MODULE 1 IT82: HUMAN COMPUTER INTERACTION

Objectives At the end of this module. The students will: 1. Identify the ways in which humans interact with computers, and the roles of different types of user interfaces within these contexts. 2. Examine some current issues in HCI and their impact on interface and interaction design. 3. Investigate fundamental principles for effective interface design. 4. Investigate in further detail, the principles for good graphical user interface design.

Introduction Humans interact with computers in many ways, and the interface between humans and the computers they use is crucial to facilitating this interaction. Desktop applications, internet browsers, handheld computers, and computer kiosks make use of the prevalent Graphical User Interfaces (GUI) of today. Voice User Interfaces (VUI) are used for speech recognition and synthesising systems, and the emerging multi-modal and gestalt User Interfaces (gUI) allow humans to engage with embodied character agents in a way that cannot be achieved with other interface paradigms. Humancomputer interaction (HCI) is the study, planning and design of the interaction between people (users) and computers. It is often regarded as the intersection of computer science, behavioral sciences, design and several other fields of study. Interaction between users and computers occurs at the user interface (or simply interface), which includes both software and hardware; for example, characters or objects displayed by software on a personal computer's monitor, input received from users via hardware peripherals such as keyboards and mice, and other user interactions with large-scale computerized systems such as aircraft and power plants. The Association for Computing Machinery defines human-computer interaction as "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. An important facet of HCI is the securing of user satisfaction (or simply End User Computing Satisfaction). Because human-computer interaction studies a human and a machine in conjunction, it draws from supporting knowledge on both the machine and the human side. On the machine side, techniques in computer graphics, operating systems, programming languages, and development environments are relevant. On the human side, communication theory, graphic and industrial design disciplines, linguistics, social sciences, cognitive psychology, and human factors such as computer user satisfaction are relevant. Engineering and design methods are also relevant. Due to the multidisciplinary nature of HCI, people with different backgrounds contribute to its success. HCI is also sometimes referred to as manmachine interaction (MMI) or computerhuman interaction (CHI).

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HCI is clearly a multi-disciplinary subject (see below), and designing an effective interactive system from a single discipline in isolation is almost impossible. Computer scientists, however, are particularly interested in the practicalities of how they can use the principles and methods from each HCI discipline to assist them in designing better systems. Acquiring an understanding of the theory is important, but knowing how to apply the theory to the problem at hand is equally valuable (Dix et al. 2004).

Basic goals of HCI is to improve the interactions between users and computers by making computers more usable and receptive to the user's needs. Specifically, HCI is concerned with: y methodologies and processes for designing interfaces (i.e., given a task and a class of users, design the best possible interface within given constraints, optimizing for a desired property such as learnability or efficiency of use) methods for implementing interfaces (e.g. software toolkits and libraries; efficient algorithms) techniques for evaluating and comparing interfaces developing new interfaces and interaction techniques developing descriptive and predictive models and theories of interaction

y y y y

A long term goal of HCI is 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. A cognitive model is an approximation to human cognitive processes (predominantly human

being) for the purposes of comprehension and prediction.

Most Professional System designers are usually concerned with the practical application of design methodologies to real-world problems. Their work often revolves around designing graphical user interfaces and web interfaces.

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Researchers in HCI are interested in developing new design methodologies, experimenting with new hardware devices, prototyping new software systems, exploring new paradigms for interaction, and developing models and theories of interaction. Design principles to Consider When evaluating a current user interface, or designing a new user interface, it is important to keep in mind the following experimental design principles: y Early focus on user(s) and task(s): Establish how many users are needed to perform the task(s) and determine who the appropriate users should be; someone who has never used the interface, and will not use the interface in the future, is most likely not a valid user. In addition, define the task(s) the users will be performing and how often the task(s) need to be performed. Empirical measurement: Test the interface early on with real users who come in contact with the interface on an everyday basis. Keep in mind that results may be altered if the performance level of the user is not an accurate depiction of the real human-computer interaction. Establish quantitative usability specifics such as: the number of users performing the task(s), the time to complete the task(s), and the number of errors made during the task(s). Iterative design: After determining the users, tasks, and empirical measurements to include, perform the following iterative design steps: 1. 2. 3. 4. Design the user interface Test Analyze results Repeat

Note: Repeat the iterative design process until a sensible, user-friendly interface is created. Design methodologies Most design methodologies start from a model for how users, designers, and technical systems interact. 1. User-centered design: user-centered design (UCD) is a modern, widely practiced design philosophy rooted in the idea that users must take center-stage in the design of any computer system. Users, designers and technical practitioners work together to articulate the wants, needs and limitations of the user and create a system that addresses these elements. Often, user-centered design projects are informed by ethnographic studies of the environments in which users will be interacting with the system. 2. Participatory Design, This practice is similar to UCD but not identical which emphasizes the possibility for end-users to contribute actively through shared design sessions and workshops. y Principles of User Interface Design: these are seven principles that may be considered at any time during the design of a user interface in any order, namely Tolerance, Simplicity, Visibility, Affordance, Consistency, Structure and Feedback.

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Humancomputer interface The humancomputer interface can be described as the point of communication between the human user and the computer. The flow of information between the human and computer is defined as the loop of interaction. The loop of interaction has several aspects including: y y y Task Environment: The conditions and goals set upon the user. Machine Environment: The environment that the computer is connected to, Areas of the Interface: Non-overlapping areas involve processes of the human and computer not pertaining to their interaction. Meanwhile, the overlapping areas only concern themselves with the processes pertaining to their interaction. Input Flow: The flow of information that begins in the task environment, when the user has some task that requires using their computer. Output: The flow of information that originates in the machine environment. Feedback: Loops through the interface that evaluate, moderate, and confirm processes as they pass from the human through the interface to the computer

y y y

The importance of interaction design One of the greatest challenges facing a software designer is understanding what a user requires from a product. To do this, the designer must have at least a basic understanding of mental models and other psychological theories and their application to software design. Since the user is interacting with the computer in order to accomplish something, the software interface is crucial to facilitating the users goals and tasks. Mental and Conceptual Models Mental models are psychological representations of real or imaginary situations. The mind constructs small-scale models of reality in order to reason, to anticipate events, and to underlie explanation (Craic, cited in Hudson 2004). The structure of the mental model corresponds to what it represents, and users acquire their mental models through interaction and explanation. In particular, a users mental model of a software product, and their interaction with it, is defined by the way in which users perceive the jobs they want to do and how the program helps them to do it (Cooper & Reimann 2003). Mental models have the following characteristics (Dix et al. 2004): a. b. c. d. They are often partial They are unstable and subject to change They can be internally inconsistent They are often unscientific and may be based on superstition rather than evidence e. They are often based on incorrect interpretation of the evidence HCI: Interaction paradigms, idioms and metaphors Interaction paradigms serve as illustrations of the ways in which humans interact with computers, and successful paradigms are ones commonly believed to enhance the usability of computer

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systems. New paradigms often arise through exploring current idioms, and pushing those boundaries to create innovative products (Dix et al. 2004). Metaphors make use of existing conceptual models (Hudson 2004), and are used to teach new concepts in terms of those that are already understood. They have been used successfully to describe the functionality of many interaction widgets, and have contributed greatly to commercial successes in computing. The success of the GUI desktop metaphor in linking computer file manipulation tasks with filing tasks in a typical office environment initially makes the computerised tasks easier to understand. Types of User Interfaces There are three commonly recognised user interfaces in use today: 1. The Graphical User Interface, which is possibly the most familiar to most users; Graphical user interfaces make computing easier by separating the logical threads of computing from the presentation of those threads to the user, through visual content on the display device. This is commonly done through a window system that is controlled by an operating systems window manager. The WIMP (Windows, Icons, Menus, and Pointers) interface is the most common implementation of graphical user interfaces today, and will be examined in detail later in this module. The appeal of graphical user interfaces lies in the rapid feedback provided by the direct manipulation that a GUI offers (Dix et al. 2004). Direct manipulation interfaces provide the following features (Dix et al. 2004:p.171): 1. Visibility of the objects of interest. 2. Replacement of complex command languages with actions to directly manipulate the visible objects (hence the name direct manipulation). 3. Incremental action at the interface, with rapid feedback on all actions. 4. Syntactic correctness of all actions, so that every user action is a legal operation. 5. Reversibility of all actions, so that users are encouraged to explore the product without severe penalty or danger.

2. The Voice User Interface, one that is rapidly being deployed in many aspects of business; Voice User Interfaces (VUIs) use speech technology to provide people with access to information and to allow them to perform transactions. VUI development was driven by customer dissatisfaction with touchtone telephony interactions, the need for cheaper and more effective systems to meet customer needs, and the advancement of speech technology to the stage where it was reliable enough to deliver effective interaction. A Voice User Interface is what a person interacts with when using a spoken language application. Auditory interfaces interact with the user purely through sound. Speech is

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input by the user, and speech or nonverbal audio is output by the system (Cohen, Giangola & Balogh 2004). VUIs are comprised of three main elements (Cohen, Giangola & Balogh 2004): o o Prompts, also known as system messages, are the recorded or synthesised speech played to the user during the interaction. Grammars are the possible responses users can make in relation to each prompt. The system cannot understand anything outside of this range of possibilities. Dialog logic determines the actions the system can take following a users response to a prompt.

3. The Multi-Modal Interface, a relatively new area of research that combines several methods of user input into a system. Multi-modal interfaces attempt to address the problems associated with purely auditory and purely visual interfaces by providing a more immersive environment for humancomputer interaction. A multi-modal interactive system is one that relies on the use of multiple human communication channels to manipulate the computer. These communication channels translate to a computers input and output devices. A genuine multi-modal system relies on simultaneous use of multiple communication channels for both input and output, which more closely resembles the way in which humans process information (Dix et al. 2004). In the field of psychology, Gestalt Theory is used to describe a relationship where the whole is something other than the sum of its parts1[9]. This theory has recently been used to describe a new paradigm for human-computer interaction, where the interface reacts to and perceives the desires of the user via the users emotions and gestures (Marriott & Beard 2004). This paradigm is called the gestalt User Interface (gUI) and paves the way for a truly personalised user experience. Are there any Other User Interface Paradigm? Many other paradigms for human-computer interaction exist. Perhaps one of the best known paradigms is the World Wide Web. The web itself did not provide any technological breakthroughs, because all the required functionality, such as transmission protocols , hypertext and distributed file systems, already existed. The breakthrough came with the advent of the browser and HTML, which enabled easy access to information on the internet.

Issues in Human-Computer Interaction Universality of design is an important element in human-computer interaction. Universal design defines as, the process of designing products so that they can be used by as many people as possible in as many situations as possible. Universal design is essentially about attempting to

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ensure that no-one is excluded through the choices a designer makes; but by giving careful consideration to these issues, the design is invariably made better for everyone (Dix et al. 2004). What is the definition of User Interface Design? User Interface Design refers to the aspects of hardware or software which can be seen (or heard or otherwise perceived) by the human user, and the commands and mechanisms the user uses to control its operation and input data. (Based on The Dictionary of Computing). What is the definition and application of Human-Computer Interaction? Human-computer interaction (HCI) is the study of interaction between people (users) and computers. It is an interdisciplinary field, relating computer science, psychology, cognitive science, human factors, ergonomics, sociology, library and information science, artificial intelligence, and other fields. Interaction between users and computers occurs at the user interface (or simply interface), which includes both hardware (i.e. input and output devices) and software (e.g. determining which information, and how information is presented to the user on a screen). What is the relationship between HCI or User Interface design and marketability? People focus on Usability when thinking of HCI or User Interface Design. And, they think of the outcome as being a well designed, user centered, efficient, and effective product. When a product benefits from good usability, users are likely to accept, use, recommend, and buy that product. Why Study Human Computer Interaction? HCI considers important issues on the design of effective interactive systems on everyday life as in the workplace at home and in schools. The term Human Computer Interaction was adopted in the mid 1980's as a means of describing this new field of study The main reason why mainly people study or are interested in HCI is because they want to increase the efficiency and usability of the system. In the everyday world, we interact with tens of thousands of objects, yet generally manage to use them properly the first time they are encountered.

Assignments. Advance Readings.

HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION ISSUES 1. ACCESSIBILITY 2. Understanding Accessibility Barriers 3. Legal Requirements 4. Accessibility Design Guidelines 5. Personal Assistive Technologies

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