UNIT 3

Introduction to Models and Theories in HCI (Jeff Bazer)

In Carroll’s book, 'HCI Models, Theories and Frameworks', he states that HCI “is concerned with
understanding how people make use of devices and systems that incorporate or embed computation,
and how such devices and systems can be more useful and more usable.” Carroll goes on to talk about
what HCI professionals do “analyze and design user interfaces and new user-interface technologies”,
“created software tools and development environment to facilitate the construction of graphical user
interfaces”, “pioneered the user of voice and video in user interfaces, hypertext links, interactive
tutorials and context-sensitive help systems.”

Carroll also goes on to talk about some of the work in mobile computing, information visualization for
digital libraries and navigation techniques for virtual environments. Since this book was published in
2003, I think that this section is even more important today than ever. According to Smart Insights the
number of mobile uses has increased dramatically and surpassed desktop users. This is important as
while the concepts in the book are a solid starting point, they must be adapted to anything in use with
mobile since it has a different style of working.

Another concept Carroll talks about is scientific fragmentation and the current challenges. Carroll states
that in the 1980s it was reasonable to expect HCI professionals to have a fairly comprehensive
understanding of the concepts and methods in use, but in today’s world it is far more challenging for
individuals to attain that breadth of knowledge since there are so many theories, methods, application
domains and systems. I think this is spot on because as HCI has grown over the past decade there have
only been more and more models and theories come up, many of them having to do with mobile. This
makes it harder to know all of them and we start to run into individualization where researchers and HCI
professionals start to focus on just a couple concepts instead of all of them.

Cognitive Modeling

Cognitive modeling plays a crucial role in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) by providing insights into
how humans perceive, think, and make decisions when interacting with digital systems. This paper
presents an overview of cognitive modeling theories and their applications in HCI. We first discuss the
foundational theories behind cognitive modeling, including information processing models, decision-
making theories, and mental workload theories. We then explore how these theories are applied in HCI
to design interfaces that are more intuitive, efficient, and user-friendly. Examples of applications include
interface design for complex systems, usability testing, and adaptive interfaces. Finally, we discuss future
directions and challenges in the field of cognitive modeling in HCI.

socio-organizational issues and stakeholder requirements:

socio-organizational issues and stakeholder requirements • Organizational issues affect acceptance –

conflict & power, who benefits, encouraging use • Stakeholders – identify their requirements in
organizational context • Socio-technical models – human and technical requirements • Soft systems
methodology – broader view of human and organizational issues • Participatory design – includes the
user directly in the design process • Ethnographic methods – study users in context, unbiased
perspective
Organisational issues:

Organisational factors can make or break a system

Studying the work group is not sufficient

– any system is used within a wider context

– and the crucial people need not be direct users

Before installing a new system must understand:

– who benefits

– who puts in effort

– the balance of power in the organisation

… and how it will be affected

Even when a system is successful

… it may be difficult to measure that success

Conflict and power CSCW = computer supported cooperative work – people and groups have conflicting
goals – systems assuming cooperation will fail! e.g. computerise stock control stockman looses control of
information ⇒ subverts the system identify stakeholders – not just the users.

Organisational structures • Groupware affects organisational structures – communication structures

reflect line management – email – cross-organisational communication Disenfranchises lower
management ⇒ disaffected staff and ‘sabotage’ Technology can be used to change management style
and power structures – but need to know that is what we are doing – and more often an accident !

who are the stakeholders? Example: Classifying stakeholders – an airline booking system An
international airline is considering introducing a new booking system for use by associated travel agents
to sell flights directly to the public. Primary stakeholders: travel agency staff, airline booking staff
Secondary stakeholders: customers, airline management Tertiary stakeholders: competitors, civil aviation
authorities, customers’ travelling companions, airline shareholders Facilitating stakeholders: design
team, IT department staff

designers need to meet as many stakeholder needs as possible – usually in conflict so have to prioritise –
often priority decreases as move down categories e.g. primary most important – not always e.g. life
support machine

socio-technical modelling • response to technological determinism (view that social change is

determined by technology) – In contrast socio-technical systems view focuses on interrelationship of
human and machine elements – Human issues should not be overwhelmed by technical considerations •
concerned with technical, social, organizational and human aspects of design • describes impact of
specific technology on organization • information gathering: interviews, observation, focus groups,
document analysis
Participatory design: In participatory design: workers enter into design context In ethnography (as used
for design): designer enters into work context Both make workers feel valued in design … encourage
workers to ‘own’ the products

Communication and Collaboration models

1. Face-to-Face Communication

a. It involves speech, hearing, body language and eye-gaze.

b. A person has to be familiar with existing norms, to learn a new norm.

c. Another factor is the personal space, this varies based on the context, environment,

diversity and culture.

d. The above factor comes into pitcher, when there is a video conference between two

individuals from different background.

e. The factor of eye gaze is important during a video conference as the cameras are usually

mounted away from the monitor and it is important to have eye contact during a

conversation.

f. Back channels help giving the listener some clues or more information about the

conversation.

g. The role of interruptions like 'um's and 'ah's are very important as they can be used by

participants in a conversation to claim the turn.

2. Conversation

a. Transcripts can be used as a heavily annotated conversation structure, but still lacks the

back channel information.

b. Another structure is of turn-taking, this can be interpreted as Adjacency pairs, e.g.: A-x,

B-x, A-y, B-y

c. Context varies according to the conversation.

d. The focus of the context can also varies, this means that it is difficult to keep track of

context using adjacency pairs.

e. Break-downs during conversations is often a case and can be noticed by analyzing the

transcripts.

f. Reaching a common ground or grounding is very essential to understand the shared context.
g. Speech act theory is based on the statements and its propositional meaning.

h. A state diagram of the above can be constructed considering these acts as illocutionary

points in the diagram. This is called Conversation for Action.

3. Text-Based Communication

a. 4 types of communication

i. discrete e.g. email

ii. linear e.g. single transcript

iii. non-linear e.g. linked through hypertext fashion

iv. spatial e.g. messages arranged in 2D surface

b. Difference between this and face-to-face communication is that it has lack of back

channels and states

c. Turn-taking is the fundamental structure used here.

4. Group working

a. The roles and relationship between the group individuals are different and may change

during the conversation.

b. Physical layout is important to consider here to maintain the factors in face-to-face

communication.

Summary

a. face-to-face communication is complex. Personal space maintenance are disrupted by

using video links. But we can use the back channels.

b. Context is usually the most important during the conversation.

c. Text-based conversation can be enhanced by using multiplexing messages.

Task analysis

Task analysis is a crucial component of human-computer interaction (HCI) that involves

understanding how users interact with a system to achieve their goals. It is a systematic process
of identifying, analyzing, and representing the tasks that users perform to accomplish a specific
objective.
Design Process & Task Analysis:

Design is a multidisciplinary field that puts emphasis on the interaction between a computer and a
human. It's about ensuring the smooth interaction between a human and a computer system by
ensuring that the computer systems are user-friendly and efficient. HCI designs have some key aspects,
some of which are listed below:

 User-centric Design: The heart of HCI design is to make the computer system user-friendly, to do
that it is recommended to design the computer in the most user-friendly way possible. This
approach takes into account the need of the user and their preference throughout the entire
design process.

 Prototype: Most of the time designers create a prototype of the final product and let the users
try it beforehand and ask them to provide feedback so that they can make some improvements
in the final product and the final product will have fewer problems.

 Accessibility: HCI designers also need to keep in mind the systems that can be accessible by
everyone, even by the person who has some disabilities. So keeping that in mind and adhering
to the rules, they designed the system in such a way so that everyone can use that.

 UI Design: The main thing that comes up when using any system is the User Interface (UI), and a
simpler UI makes more people use the application. So the designers use various design software
to come up with a simple yet effective UI that everyone can use.
There are three principles which are used by the designers for the user-centered approach:

 Data based evaluation

 Early Emphasis on User Needs and Objectives

 Design in an iterative manner.

1. Data-Based Evaluation

Data-based evaluation is a technique that depends upon user feedback and empirical data to assess the
usefulness of a certain design prototype before making the final design. This process is solely done to
ensure that the design meets all the expectations of the main user or the stakeholders.

2. Early Emphasis on User Needs and Objectives

Putting an early emphasis on the user needs and objectives makes the design more user-friendly as well
as used to improve the design based on the user's need, main aim, and context. It also helps to ensure
that the final design is user-centric, fulfills the user's needs and easy to use by the user. Usually the
designers does this during the early stage of the design, so that they keep in mind about the user's needs
and aim throughout the entire design process.

3. Design in an Iterative Manner

Design in an Iterative manner means that the entire design process from start to end is not a linear
process, In a linear process, the designer starts the design and throughout the entire process of the
design they don't listen to the user or any others and just delivers the final product as instructed to him
at the start.

 In an iterative approach, the designer creates a certain product (prototype), let the user test the
product and then gathers the feedback from the user

 Using the feedback they make changes in the design and again let the user test it until and
unless the user says that they liked the product and no other change is needed to do there.

Design Methodologies for Design Process & Task Analysis

There are several Design methodologies that are used in Design Process and Task Analysis. Some of them
are listed below:

 User Centric Designs: UCD is an approach whose main goal is to make the user satisfy with the
design and making sure that they don't face any issues while using the application. Designers
emphaises on the user's needs, conducting multiple testing, releasing prototype and gaining
feedback, using those feedbacks to update the application etc.

 Task Analysis: Task Analysis is an approach used by designers to break a large and complex task
into smaller and easier sub-tasks.

 Cognitive Walkthrough: This approach is used by designers in which they try to imitate how a
person would react with the application and their thought process while doing various tasks in
 the application. It is helpful to identify that where the user might get stuck while using the
application.

 Contextual Inquiry: It involves interviewing the user live while they are interacting with the
application and performing some tasks, it helps the designers to understand the workflow of the
users.

 Scenario based Design: Designers create some scenarios in their mind to guess how the users
might interact with the application and how they will react in various situations. This is helpful to
understand the user's thought process and using that the application can be improved.

Participatory Design in Design Process & Task Analysis

This process involves all the share holders who have given the work to the designers to design
something. This is purely done by the designers so that the share holders can see the prototype and they
can insist some changes if they want. Then the created design can be used in various fields as desired by
the share holders, like software design, architecture, product design, planning etc.

It is basically called "Participatory" because the shareholders are directly involved in this process, this is
not an approach of desigining anything, it emphasises on the procedures and the processes followed by
the designers.

Some of the characteristics of Participatory Design is listed below:

1. Involvement of Stakeholders: All the users, stakeholders or any other people directly or
indirectly involved in the design process actively participate during Participatory Design, they
also help in changing or updating the design as they desire.
 2. Empowerement: Users can influence the design by a lot by providing their own input to make
relevant changes into the design as needed. It empowers the users as they can influence the
design process according to their need or ease of working.

3. Prototyping: In PD phase, the designers can take input from the end users or stakeholders and
make relevant changes to the design and create a prototype, users on the other hand can use
those prototypes to see everything is fine or not, or provide any other suggestions if needed.
This is a very important part of PD.

4. Democractic Decision Making: During the PD process, all the stakeholders agree upon to a
certain design before making it final, they all provide certain inputs about making some changes
into the design and all come to a consensus when they find everything is alright. No single
person has the right to decide which is correct or which is wrong, everyone needs to be involved.

What is a Task in Design Process & Task Analysis?

In the context of Design Process and Task Analysis, a "Task" is referred as a specific activity or action that
is performed by the user while interacting with a service/application, product etc. Tasks are the building
blocks of any kind of activity or process.

Task Analysis in Design Process & Task Analysis

Task analysis is the study of how a user will complete any certain task successfully. The process include
complete detail about the task given to the user and approaches they are taking and the entire
breakdown of the approach from the beginning till the end, until the user has solved the problem.

 This not only include the cognitive approach, but also includes the Physical Approaches to solve
a task if needed.

 It's a systematic process used to document, understand, analyze the specific tasks, actions, or
activities that users perform while interacting with a system, product, or service.

There are some key aspects of Task Analysis, which are given below:

 Understanding user tasks: Task Analysis begins with analysing the task given to the user or the
task user has chosen to complete. It also involves studying the users' role in the task, their
responsibilities and their main goal.

 Observing the Users: Observing the users thoroughly while they use that application or
prototype is also a crucial step in Task Analysis. How they are interacting with the elements,
which approaches they are taking, what decisions they make etc. everything is being observed
by the designers.

 Workflow Mapping: This is useful to map the workflow or the path user is taking to solve the
problem. This is being done to represent the approach is a graphical or chart manner which is
easier to understand.
  Understanding the Complexity of the Task: Understanding the task complexity is also a key
point to understand the calibre of the user who is solving that task, and also used to determine
the types of users that would be needed to solve the tasks.

ER-based techniques in HCI (Human-Computer Interaction) likely refer to "Eye-tracking" or "Eye

Response" based techniques. Here's a brief overview:

Eye-tracking in HCI

1. Gaze-based interaction: Users interact with digital systems using their gaze.

2. Eye movement analysis: Understanding user attention, focus, and behavior.

3. Applications: Gaming, accessibility, usability testing, and more.

Benefits

1. Hands-free interaction: Users can interact without physical input devices.

2. Accessibility: Eye-tracking can assist people with disabilities.

3. Improved user experience: More natural and intuitive interaction.

Challenges

1. Accuracy and precision: Ensuring accurate gaze detection.

2. User calibration: Calibrating the system to individual users.

3. Contextual understanding: Interpreting gaze data in context.

Eye-tracking and ER-based techniques are advancing, enabling new forms of human-computer
interaction.
Eye-tracking and ER-based techniques have various uses:

1. Accessibility: Assisting people with disabilities (e.g., paralysis, ALS) to interact with devices.

2. Gaming: Enhancing gameplay with gaze-based controls.

3. Usability testing: Analyzing user behavior and attention.

4. Market research: Understanding consumer attention and preferences.

5. Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR): Improving user experience and interaction.

6. Healthcare: Diagnosing and treating conditions (e.g., attention disorders).

7. Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research: Exploring new interaction methods.

These techniques offer innovative ways to interact with technology and gather insights into human
behavior.