AMBO UNIVERSITY WOLISO CAMPUS

School of Technology & Informatics Department of Information Systems

Course name: Human-Computer Interaction Course Code: INSY4112; ECTS:5

Chapter One:

Introduction to Human-Computer Interaction

By: Jerusalem F.

HCI lecture notes: Lecture 1, Chapter 1

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 Human–Computer Interaction (HCI)
◼ HCI—is the study of how humans interact with computer
systems.
◼ “HCI—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”.
◼ Many disciplines contribute to HCI, including computer
science, psychology, ergonomics, engineering, and graphic
design.
◼ HCI consists of three parts: the user, the computer itself, and
interactions
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 The Goals of HCI
The goals of HCI are:
◼ to produce usable and safe systems, as well as
functional systems
◼ understand the factors that determine how people
use technology
◼ develop tools and techniques to enable building
suitable systems
◼ achieve efficient, effective, and safe interaction
◼ put people first

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 HCI
◼ The Human: I/O channels – Memory – Reasoning and
problem solving;
◼ The computer: Devices – Memory – processing and
networks;
◼ Interaction: Models – frameworks – Ergonomics – styles –
elements – interactivity – Paradigms
◼ Ergonomics— the study of the physical characteristics of the interaction:
◼ how the controls are designed, the physical environment in which the

interaction takes place, and the layout and physical qualities of the
screen.
◼ A primary focus is on user performance and how the interface
enhances productivity.
HCI lecture notes: Lecture 1, Chapter 1
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 Why do we care?
➢ Computers (in one way or another) now affect every person in
our society.
➢ We are surrounded by unusable and ineffective systems!
➢ Its not the user’s fault!!
➢ Product success may depend on ease of use, not necessarily
command
➢ You will likely create an interface for someone at some point
➢ Making things people love.
➢ Effortless interaction.

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 Interaction Techniques
▪ Scroll bars, buttons, text fields
▪ But also:
• Drawing a new object in an editor
• Copy-and-paste
• Selecting a cell in a spreadsheet

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 Some Examples

✓ Visual Basic
✓ Physical controls

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 Interaction technique
◼ An “interaction technique” starts when the user does
something that causes a computer to respond, and includes
the direct feedback from the computer to the user.
◼ Interaction techniques are generally reusable across various
applications
◼ Wikipedia’s definition: “An interaction technique, user
interface technique or input technique is a combination of
hardware and software elements that provides a way for
computer users to accomplish a single task.”
◼ Foley & van Dam, 1990:“An interaction technique is a way of
using a physical input/output device to perform a generic task in a
human-computer dialogue.”
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 The Era of HCI
The Past:

Users as information processors

Dominance of cognitive psychology
USERS
and engineering for modelling
behavior

At the desktop both literally and

TECHNOLOGY symbolically

To model users and system behavior

GOAL so as to maximize productivity and
efficiency in the office
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 The Present:
The Mobile, Pervasive and Ubiquitous Era

Users as players in a bigger system

USERS
As entities whose activities can be modelled,
predicted, sensed and augmented

Everywhere and anywhere (mobile, pervasive,

ubiquitous)
TECHNOLOGY
Converging Smart environments

To model user and system behavior so as to

maximize productivity and efficiency anytime,
GOAL anyplace
To make users more effective through intelligent
environments and tools
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 USERS
OLD NEW
• Understanding users in • Understanding users in
machine terms human terms
• Users can be modelled, • Users are active creators of
predicted and sensed their own experiences
• Users as part of a pre- • Users as part of complex,
defined system pre-existing ecologies

These are social and cultural matters as well as cognitive and

engineering matters

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 TECHNOLOGY
OLD NEW

• Place-ness • Place-less
• Place agnostic • Situated
• Networked • Ecological
• Convergence • Divergence

• An interdisciplinary approach means new design

goals

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 GOALS

OLD NEW
• To maximize the productivity • To provide diversity of
and efficiency of human- experience through good
technical systems design, a sensitivity to place,
• To make users more and an understanding of
effective through intelligent human values
environments and • To offer tools as resources for
technologies intelligence and creative
expression
Social, cognitive, technical and design disciplines are equal
partners at the table

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 Overview:
Map of Human Computer Interaction

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 What Is Not An Interaction Technique?

◼ Whole applications (Microsoft Word) Dashboard

◼ “widgets” –small apps for the desktop Output
◼ only (no interactions)
◼ Visualizations
◼ But many come with specialized interactions, then they
might count?
◼ Animations
◼ Movies

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 Goals of HCI
◼ Allow users to carry out tasks:

✓Safely (Reducing anxiety & fear of computer usage)

✓Effectively (accuracy and completeness in
achieving goals)

✓Efficiently (resources used)

✓Enjoyably (comfort, acceptability, happiness,

pleasure)

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 Usability

◼ Combination of
✓
Ease of learning—easy to learn, to use, to memorize
✓ High speed of user task performance—Efficiency
✓ Low user error rate—Effectiveness

✓ Subjective user satisfaction— Enjoyable

✓ User retention over time—Safety

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 Design Evaluation

◼ Both subjective and objective metrics

◼ Some things we can measure

✓ Time to perform a task

✓
improvement of performance over time
✓ Rate of errors by user

✓ Retention over time

✓ Subjective satisfaction
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 UI Design/ Develop Process
◼ User-Centered Design
◼ Active involvement of users
◼ Appropriate allocation of function between user & system
◼ Multidisciplinary design teams
◼ Analyze user’s goals & tasks
◼ Determine what tasks and subtasks must be carried out
◼ Include tasks which are only performed occasionally.
Functionality must match need or else users will reject or underutilize the product
◼

◼ Create design alternatives

◼ Evaluate options
◼ Implement prototype
◼ Test
◼ Refine
HCI lecture notes: Lecture 1, Chapter 1
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 Know The Users
◼ Physical & cognitive abilities (& special needs)
◼ Classification of human cognitive processes:
◼ Long-term and semantic memory
◼ Short-term and working memory
◼ Language communication and comprehension
◼ Learning, skill development, knowledge acquisition
and concept realization, etc. …
◼ They also suggest this set of factors affecting
perceptual and motor performance:
◼ Fatigue and sleep deprivation
◼ Perceptual (mental) load
◼ Fear, anxiety, mood, and emotion
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 Know The Users
◼ Personality differences & Gender differences
◼ There is no set taxonomy for identifying user
personality types
◼ Two Fatal Mistakes for Designers:
Assume all users are alike
✓

✓ Assume all users are like the designer

◼ No clear patterns have emerged

◼ Games
◼ Tend to be aimed at young males
◼ Highest demographic of online players ➔ older women
◼ Productivity tools
◼ Largely male designers
◼ Poor UI choices (KILL
HCI lecture a process)
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 Know The Users
◼ Cultural and international diversity
◼ Left-to-right versus right-to-left versus vertical input and
reading

◼ Date and time formats

◼ Numeric and currency formats

◼ Names

◼ Capitalization and punctuation

◼ Icons, buttons, colors

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 Know The Users
◼ Users with disabilities
◼ Designers must plan early to accommodate users
with disabilities
◼ Early planning is more cost efficient than adding on
later
◼ Temporary disabilities (glasses, loud environments)

◼ Elderly Users
◼ Including the elderly is fairly ease, designers should
allow for variability within their applications via
settings for sound, color, brightness, font sizes, etc.
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 Know The Users
◼ Knowledge & skills
◼ The Beginner

◼ Just starting out, possibly not very technical

◼ Will need lots of hand-holding, at least to start

◼ The Casual User

◼ Uses the system infrequently

◼ Uses short-cuts, occasionally needs help

❖ About 8% of men have color blindness of some type, and

about 0.5% of women

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 Designing for Hardware Diversity
◼ Display technology runs a large range from large
to small, high/low resolutions
➢ Discuss Effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction:
◼ Are all of these equally important?
◼ All the time?

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 Summary
◼ HCI is an interdisciplinary field in which computer scientists,
engineers, psychologists, social scientists, and design
professionals play important roles.
◼ The goal of HCI is to solve real problems in the design and
use of technology, making computer-based systems easier to
use and more effective for people and organizations. Ease of
◼ use and effectiveness are critical to the success of any
systems that interact with people, including software
systems, home, office and factory appliances, and web and
phone applications.

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End of chapter 1

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