Topic 4 - Human-Computer Interaction Introduction to Computing

Introduction to Computing

Topic 4: Human-Computer Interaction

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Human-Computer Interaction Topic 4 - 4.2

Summary of Lecture
• Examples of human-computer interfaces
• Human-computer interfaces
• GUIs
• Standardisation
• Speech recognition
• Natural language recognition

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Interfaces
What is the human-computer interface?
• It is the meeting point of a computer and its
human user. It involves:
- software
- hardware
- the computer itself
- peripherals
- electronic devices

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Interfaces
An interface can consist of:
• Text • Touch Screen
• Graphics • Microphone
• Sounds • Screen
• Keyboard • Loudspeaker
• Mouse or alternative • A variety of other
components

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Interfaces
• An interface affects usability
- Usability is the amount of effort that a user has to expend in
order to achieve a desired outcome

• Interfaces should be intuitive

• They may make use of metaphors

- e.g. a desktop

• Related commands are grouped together

• Alternative ways of issuing a command

• Not too much information on one screen

• Careful choice of fonts and colours

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Bad Interfaces
How to drive users mad:

• slow
• not standard
• too much work
• use abbreviations
• use technical language
• hide important functionality
• don’t talk to users
• set bad defaults
• keep them guessing

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Interfaces
• Interfaces affect how easy a system is to use
• They have changed a lot since computers were first
invented
• Theyy are still evolving
g rapidly
p y

Patch Punched CLI GUI Browsers Voice

cables cards ?

1940 1960 1980 2000 2010

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Interfaces
In the beginning....
• Jobs and data were input in batches
• There was little human-computer interaction
• In the late sixties, commands could be typed
• In 1981, came the first graphical interface
• This later became operable by touch
• New methods are being introduced all the time

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Batch Interfaces
• Data collected together
• Output collected when finished
• No interaction with human during processing

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Command Line Interface (CLI)

• Became popular in the sixties
• Allows commands to be typed
• Computer outputs text
- e.g. MSDOS,
MSDOS UUnix,
i LiLinux, B
Bash
h
• Still popular today
• Allows commonly used commands to be batched
- this automates processes
• Requires commands to be learned

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Command Line Interface (CLI)

MSDOS BASH
#!/bin/bash HELLO=Hello
function hello {
local HELLO=World
echo $HELLO
}
echo $HELLO
hello
echo $HELLO
BASH stands for Bourne Again Shell. (Named after Stephen Bourne who
wrote a shell for Unix in the late seventies). A shell is a way of
communicating with the operating system kernel.

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Human-Computer Interaction Topic 4 - 4.12

Menu Driven Interface

• User is presented with a list of options
• Options often lead to sub-options
• Easier to use than command line
• But can become complex and difficult to
navigate
• Works best with small number of levels

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Menu Driven Interface

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Graphical User Interface (GUI)

Inputs
• keyboard
• mouse

Outputs
• graphical
• display

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Graphical User Interface (GUI)

Menus

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Graphical User Interface (GUI)

Drop down menus Pop up menus

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Graphical User Interface (GUI)

Dialogue Boxes
• set a number of
parameters
• then
th confirm
fi (or
( reject)
j t)
all

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Graphical User Interface (GUI)

Icons

Icons are pictures that represent files and processes

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Graphical User Interface (GUI)

e.g. Windows ®

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Graphical User Interface (GUI)

Windows

Many applications open on screen at the same

time

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Customising The Interface

Skins
the same application 4 different
can take on different
looks, sometimes with skins for
different functionality Windows
media player

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Web Based Interfaces

• Wide variety of
responses
• Web page updated
• Multimedia
• Interaction through a
• Web browser
• Can run applications
• Can collect data

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Web Based Interfaces

• There are few standards
• Some conventions are common
• Text as an alternative to g
graphics
p for links
• Keep clutter to a minimum
• Small number of choices per screen
• Readability

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Tactile Interfaces
• Touch screens • Wii (Nintendo)
- Checkouts - Body movements can
- Public information be used for input
systems
t
- Public utilities • Simulators
- Bank transactions
- Airport check-in
- Train ticket sales

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New Ideas About Interfaces

• Nowadays, we are bombarded with information from many devices.

- Cell phones, MP3 players, Blackberries, PDAs, PCs

• Systems have been developed that pay attention to us. They then only
give us information when we are ready.

- Eye contact sensors use computer vision to track when a person looks at a
device

- Attentive messaging systems (AMS) forward e-mails to the device currently

in use

- Eye proxy, a pair of robotic eyes with embedded eye contact sensors allow
a computer to look back at the user, to visually communicate its attention

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Standards
• Accepted norms
• Allow interoperability
• Promote easier learning
• Types:
- industry
- proprietary
- open
- de facto

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Standardisation
• Most desktop interfaces are now similar.
• Common functions are grouped similarly.
• This helps in learning new applications.
• I also
It l saves programming i effort.
ff
• Many aspects of an application are taken from
operating system libraries.
• Code re-used.
• DLLs make this easier.

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Speech Recognition
• Accept voice commands as input
• Can take dictation to produce a document
• Can require extensive training of the software
• N d to get to kknow user's
Needs ' voice
i
• Very difficult to implement successfully
- accents
- words with same sounds but different meanings
- names

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Speech Recognition
Voice output
• Choice of voices
• Sat nav
• Visual disabilities

Voice input
• Pilot cockpit commands
- background noise problems
• Operating computer when injured
• Dictation

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Natural Language
• Use ordinary language
• No need to know strict computer syntax
• Computer has to extract essential meaning

• Used in search engines

• Other web pages
• Need to analyse sentences to extract their
essential meaning

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Topic 4

Any questions?

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