Human-Computer Interaction

Unit 1a
Introduction to Human-Computer Interaction - Part I

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 What is HCI?-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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 HCI is interconnected

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 Course Overview
• This course is an introduction to the fundamentals of human-computer
interaction, user interface design, and usability analysis.
• Students will learn principles and guidelines for usability, quantitative and
qualitative analysis methods, and apply them through critiques of existing
interfaces and development of new ones.
• Topics covered will also include cognitive models, task analysis,
psychology, experimental design, and prototyping and evaluating methods

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 Course Outline
• Critically discuss common methods in the user-centered design process and
the appropriateness of individual methods for a given problem.
• Use, adapt and extend classic design standards, guidelines, and patterns.
• Employ selected design methods and evaluation methods at a basic level of
competence.
• Build prototypes at varying levels of fidelity, from paper prototypes to
functional, interactive prototypes.

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 Course Outline
• To be able to apply the principles, tools and techniques of HCI to the
development of usable digital information systems, including:
– Requirements capture
– System design / application of design guidelines

– Interface evaluation

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 Course outcomes
• Learn the major principles of HCI/Interaction
– Usability
– Affordance
– Cognetics
• Learn how people think, react, acquire
– Perception
– Cognetics
• Learn how to design and evaluate a system
– Development track
– Prototyping, Evaluating
– Research based approach

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 Teaching methods
• The course will be based on the following teaching and learning
activities:
– Lectures covering the theoretical part using Power Point presentations,
Moodle LMS ,Google Class Videos/Audio … etc.
– Review questions at the beginning of the lecture and at the end of the
lecture.
– In-Class Group Activities

– Class Discussions with Case studies

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 Assessment Methods
• Exams
• Presentation
• Projects
• Discussion
• In-Class Activity
• Feedback at the end of class

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 Objectives

• At the end of this unit you will be able to:

• Understand the nature of an interactive computer system

• Distinguish between design and evaluation processes in an interactive computer

system
• Place the specialist area of HCI within the broader area of Computing and systems
development.
• Argue the importance of HCI practices within interactive systems development.
• Know what is required to complete the course – the knowledge, skills and
assessments involved

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 Introduction

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

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 Human Computer Interaction

HCI consists of three parts: the user, the

computer itself, and the ways they work together
HCI involves the design, implementation and
evaluation of interactive systems in the context of
the user’s task and work.

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 Goals for HCI

• The goal of HCI

▪ The User(s)
▪ The Computer(s)
▪ The Task(s) to be accomplished
• The system must support the user’s
task, with a focus on its usability
• Useful
• Usable
• Used

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 Ingredients
• Sensory systems-Visual, Auditory, Haptic, Spatial
• Acting systems-Hands, Voice, Head, Body
• Cognitive processes-Perception, Memory
• Input peripherals-Keyboard, mouse, Trackpad, trackball, Touch surfaces or
screens, Microphone, Sensors, Card readers
• Output peripherals-Screen, Audio (voice, sounds),Haptics, VR/AR headsets

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 WHO IS INVOLVED IN HCI?

HCI is a multi-disciplinary subject

psychology and cognitive science

business
problem-solving skills

technical writing
sociology

ergonomics
Graphic
design
computer science and engineering

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 Three ‘use’ words
• useful – accomplish what is required: play music, cook dinner,
format a document;
• usable – do it easily and naturally, without danger of error, etc.;
• used – make people want to use it, be attractive, engaging,
fun, etc.

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 HCI introduction
• What happens when a human and a computer get together to
perform a task
– Task
• Write a document
• Plan a budget
• Design a presentation
• Play a video game

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 Interests in Human Factors in Design

Life-critical systems: air traffic control, emergency, power utilities

etc.
• high reliability, error-free performance, lengthy training for
systems, subjective satisfaction less of an issue

Industrial and commercial uses: banking, inventory management,

airline and hotel reservations, etc.
• low costs is critical over reliability, ease of learning, errors
calculated against costs, subjective satisfaction of modest importance

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 Interests in Human Factors in Design

Office, home, entertainment: productivity and entertainment

applications
• ease of learning, low error rates, subjective satisfaction are
paramount since use is discretionary and competition is fierce. Range
of types of users from novice to expert.

Exploratory, creative, and cooperative: web-based, decision-making,

design-support, collaborative work, etc.
• users knowledgeable in domain but vary in computer skills,
direct-manipulation using familiar routines and gestures work best,
difficult systems to design and evaluate.

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 Accommodating
Human Diversity

Personality
Differences
Physical Users with
Abilities and Disabilities
Workplaces

Cognitive Elderly
and Perceptual Users
Abilities Cultural
and International
Diversity

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 Useful insights
• ACM Sigchi resources [http://www.acm.org/sigchi]
• Jacob Nielsen’s usability site [http://www.useit.com]
• Bruce "Tog" Tognazzini usability site [http://www.asktog.com]

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 THEORY AND HCI

People use computers to accomplish work

The people

The computers

The tasks that are performed

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 Example

Syringe: setting the dose to 1372

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 Example

Digital syringe: setting the dose to 1372

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 Example

Digital syringe: setting the dose to 1372

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 The Human

• Humans are limited in their capacity to process

information. This has important implications for
design.
• Information is received and responses given via a
number of input and output channels
• Information is stored in memory
• Information is processed and applied
• Emotion influences human capabilities
• Users share common capabilities but are individuals
with differences

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 The Human: Input–output Channels

• A person’s interaction with the outside world occurs through

information being received and sent: input and output.
• In an interaction with a computer the user receives
information that is output by the computer, and responds by
providing input to the computer – the user’s output
becomes the computer’s input and vice versa.
• There are five major senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste
and smell.

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 The Human:input–output Channels
• Vision
• Human vision is a highly complex activity with a
range of physical and perceptual limitations
• it is the primary source of information for the average
person
• visual perception in two stages
the physical reception of the stimulus from the
outside world
the processing and interpretation of that stimulus

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 The Human:
INPUT–OUTPUT CHANNELS

• Vision
• Perceiving size and depth
• Perceiving brightness
• Perceiving Color

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 The Human: Input–output Channels

What do you see?

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 The Human: Input–output Channels

What do you see?

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 The Human: Input–output Channels

What do you see?

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 The Human: Input–output Channels

What do you see?

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 The Human: Input–output Channels

Which line is longer?

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 The Human: Input–output Channels

are these the same

size?

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 The Human: input–output Channels

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 The Human:
INPUT–OUTPUT CHANNELS

Reading
the visual pattern of the word on the page is
perceived
then decoded with reference to an internal representation of
language
Adults read approximately 250 words a minute
Experiments have shown that standard font sizes of 9 to 12
points are equally legible

Reading from a computer screen is slower than from

a book
negative contrast (dark characters on a light screen) provides
higher luminance

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 The Human: Input–output Channels

Hearing
The human ear can hear frequencies from about 20 Hz to
15 kHz
The auditory system performs some filtering of the sounds received, allowing us to
ignore background noise and concentrate on important information.

sound can convey a remarkable amount of information. It is rarely used to its potential in
interface design, usually being confined to warning sounds and notifications.

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 The Human: Input–output Channels

Hearing
Uses of non-speech sounds include the following:
•Attention – to attract the user’s attention to a critical situation
or to the end of a process
•Status information – continuous background sounds can be
used to convey status information.
•Confirmation – a sound associated with an action to confirm
that the action has been carried out.
•Navigation – using changing sound to indicate where the user
is in a system. For example, what about sound to support
navigation in hypertext?

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 The Human: Input–output Channels

Touch / Haptic perception.

Touch provides us with vital information about our
environment
•The skin contains three types of sensory receptor:
thermoreceptors respond to heat and cold
•nociceptors respond to intense pressure, heat and pain
•mechanoreceptors respond to pressure
-Rapidly adapting mechanoreceptors respond to
immediate pressure as the skin is indented.
-Slowly adapting mechanoreceptors respond to
continuously applied pressure

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 The Human: Input–output Channels

• E-commerce has become very successful in some

areas of sales, such as travel services, books and CDs,
and food. However, in some retail areas, such as
clothes shopping, e-commerce has been less
successful. Why?

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 The Human: Input–output Channels

• When buying train and airline tickets and, to some extent, books
and food, the experience of shopping is less important than the
convenience. So, as long as we know what we want, we are
happy to shop online.
• With clothes, the experience of shopping is far more important.
We need to be able to handle the goods, feel the texture of the
material, check the weight to test quality. Even if we know that
something will fit us we still want to be able to handle it before
buying.

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 Human Memory

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 Human Memory

HUMAN MEMORY - DESIGN FOCUS

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 Human Memory

Long-term memory structure

Episodic memory represents our memory of events and
experiences in a serial form.
Your memories of your first day of school, attending a
friend's birthday party, and your brother's graduation are
all examples of episodic memories

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 Human Memory

Long-term memory structure

Semantic memory, on the other hand, is a structured
record of facts, concepts and skills that we have acquired.
knowing that football is a sport is an example of semantic
memory.
Recalling what happened during the last football game that
you attended is an episodic memory

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 Human Memory

Memorable or secure?
•As online activities become more widespread, people are
having to remember more and more access information, such
as passwords and security checks. The average active
internet user may have separate passwords and user names
for several email accounts, mailing lists, e-shopping sites,
e-banking, online auctions and more! Remembering these
passwords is not easy.

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 Human Memory

Memorable or secure?
•A solution to this is to construct a nonsense password out of
letters or numbers that will have meaning to you but will not
make up a word in a dictionary (e.g. initials of names,
numbers from significant dates or postcodes, and so on).
Then what is remembered is the meaningful rule for
constructing the password, and not a meaningless string of
alphanumeric characters.

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 Human Memory

THINKING: REASONING AND PROBLEM SOLVING

•Humans, are able to use information to reason and solve problems
•Reasoning is the process by which we use the knowledge we have to
draw conclusions or infer something new about the domain of interest.
•EMOTION: Our emotional response to situations affects how we perform.
For example, positive emotions enable us to think more creatively, to
solve complex problems, whereas negative emotion pushes us into
narrow, focussed thinking.

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 Questions

• What are mental models, and why are they important

in interface design?
• What can a system designer do to minimize the
memory load of the user?

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 Interactive Systems
• In interactive systems the user and • 4. System responds to the actions
computer exchange information frequently and presents results to the user.
System can use text, graphics,
and dynamically. sounds, speech etc.
• Norman’s evaluation/execution model is a • 5. User looks at the results of his
useful way of understanding the nature of action and attempts to evaluate
interaction: whether or not the goals have
been achieved.
• 1. User has a goal (something to achieve)
• A good interactive system is one
• 2. User looks at system and attempts to where:
work out how he would execute a series of – User can easily work out how
tasks to achieve to operate the system in an
attempt to achieve his goals.
• the goal.
– User can easily evaluate the
• 3. User carries out some actions (providing results of his action on the
input to the system by pressing buttons, system.
touching a screen, speaking words etc)

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What interactive systems do you use in your day-to-day
life?
• Mobile telephones
• Cash dispensing machines
• The World Wide Web
• Car navigation systems
• Video recorders
• Machines driven call centres (e.g. for telephone banking).
• Workflow system to co-ordinate a teams work-efforts.
• Microwave
• Think of More

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 Activity 1 - A diary

• Write down encounters of the times you have used an interactive computer system.
For each encounter record:
1. The goal you were trying to achieve.
2. How easy the interactive system was to use as you attempted to complete your
tasks.
3. Any problems or frustrations you had with the system.
4. Any improvements you would suggest to the system.

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 Activity 2
• List all the services which you use which have become automated in the past five
years. In particular think about services where you used to liaise with a human
being, either behind a counter or on a phone line, and where that human being has
now been replaced by a machine. Think critically about each of those services.
Have they made your life easier? Or is it harder work for you now?

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 The Future
• The home medical advisor: sensors in the home • Weather and traffic display: at the moment,
when we want the time we simply look at a
will enable blood pressure, temperature, weight,
clock. Soon, perhaps, when we want to
body fluids and so on to be automatically
know the weather or traffic conditions we
monitored. A computer could use these readings
will look at a similar device.
to assist with medical advice or to contact a
• Embedded systems within our clothes:
human doctor.
‘consider the value of eyeglass appliances.
• Digital picture frames: give this frame to a Many of us already wear eye glasses …
friend or relative. When you have taken a new why not supplant them with more power?

picture you want them to share, simply ‘email’ Add a small electronic display to the
glasses … and we could have all sorts of
the picture direct to the frame. The frame will be
valuable information with us at all times’
connectedto the net wirelessly.
[Norman 99, pg 271-272]

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 Activity 3

• How does an interactive system differ from a non interactive system? Give
examples of types of both systems.
• What does the term ‘ubiquitous computing’ mean?

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 Usefulness of System-Azania Bank
Azania Bank PLC has launched a new telephone-based banking service.
Customers will be able to check balances, order chequebooks and
statements and transfer money all at the press of a button. Users are
presented with lists of choices and they select an option by pressing the
appropriate touch-tone key on their handset. The system development team
is certain that the
system is technically very good – the speech synthesis used to speak out
instructions/ options is the state-of-the-art and the database access times
are very fast. The new banking system described is clearly a success from
a system point of view: the designers have thought about the technical
demands of the system to achieve, for example, high through-put of
database queries. How, though, do users feel about the system?

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 Azania Bank Continued-Note
The bank’s customers have responded badly to the new system. Firstly, users want to
know why the system does not let them allow them to hear details of their most recent
transactions, pay bills and do other common functions. Worse still, they find the large
number of keypresses needed to find out a piece of information tedious and irritating.
Often, users get lost in the list of choices, not sure of where they are in the system and
what to do next.

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 Your thoughts
• What are your thoughts on the system according to usefulness
,usability and user experience

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 Why is HCI important?
• ‘Interfaces are something we do at the end of software development. We want to
make the system look nice for the end user’
• However experience has shown that badly designed interfaces can lead to serious
implications. If you build poor interfaces you might find:
1. Your company loses money as its workforce is less productive than it could be

2. The quality of life of the users who use your system is reduced
3. Disastrous and possibly fatal errors happen in systems that are safety-critical
4. Bad interfaces can lead to disasters and even fatalities.

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 HCI helps in
• Productivity-less time spent on non trivial tasks
• Quality of life-enjoy use of systems

• Safety-critical systems and disasters e.g. Aeroplan control systems, Nuclear

power control systems, Computer controlled medical equipment.
• Physically challenges

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 Activity 4

Imagine you are the technical director of an electronic company that makes a wide
range of product including home entertainment systems, safety-critical systems and
business productivity tools. You wish to persuade the board of directors that they
should employ a number of Human Factors people. Write some outline notes of the
presentation you would make to the next board meeting

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 Activity 5- Design for Diversity
• Standard cash machines (ATMs) are designed for ‘standard’ users with no physical
or mentalimpairments.
• Imagine you are designing an ATM for Samaita. Samaita is 75 years old.
• List out the possible physical and mental characteristics that Sue might have and
that are relevant to the design of an ATM.
• How would you design an ATM to better suit Sue?

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 The HCI Discipline
• The study of Human-Computer Interaction has developed into a discipline in its
own right
• Long before HCI people were studying how humans and systems (machines,
processes and so on) worked together.
• There has been a lot of work into the ergonomics of the machines, environments
and systems that humans are involved in.
• Ergonomics (which is sometimes also known as Human Factors) is mainly
concerned with making sure that the physical aspects of a system fit well with a
human’s capabilities and limitation

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 Activity 6
• Using the Web and a good search engine like Google find sites belong to the human
factors/ HCI specialists in the following companies: IBM, Microsoft and Google.
Spend sometime looking at each site.
• What types of work do they do?
• What kinds of people do they want to recruit?

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 Disciplines involved
• HCI draws on a wide range of disciplines as we will see during this course. They
include:
• Psychology
• Sociology

• Information systems

• Product design
• Computer science

• Its natural ‘home’ though is computer science where it is a central concern.

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 Activity 7
• What contributions do you think that each of the following professional might bring
to the field of HCI?
1. Psychologists
2. Sociologists

3. Information systems experts

4. Product designers
5. Computer scientists

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 Home Activity or off Session activity
1. Go to google scholar, or scinapse.io You can
2. browse specific publications or search across the range of journals, conference
proceedings and other forms of literature.
3. Download the current version of the HCI magazine Interactions.

4. Read some articles in this magazine.

5. Search for ‘speech recognition’.

6. Select an article that interests you and read it.

7. Experiment with the digital library – find out the range of search types and
browsing you can do.

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