as a series of products, each subsequent release including one more component. Evolutionary  Here the prototype is not discarded and serves as the basis for the next iteration of design. In this case, the actual system is seen as evolving from a very limited initial version to its final release. Management Issues: Time Building Planning Most Non-functional Contracts Techniques for prototyping Storyboards Limited functionality Warning about iterative design