Reasons for a course in Human-Computer Interaction

• Visual programming tools provide easy facility for creating, displaying, and managing complex visual objects.
• Web-based browsers and hypermedia tools have made it easy to deploy any manner of interface on any computer platform from atomic force microscopes to interactive commerce systems.
• Advances in computer vision and artificial intelligence have made it possible for computers to recognize human speech, gesture, and touch.
• Advances in computer hardware have made computing ubiquitous, allowing computers to be embedded in humans, clothing, appliances, and more.
• Computer science graduates will be building software systems with a variety of interfaces.

Human-Computer Interaction Defined:

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.
 
 

Brief History:

Today's GUI patterned after:

• 1981 - Xerox 8010 (Star)
• 1984 - Apple Macintosh

1945 - Vannevar Bush - As We May Think - use computer to transform thought

• Problem: Too much information to cover in a short time
• Solution: Memex - use machines to store and retrieve information

Characteristics: - Associative indexing
- Multimedia (uses microfilm)
- Response to speech  

1960 - J.C. Licklider - Human-Computer Symbiosis

• Bring computer into formulation of technical problems
• Bring computer into real-time thinking process

Immediate:

1. Time-sharing of computers among users.
2. Visual-Pictorial I/O
3. Interactive Real-time systems
4. Large-scale, cooperative information storage and retrieval
5. Facilitation of human cooperation in design and building of large systems

 
Intermediate:
1. Combined speech and handwriting recognition with light-pen editing

 
Long Term:
1. Natural language understanding
2. Speech recognition and speech production
3. Theory of algorithms (discovery, development, and simplification)
4. Heuristic programming

Solving Licklider's Problems:

mid-1960s - Time-sharing and Networking

• Advanced computer accessibility and size of user communities
• Terminals linked to computer through terminals
• Designers could follow users behaviors
• Text editors, screen editors, and word processors flourished
• Computer-mediated human interaction began through message passing and shared file systems

• Pre-dated by MIT's Whirlwind and SAGE
• New ideas:
• Hierarchical internal structure of computer images
• Master picture(s) with instances as transformed versions of master
• Constraints as a method of specifying details of geometry
• Ability to manipulate iconic representations of constraints
• Ability to copy and instance pictures and constraints
• Light pen as input device
• Separation of object space from image space
• Recursive operations on objects

1963 - Interactive Computer Graphics - SJCC Watershed Event

• Functional requirements for CAD system
• Requirements for CAD system in terms of languages and data structures
• Hardware requirements for CAD
• Extension of CAD to 3D

Early-70s - Computer Graphic Innovation

• Display processors (Meyer and Sutherland)
• Data Tablets (Davis and Ellis)
• Operating systems supporting interactive graphics
• Ken Knowlton (Bell Labs)
• Cyrus Levinthal (MIT Project MAC)
• Fred Brooks (UNC)

Mid-60s - Expanding Memex:

1. Engelbart - defined hierarchical structure of ordinary documents

Nelson - lateral links and interconnections to create a text space
 
2. Engelbart - grouped creation and problem solving
3. Nelson - collective contributions to document structure from people with no formal ties

1. Artifacts - physical objects designed add comfort, aid manipulation of symbols and things
2. Language - the way humans represent and manipulate the world
3. Methodology - methods and strategies used to solve problems
4. Training - training to use augmented means effectively

Human factors, Psychology, and Design of Human-Computer Dialogues

• Human factors - a.k.a. Ergonomics - (began in early 20^th C) focuses on enhancing use of artifacts
• Psychology - (began in 1960s) - study of design of interactive computer systems
• '60s - programmers studied - better programming environments
• '70s - more non-programmers - need to study better HCI

James Martin - Design of Man-Computer Dialogues (1973)

Personal Workstations

1977 - Dynabook - Alan Kay

• Conceptual model and mock-up
• Medium for collecting knowledge and organizing thought
• Size of ordinary notebook
• Visual output better than newsprint
• Fast I/O
• High quality audio
• Instant response

• Local processing and memory
• High resolution bit-mapped graphics
• Keyboard, mouse
• LAN connection
• Graphical windows interface(WYSIWYG) with integrated text editor, illustration creation, and email

1981 - Model 8010 (Star) - Xerox PARC

• Designed for Offices
• Innovative HCI Interface
• Desktop Metaphor
• Direct manipulation
• Options or properties
• WYSIWYG
• Generic Commands (e.g. Move, Copy, Delete)
• High Degree of Consistency
• Not Success
• Too Expensive ($15K)
• Limited Functionality (e.g. no spreadsheet)
• Closed architecture (difficult for 3rd parties to write programs)
• Perceived by users as slow
• Mouse overused
• Lessons Learned
• Design First, Then Code
• Use of Objects-and-Actions design method
• Attention to Detail
• Participation of Designers

1983 - Lisa - Apple

• Steve Jobs saw Star prototype at PARC
• $10K
• Not networked like Star

1984 - Macintosh - Apple

• $2500
• Mac succeeded but Star did not
• Mac did not need to trailblaze
• Apple learned from experience
• Mac Aggressively priced
• Mac had powerful developer toolkit
• Mac had excellent graphics & 300dpi laser printer

Understanding Interfaces

Don Norman's The Design of Everyday Things

Analyzes common objects (door, toaster, VCR, telephone)

Concepts of Good/Bad Design

• Affordances

Perceived properties of an artifact that determines how it can be used (e.g knobs/buttons/slots)
• Constraints

Physical, semantic, cultural, and logical factors that encourage proper actions
• Conceptual Models

Mental model of system which allows users to: - understand the system
- predict the effects of actions
- interpret results
• Mappings

Describe relationship between controls and their effects on system
• Visibility

The system shows you the conceptual model by showing its state and actions that can be taken
• Feedback

Information about effects of user's actions  

1. Form a goal
2. Form the intention
3. Specify an action
4. Execute the action
5. Perceive the state of the world
6. Interpret the state of the world
7. Evaluate the outcome

Norman's Prescription for User-Centered Design:

• Make it easy to know what actions are possible at any time
• Make thing visible:
• the conceptual model
• alternative actions
• results of actions

1. Make it easy to evaluate the current state of the system
2. Follow natural mappings
• between actions and effects
• between visible information and interpretation of system state

Norman's Questions about artifacts:

1. What is the system's function?
2. What system actions are possible?
3. What are the mappings from intention to execution?
4. Does the device inform the user about what state it is in?
5. Can the user determine tell what state the system is in?