Lesson 1

Introduction Human Computer

Interaction (CSSG211)

SEPTEMBER 12, 2020

Course Overview
• Course Description:
To introduce student’s to human behaviors, gulf of execution,
thinking, learning techniques and mental models systems additional to
that the suggested interaction of human psychological and behaviors
of users.
• Course Objectives:
Gain to introduce student’s different types of systems interfaces,
different techniques of design, manipulate, and retrieve data residing
across global computer systems additional to that the suggested
interaction of Human Psychological and behaviors of users.
Grading System:
20% Mid-Term Exam, 40% Practice Lab, 40% Final Exam
Learning Outcomes
• At the end of the lesson, the students will be able to:
• To define the HCI concept.
• To identify what a human can do, perceive, feel and response.
• To describe the effect of system interface design to a human or
user.
Why Study HCI?

❑ People now expect “easy to use” systems

❑ Generally they are not tolerant of poorly designed
systems
❑ If a product is hard to use, they will seek other products
What is HCI?
• 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.
What is HCI?

Interaction between
people and computer.
HCI - Interdisciplinary
• Emerged in the early 1980s,
initially as a specialty area of
Computer Science

• Intersected with cognitive science

and human factors engineering
Disciplines that Contribute to HCI
❑ Computer Science
• Application design and engineering of human-computer
• Interfaces
❑ Psychology
• The application of theories of cognitive processes and
• the empirical analysis of user behavior
❑ Sociology and Anthropology
• Interactions between technology, work, and organization
❑ Design and Industrial Design
• Creating interactive products
HCI Disciplines
• Cognitive Psychology: Understanding human
behavior and mental processes
• Neuroscience: Neuroscience enables us to build
more accurate and robust models of human cognitive
functions. These models may allow us to evaluate
usability and predict user behavior. Has potential to
close the gap between human and computers.
• Ergonomics or Human Factors: User- Equipment
Design- Environment
• Engineering & Computer Science: faster machines,
faster systems, building better interfaces.
• Design: Interface layout
HCI Disciplines
• Anthropology: User body shape
• Sociology: Groupware. Considers
introduction of IT in society
• Philosophy: Philosophy of technology.
Create consistency.
• Linguistics: language for commands
• Artificial Intelligence: simulating human
behaviour
Ergonomics
• Physical aspects of interfaces
• Study of the physical characteristics of interaction
• Ergonomics good at defining standards and guidelines for
constraining the way we design certain aspects of systems –
to suit the environments/users

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Ergonomics Example
• arrangement of controls and displays
e.g. controls grouped according to function or frequency of use, or
sequentially (mapping)
• surrounding environment
e.g. seating arrangements adaptable to cope with all sizes of user (movie
theatre)
• health issues
e.g. physical position, environmental conditions (temperature, humidity),
lighting, noise
• use of colour
e.g. use of red for warning, green for okay,
awareness of colour-blindness etc.

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HCI Interrelationships

Fig 2: HCI interrelationship (source: sigchi.org)

Concerns of HCI
Science, Engineering, and Design Aspects
▪ The joint performance of tasks by humans and machines
▪ The structure of communication between human and machine
▪ Human capabilities to use machines (including the learn ability of
interfaces)
▪ Algorithms and programming of the interface itself
▪ Engineering concerns that arise in designing and building
interfaces
▪ The process of specification, design, and implementation of
interfaces
Interface and interaction design
❑ Interface design (ID)
▪ Primarily design of 2D/3D widgets
❑ Designing interactive products to support people in their
everyday and working lives
▪ Sharp, Rogers and Preece (2002)
❑ The design of spaces for human communication and
interaction
▪ Winograd (1997)
The Goals of HCI

A basic goal of HCI is To Produce

to improve the
Usable
interactions between Safe
users and computers
by making computers
Functional
more usable and
receptive to the user's
needs

Functional
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Goals of interaction design
❑ Develop usable products

❑Usability means:
▪ easy to learn
▪ effective to use
▪ enjoyable experience

❑ Usable products = successful products?

❑ Involve users in the design process

4 Principles in HCI
1. Human capabilities and limitations
2. Machine capabilities and limitations
3. Interactions
4. Tasks
Why Study HCI?
We study HCI to determine how we can make this computer
technology more usable by people
What is the difference between
useful and usable?
Usefulness and Usability
Useful - The system supports the objective of the user.

Usable - It supports these objectives in easy-to-use

ways.

Accessible - It can be used by the full range of

intended users.
American computer scientist, a
University Professor in the
Department of Computer Science
and the founding director (1983-
2000) of the University of Maryland
Human-Computer Interaction Lab

Ben Shneiderman
 The director of The Design
Lab at University of
California, San Diego. He is
best known for his books on
design, especially The
Design of Everyday Things

Donald Arthur "Don" Norman

 In order to produce computer system with good usability;
Developers must attempt to

Understand Develop Achieve Put People 1st

• Tools and • Efficient, • Their needs,

• The factors that capabilities and
determine how techniques to effective, preferences for
people use enable building and safe conducting various
technology suitable tasks should direct
interaction
systems developers in the
way that they
design systems
• People should not
change their way
they use the system
to fit with it,
instead system
should match their
requirements

The long-term goal:

To design systems that minimize the barrier between the human’s cognitive
model of what they want to accomplish and the computer’s understanding of
the user’s task 28
Laboratory
Research on the concepts behind Norman’s principle design
 References
https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/human-computer-interaction

http://myweb.lmu.edu/dondi/share/ixd/principles.pdf

http://www.inf.ed.ac.uk/teaching/courses/hci/0809/lecs/1_principles-6up.pdf

http://www.cs.umd.edu/class/fall2002/cmsc838s/tichi/prescriptive.html

https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/shneiderman-s-eight-golden-rules-will-help-
you-design-better-interfaces

https://99percentinvisible.org/article/norman-doors-dont-know-whether-push-pull-blame-design/