Human Computer
Interaction
JAMAICA T. HERNANDEZ
HISTORY OF HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION
OBJECTIVES:
At the end of the lesson, the students will be able to:
Explain the concepts and history of human-computer interaction.
Gain theoretical knowledge and practical experience in the fundamental aspects of
human-computer interaction.
Identify the different research trends and research fields of human-computer interaction.
Differentiate the various discipline of human-computer interaction.
INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN COMPUTER INTERACTION
Human-computer interaction (HCI) is a multidisciplinary field of study focusing on the
design of computer technology and the interaction between humans (the users) and
computers. HCI become popular and cover almost all forms of information technology
design.
Humans interact with computers in many ways, the interface between humans and
computers is essential to facilitate this interaction. Desktop applications, internet
browsers, handheld computers, ERP, and computer kiosks make use of the widespread
graphical user interfaces (GUI) of today.
Generally, the goal of human-computer interaction is to produce a user interface that
makes it easy, effective, efficient, and enjoyable (user-friendly) to use.
History of Human-Computer Interaction
Human-computer interaction arose as a field from intertwined roots in computer graphics,
operating systems, human factors, ergonomics, industrial engineering, cognitive
psychology, and the systems part of computer science. Computer graphics was born from
the use of CRT and pen devices very early in the history of computers. This led to the
development of several human-computer interaction techniques. Many techniques date
from Sutherland's Sketchpad Ph.D. thesis (1963) that essentially marked the beginning of
computer graphics as a discipline. Work in computer graphics has continued to develop
algorithms and hardware that allow the display and manipulation of ever more realistic-
looking objects.
A related set of developments were attempts to pursue "man-machine symbiosis"
(Licklider, 1960), the "augmentation of human intellect" (Engelbart, 1963), and the
"Dynabook" (Kay and Goldberg, 1977). Out of this line of development came several
important building blocks for human-computer interaction. Some of these building blocks
include the mouse, bitmapped displays, personal computers, windows, the desktop
metaphor, and point-and-click editors. Work on operating systems, meanwhile, developed
techniques for interfacing input/output devices, for tuning system response time to human
interaction times, for multiprocessing, and for supporting windowing environments and
animation. This strand of development has currently given rise to "user interface
management systems" and "user interface toolkits".
Human factors, as a discipline, derives from the problems of designing equipment
operable by humans during World War II (Sanders & McCormick, 1987). 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. 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." Because of their roots, ergonomic studies of computers emphasize the
relationship to the work setting and the effects of stress factors, such as the utilization of
work, sitting posture, or the visual design of CRT displays.
HCI is the academic discipline that most of us think of as UI design. It focuses on the way
that human beings and computers interact with ever-increasing levels of both complexity
and simplicity. HCI has expanded rapidly and progressively for the past years, attracting
professionals from many other disciplines and incorporating diverse concepts and
approaches.
The 1970s - The rise of the Personal Computer.
Adapted from the Author/Copyright holder: Courtesy of Grubitzsch (Geb. Raphael), Waltraud. Copyright terms and license
CC-Att-SA-3 (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0) Personal computing rapidly pushed computer use into th
general population, starting in the later 1970s. However, the non-professional computer user was often subjected to arcan
commands and system dialogs.
Figure 1. The Rise of Personal Computer
The 1980s - Graphical User Interface (GUI).
Adapted from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic_Mac_OS (Original 1984 Macintosh desktop). The early Macintosh desktop
metaphor: Icons scattered on the desktop depict documents and functions, which can be selected and accessed.
Figure 2. Graphical User Interface (GUI)
Graphical User Interface (GUI) is the interface that is designed for an easier
understanding of the users of the computers. Before GUI, there was a command prompt
by which command was given to the computers. GUI started the graphical interface which
is easy to use, understand, visualize, and improved the working environment.
The 1990s - The Internet and Collaborative works.
Adapted from the Author/Copyright holder: Courtesy of Andrew Stern. Copyright terms and license: CC-
Att-SA-3 (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0). Computing moved off the desktop to be
everywhere all the time. Computers are in phones, cars, meeting rooms, and coffee shops.
Figure 3. The Internet and Collaborative Works
The 2000s - Mobile Computing and Beyond.
Adapted from the Author/Copyright holder: Psion. Copyright terms and
license: All Rights Reserved. Mobile phones, PDA (Personal Development
Assistance), and Smart Phones are ruling the present world.
Figure 4. Mobile Computing
Mobile phones, PDA (Personal Development Assistance), and Smart Phones offer a wide
range of services to people such as SMS, MMS, multimedia, games, email, internet,
chatting, video conference, GPS, etc.
Today HCI is used in the area of Cognitive
Science. Part of the program of cognitive
science was to articulate systematic and
scientifically informed applications to be
known as "cognitive engineering". Thus, at
just the point when personal computing
presented the practical need for HCI,
cognitive science presented people, concepts,
skills, and a vision for addressing such needs
through an ambitious synthesis of science
and engineering. HCI was one of the first
examples of cognitive engineering.
What is Human-Computer Interaction?
Human-computer interaction (HCI) is the study of the design and use of computer
technology, focused on the interfaces between people (users) and computers. Because
humans interact with computers in many ways, the interface between humans and computers
is crucial to facilitate this interaction. Desktop applications, internet browsers, handheld
computers, ERP, and computer kiosks make use of the prevalent graphical user interfaces
(GUI) today. Voice user interfaces (VUI) are used for speech recognition and synthesizing
systems and the emerging multi-modal and graphical user interfaces (GUI) allow humans to
engage with embodied character agents in a way that cannot be achieved with other interface
paradigms. The growth in the human-computer interaction field has been in the quality of
interaction, and different branching in its history. Instead of designing regular interfaces, the
different research branches had a different focus on the concepts of multimodality rather than
unimodality, intelligent adaptive interfaces rather than command/action based ones, and
finally active rather than passive interfaces.
The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) defines human-computer interaction as "a
discipline concerned with the design, evaluation, and implementation of interactive computing
systems for human use and with the study of major phenomena surrounding them". An important
facet of HCI is user satisfaction (or simply End-User Computing Satisfaction). "Because human-
computer interaction studies a human and a machine in communication, it draws from
supporting knowledge on both the machine and the human side. On the machine side, techniques
in computer graphics, operating systems, programming languages, and development
environments are relevant. On the human side, communication theory, graphic and industrial
design disciplines, linguistics, social sciences, cognitive psychology, social psychology, and
human factors such as computer user satisfaction are relevant. And, of course, engineering and
design methods are relevant." Due to the multidisciplinary nature of HCI, people with different
backgrounds contribute to its success. HCI is also sometimes termed human-machine interaction
(HMI), man-machine interaction (MMI), or computer-human interaction (CHI).
