Human Computer
Interaction
(HCI)
Lecture 1a
Adapted from materials from: Albrecht Schmidt (https://hci-lecture.org/). Luigi De Russis, Alberto Monge Roffarello, and Tommaso Calò (https://elite.polito.it/teaching/02jsk-hci/info)
Lecture Outline
• What is HCI?
• Ingredients in HCI
• Goals in Interactive Design
• Models of Interaction
Introduction
• User interface designers are the real heroes of digital
transformation. Their work turned personal computer’s into
today’s success stories.
• The steadily growing interest in Human Computer Interaction
stems from the designers’ desire to improve the users’
experience.
• Many activities that used to be done with a physical artifact have
gone digital.
• What is an interaction and how different is it from an interface?
The world goes digital…
• Benefits
• Makes many tasks easier, quicker and more convenient
• Our details can also be stored ready for next time
• Don’t have to wait in line before when buying a physical ticket
• Easy to swipe QR code to gain entrance through a ticket barrier
• …
• Disadvantages
• Not everyone has a modern smartphone
• Some people still prefer to use older phones which the apps won’t work on
• Some people prefer not to divulge personal information online
• Some people prefer to talk to real people when making a purchase
• …
What is HCI?
• A multi-disciplinary field
• Concerned with the design, evaluation, and implementation of
interactive computing systems for human use and with the
study of major phenomena surrounding them.
• Involves two entities (the human and the computer) that
determine each other behavior over time
• framed in terms of humans' goals and related tasks/pursuits
What is HCI?
• “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”
(definition in the ACM SIGCHI Curricula for HCI, 1992)
• A pragmatic computer science view point:
How to enable interaction between one or more humans and
one or more computational devices and with data.
What is HCI?
• A cross-disciplinary area (engineering, psychology, ergonomics,
design, computer science, … ) that deals with the theory,
design, implementation, and evaluation of the ways humans
use and interact with computing devices
• Interaction must be distinguished from interface.
• The main goal of HCI is to improve the interaction between
users and computers by making computers more user-friendly
and receptive to the user’s needs.
Multidisciplinary
Design Practices
Academic Graphic Design
Disciplines Product Design
Ergonomics Artist-Design
Psychology/ Industrial Design
Cognitive Science
Film Industry
Design
Informatics Interaction
Engineering Design
Computer Science/
Software Engineering
Social Sciences Information
(e.g., Sociology, Systems
Anthropology)
Human Human-Computer Computer-
Ubiquitous Factors (HF) Interaction (HCI) Supported
Computing Cooperative
Cognitive Cognitive Work (CSCW)
Engineering Ergonomics
Interdisciplinary Overlapping Fields
Sharp, et. al. Interaction design: beyond human-computer interaction. 5th Edition, Chapter 1 (www.id-book.com)
Ingredients in HCI
• The Human • The Computer • The Task(s) to be
accomplished
• Sensory systems • Input peripherals
• Visual • Keyboard, mouse
• Auditory • Trackpad, trackball
• Haptic • Touch screens
• Spatial • Microphone
• Acting systems • Sensors
• Hands • Card readers …
• Voice • Output peripherals
• Head, Body, ... • Screen
• Cognitive processes • Audio (voice,
• Perception sounds)
• Memory • Haptics
• VR/AR headsets …
HCI Scope
Goals of Interaction Design
• Develop usable products
• Involve people in the design process
• Consider what people are good and bad at
• Consider what might help people with the way they currently do things
• Think through what might provide quality experiences
• Consider a person’s privacy concerns if data is being collected about them
• Listen to what people want and getting them involved in the design
• Use people-centered techniques during the design process
How does Human-Computer Interaction impact us?
• It determines how we use (digital) products.
• For examples it impacts…
• what we can do with products and services,
• how easy or hard it is to work with a software,
• how quickly you can learn to use a system, or
• how safe a product is.
• It is central to how we feel and what we experience while
interacting with digital technologies.
Why Focus on User and Interaction?
• Traditionally product discrimination is by functionality and price
• Why should a customer pick you, if competitors offer very
similar functions (e.g. messaging services) at similar prices (e.g.
payed by advertising)?
• Your product is easier to use?
• You get your tasks done faster?
• You have more fun doing what you want to do?
Concerns in Human-Computer Interaction
• The joint performance of tasks by humans and machines
• The structure of communication between humans and
machines
• Human capabilities to use machines (including the learnability
of interfaces)
• Engineering concerns that arise in designing and building
interfaces
• The process of specification, design, and implementation of
interfaces
• Design trade-offs
• Algorithms and programming of the user interface itself
How to Design and Develop Good Interactive Systems?
• Iterative and human-centered process
• People needs (not “wants”)
• Design principles and guidelines
• Usability goals
• Prototyping (rapidly)
• Evaluation (various kind)
• Programming
Models of Interaction
What is “interaction”? (in HCI)
• Interaction...
• concerns two entities (humans and computers) that determine each
other’s behavior over time
• Their mutual determination can be of many types, including statistical,
mechanical, and structural
• Users, with their goals and pursuits, are the ultimate metric of
interaction
Assumptions
• The user wants to accomplish some goals, in a specific application
domain
• Each domain has a specific jargon, set of possible processes and goals,
artifacts and building blocks, ...
• Tasks are operations to manipulate the concepts of a domain
• The goal is attained by performing one or more tasks
• Interaction studies the relation between User and System
• The system possesses a state and “speaks” a core language
• The user possesses a state, that includes an understanding of the
system’s state, some intention to perform a task, and “speaks” the task
language
Norman’s Model of Interaction
1. Establishing the goal - WHAT
2. Forming the intention - HOW
Execution 3. Specifying the action sequence
4. Executing the action
The gulf of execution
Input
User Computer
Output
The gulf of evaluation
Evaluation 5. Perceiving the system state
6. Interpreting the system state
7. Evaluating the system state
Abowd and Beale Model, with Explicit UI
The gulf of evaluation
Output
Observation Presentation
User System
(task language) (core language)
Articulation Performance
Input
User Interface (UI language)
The gulf of execution
Tools, Techniques and Environments for HCI design
The gulf of evaluation
Screen design
Visualization
UI toolkits
Output
Observation Presentation
User System
(task language) (core language)
Articulation Performance
Input
Ergonomics User Interface (UI language)
Dialogs
The gulf of execution Widgets
Frameworks: Major UI Styles
• Command line interface
• Menus
• Natural language
• Question/answer and query dialog
• Form-fills and spreadsheets
• Windows, Icons, Menus and Pointers (WIMP)
• Mobile
• Point and click
• Three-dimensional interfaces
