Human-computer interaction

Draft

Definition

• Human-computer interaction (HCI) is the study and the design of interaction between people and computers.

• Human-computer interaction is 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. [http://sigchi.org/cdg/cdg2.html (Hewett et al., 2004).

• Design methodologies in HCI aim to create user interfaces that are usable, i.e. that can be operated with ease and efficiency. However, an even more basic requirement is cognitive usability, ie. that the user interface be useful allowing the user to complete relevant tasks within a task environment.

Design methodologies

Analysis

• e.g. Ethnography

Design

• User-centered designs (UCD), e.g. participatory design, design-based research

A typical HCI related design tasks/elements

1. User needs analysis
   • Define the analysis framework and methodology
   • Define contents and concepts
   • Acquire and categorize mental representations
2. Define the interface "language"
3. Prototype creation
4. Usability and cognitive ergonomics testing

Interaction design

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In a computer-based environment an interaction can be defined as “the representations and operations of an application system by considering what representations the user needs to interact with, through what operations.” (Yamamoto and Nakakoji, 2005)

Interaction design principles

Ladly outlines some guidelines in designing interactions:

• Visibility - knowing the stat of an object and the choices available
• Feedback - timely, in an appropriate mode (aural, visual, etc.), yet not distracting from task
• Affordance - use object whose actual properties are in accordance with its perceived properties (e.g. an icon depicting a switch should turn something on or off)
• Mapping - make use of the relationship between objects and their environment (e.g. placing a menu bar at the top of an application window)
• Constraints - limit the possible interactions physically, semantically (context-related meaning), logically, or culturally (learned conventions)
• Habituation - the use of the system should become internalized to the point that the user only thinks of the task, not the system

A cognitive interactive interface should invoke and respond to only one action from the user. (Ladly, 2004)

Story-based design

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In principle, someone is working on it and there should be a better version in a not so distant future.
If you want to modify this page, please discuss it with the person working on it (see the "history")

Tom Erickson (1995) outlines some ways in which storytelling can be used as a tool for designing human-computer interactions. Stories reveal users' experiences, desires, fears and practices that can in turn drive effective user-centered design. He points out that stories, in contrast to scenarios, involve real people in particular situations and consequently involve unique histories, motivations and personalities.

• story gathering - gathering users' stories on the users' domain (a culturally, socially and physically situated environment) thereby collecting and building a shared language, referents and questions and issues to be addressed.
• story making - building 'scenario-like' stories that capture emerging common concepts and details from users' stories
• involving users - using stories with users to elicit dialog and discussions that bring essential ideas and problems to light that should be considered in the design.
• transferring design knowledge - being highly memorable and still susceptible to the uncertainty entailed in the particular being applied to the whole, “stories become important as mechanisms for communicating with the organization by upport design transfer”, by “capturing both action and motivation, both the what and the why of the design” (Erickson, 1995)

Links

• Interaction-design.org Encyclopedia Contains some good introductory articles regarding various HCI domains. Good place to start.
• Wikipedia: Human computer interaction
• HCI Bibliography 'Lots of pointers (e.g. an index of 34000 articles, pointers to introductory books, some on-line texts)
• Ten Usability Heuristics by Jakob Nielsen

References

• Erickson, T. Notes on Design Practice: Stories and Prototypes as Catalysts for Communication. based on a version of this paper that appeared in Scenario-Based Design: Envisioning Work and Technology in System Development. (ed. J. Carroll). New York: Wiley & Sons, 1995. [1]

• Hewett, Baecker, Card, Carey, Gasen, Mantei, Perlman, Strong and Verplank (2004). ACM SIGCHI Curricula for Human-Computer Interaction, Chapter 2: Human-Computer Interaction HTML - retrieved 17:47, 9 June 2006 (MEST).

• Paul Dourish, Implications for Design, CHI 2006 paper, PDF

• Ladly, M. (2004). Interaction Design Workshop: Part One: workshop presentation at Banff New Media Institute audio presentation PDF

• Yamamoto, K. Nakakoji, Y. (2005). Hypertext representations as a means for creative knowledge work New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia, Vol. 11, No. 1, p. 39-67.