Human computer interaction (or HCI) is the study of how people interact with computers and other technology. From an HCI point of view, the designer is the advocate for the user, making it as easy as possible to complete the tasks. A word that is often used to describe this process is “intuition.” If a piece of software or a website is intuitive, it means that the user can just figure it out without any special instructions or prior knowledge.
In order for interaction to take place, a system must be mutually responsive (each side can change and respond depending upon what the other side does). TV is a perfect example of a NON-interactive system. You could be very active or sound asleep and the TV will not change what it is doing at all.
Here are some basic options to consider when humans interact with computers:
Options with Space: A system can bee…
- Physically co-located: face-to-face
- Mixed Reality: augmented reality, live job aids
- Virtual distributed: interaction mediated via technology
Options with Time: A system can be…
- Synchronous: no lag-time in responses
- Asynchronous: significant lag-time between responses
Options with Fidelity: A system can be…
- High (all senses): sight, sound, smell, touch, taste
- Medium: images/video and text
- Low: text only
Options with Humanness: A system can be…
- High human: no machine
- High machine: no human
There is a difference between interactivity and interaction (Wagner, 1994). Interactivity is the degree a delivery technology is capable of establishing a two-way connection between distributed participants for the exchange of audio, video, text, and graphical information. Interaction, on the other hand, is a social property associated with behaviors where individuals and groups directly influence one another.
HCI Online Resources
- Human-Computer Interaction Index of sources on the WEB– This collection of pages points you to many different resources on Human-Computer-Interaction on the Internet including bibliographies, conferences, publications, reviews, groups and organizations.
- Human-Computer Interaction Resources– site with links to jobs, in-progress thesis, conferences, labs, organizations, companies, and other resources for HCI researchers and practitioners.
- Human Interface Technology Lab Home Page – The Human Interface Technology Laboratory is a research and development lab in virtual interface technology. It was established to transform virtual environment concepts and early research into practical, market-driven products and processes. HITL research strengths include interface hardware, virtual environments software, and human factors.
- Task-Centered User Interface Design: A Practical Introduction – Shareware book by Clayton Lewis and John Rieman–the entire book online.
- Wearable Computing– Wearable computing facilitates a new form of human–computer interaction comprising a small body–worn computer (e.g. user–programmable device) that is always on and always ready and accessible.
MUDs MOOs and MUVEs
Multi-user Virtual Environments
- Design Metaphors – some great non-examples can be found at http://digilander.libero.it/chiediloapippo/Engineering/iarchitect/mdesign.htm. Warning from the book to try to avoid metaphors because they can be dangerous. Instead, use (whatever he called them), which are not metaphors, but are intuitive, quickly learnable images. One example of this is a box with an ‘x’ in it at the top left (or right) of your screen. it doesn’t take long to understand that that will close the window.
3 Important aspects of Group work – “production function, well-being function, member support”