In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful

Week-I: Introduction of HCI-(Part I)

Human Computer Interaction

1st March 2021

Say, "O My servants who have
transgressed against themselves
[by sinning], do not despair of
the mercy of Allah. Indeed, Allah
forgives all sins. Indeed, it is He
who is the Forgiving, the
Merciful." Surah Zumar (39):53

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HCI Definition-I

“Human-computer interaction 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”.

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HCI Definition-II

“HCI (human-computer
interaction) is the study of
how people interact with
computers and to what
extent computers are or
are not developed for
successful interaction
with human beings”.

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Human-Computer Interaction
 Human
 the end-user of a program
 the others in the organization
 Computer
 the machine the program runs on
 Often split between clients and servers
 Interaction
 the user tells the computer what they want
 the computer communicates results

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Why to Study?

• Business view:
– to use humans more productively/effectively
– the human costs now far outweigh hardware and
software costs

• Personal view:
– people view computers as appliances, and want it to
perform as one

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 Why to Study?

• Marketplace view:
– everyday people using computers
– now expect “easy to use system”
– not tolerant of poorly designed systems

– if product is hard to use, people will seek other

products

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Why to Study?
• The system view:
– complex human
– complex computer
– complex interface between the two

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Why to Study?

• The human factors view:

– humans have limitations
– errors are costly in terms of
• loss of time
• loss of money
• loss of morale
– design can cope with such limitations!

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Why to Study?

• The social view:

– Computers contribute to critical parts of our
society, and cannot be ignored
– educate our children
– take medical histories and provide expert advice
– keep track of our credit worthiness

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The Goal of HCI

The goals of HCI are to develop or improve

the safety, utility and effectiveness of
systems that include computers, often
through improving usability.

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The Goal of HCI
• People are trying to accomplish their tasks in life.
(system independent)

task
person

system

• Introduce a system, User Interface should maximize

their ability.
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User Interfaces (UIs)

 Part of application that allows users

 to interact with computer
 to carry out their task

 HCI = design, prototyping, evaluation, &

implementation of UIs

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Why Study User Interfaces?

 Major part of work for “real” programs

 approximately 50%
 You will work on “real” software
 intended for users other than yourself
 Bad user interfaces cost
 User interfaces hard to get right
 people are unpredictable

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Bad User Interface Design

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Good User Interface Design

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Bad Designs
 Elevator controls and labels on the bottom row all look
the same, so it is easy to push a label by mistake instead
of a control button

 People do not make same mistake for the labels and

buttons on the top row. Why not?
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Good and Bad Design
 What is wrong with the
Apex remote?
 Why is the TiVo remote
so much better
designed?
 Peanut shaped to fit in
hand
 Logical layout and
color-coded,
distinctive buttons
 Easy to locate buttons
Who builds UIs?
 A team of specialists (ideally)
 graphic designers
 interaction / interface designers
 technical writers
 Marketers
 test engineers
 software engineers
 users

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 Human, Computer and
Interaction
What is HCI

The H
Humans good at: Sensing low level stimuli,
pattern recognition, inductive reasoning, multiple
strategies, adapting “Hard and fuzzy things”.

The C
Computers good at: Counting and measuring,
accurate storage and recall, rapid and consistent
responses, data processing/calculation, repetitive
actions, performance over time, “Simple and
sharply defined things”.
The list of skills is somewhat complementary. Let
The I humans do what humans do best and computers do
what computers do best.

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Q&A