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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