human computer interaction human computer interaction hci researches the design and use of computer technology focused on the interfaces between people users and computers researchers in the field of hci both observe the ways in which humans interact with computers and design technologies that let humans interact with computers in novel ways as a field of research humancomputer interaction is situated at the intersection of computer science behavioral sciences design media studies and several other fields of study the term was popularized by stuart k card allen newell and thomas p moran in their seminal 1983 book the psychology of humancomputer interaction although the authors first used the term in 1980 introduction humans interact with computers in many ways the interface between humans and computers 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 the association for computing machinery acm defines humancomputer 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 user satisfaction or simply end user computing satisfaction because humancomputer interaction studies a human and a machine in communication 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 social psychology and human factors such as computer user satisfaction are relevant and of course engineering and design methods are relevant due to the multidisciplinary nature of hci people with different backgrounds contribute to its success hci is also sometimes termed humanmachine interaction hmi manmachine interaction mmi or computerhuman interaction chi poorly designed humanmachine interfaces can lead to many unexpected problems a classic example is the three mile island accident a nuclear meltdown accident where investigations concluded that the design of the humanmachine interface was at least partly responsible for the disaster similarly accidents in aviation have resulted from manufacturers decisions to use nonstandard flight instrument or throttle quadrant layouts even though the new designs were proposed to be superior in basic humanmachine interaction pilots had already ingrained the standard layout and thus the conceptually good idea actually had undesirable results goals for computers humancomputer interaction studies the ways in which humans make or do not make use of computational artifacts systems and infrastructures in doing so much of the research in the field seeks to improve humancomputer interaction by improving the usability of computer interfaces much of the research in the field of humancomputer interaction takes an interest in methods for designing new computer interfaces thereby optimizing a design for a desired property such as learnability or efficiency of use methods for implementing interfaces eg by means of software libraries methods for evaluating and comparing interfaces with respect to their usability and other desirable properties methods for studying human computer use and its sociocultural implications more broadly methods for determining whether or not the user is human or computer models and theories of human computer use as well as conceptual frameworks for the design of computer interfaces such as cognitivist user models activity theory or ethnomethodological accounts of human computer use perspectives that critically reflect upon the values that underlie computational design computer use and hci research practice visions of what researchers in the field seek to achieve vary when pursuing a cognitivist perspective researchers of hci may seek to align computer interfaces with the mental model that humans have of their activities when pursuing a postcognitivist perspective researchers of hci may seek to align computer interfaces with existing social practices or existing sociocultural values researchers in hci are interested in developing design methodologies experimenting with devices prototyping software and hardware systems exploring interaction paradigms and developing models and theories of interaction differences with related fields hci differs from human factors and ergonomics as hci focuses more on users working specifically with computers rather than other kinds of machines or designed artifacts there is also a focus in hci on how to implement the computer software and hardware mechanisms to support humancomputer interaction thus human factors is a broader term hci could be described as the human factors of computers although some experts try to differentiate these areas hci also differs from human factors in that there is less of a focus on repetitive workoriented tasks and procedures and much less emphasis on physical stress and the physical form or industrial design of the user interface such as keyboards and mouse devices three areas of study have substantial overlap with hci even as the focus of inquiry shifts personal information management pim studies how people acquire and use personal information computer based and other to complete tasks in computersupported cooperative work cscw emphasis is placed on the use of computing systems in support of the collaborative work the principles of human interaction management him extend the scope of cscw to an organizational level and can be implemented without use of computers design principles the user interacts directly with hardware for the human input and output such as displays eg through a graphical user interface the user interacts with the computer over this software interface using the given input and output io hardware software and hardware must be matched so that the processing of the user input is fast enough the latency of the computer output is not disruptive to the workflow when evaluating a current user interface or designing a new user interface it is important to keep in mind the following experimental design principles early focus on users and tasks establish how many users are needed to perform the tasks 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 tasks the users will be performing and how often the tasks need to be performed empirical measurement test the interface early on with real users who come in contact with the interface on a daily basis keep in mind that results may vary with the performance level of the user and may not accurately depict the typical humancomputer interaction establish quantitative usability specifics such as the number of users performing the tasks the time to complete the tasks and the number of errors made during the tasks iterative design after determining the users tasks and empirical measurements to include perform the following iterative design steps design the user interface test analyze results repeat repeat the iterative design process until a sensible userfriendly interface is created methodologies a number of diverse methodologies outlining techniques for humancomputer interaction design have emerged since the rise of the field in the 1980s most design methodologies stem from a model for how users designers and technical systems interact early methodologies for example treated users cognitive processes as predictable and quantifiable and encouraged design practitioners to look to cognitive science results in areas such as memory and attention when designing user interfaces modern models tend to focus on a constant feedback and conversation between users designers and engineers and push for technical systems to be wrapped around the types of experiences users want to have rather than wrapping user experience around a completed system activity theory used in hci to define and study the context in which human interactions with computers take place activity theory provides a framework to reason about actions in these contexts analytical tools with the format of checklists of items that researchers should consider and informs design of interactions from an activitycentric perspective usercentered design usercentered design ucd is a modern widely practiced design philosophy rooted in the idea that users must take centerstage in the design of any computer system users designers and technical practitioners work together to articulate the needs and limitations of the user and create a system that addresses these elements often usercentered design projects are informed by ethnographic studies of the environments in which users will be interacting with the system this practice is similar to participatory design which emphasizes the possibility for endusers to contribute actively through shared design sessions and workshops principles of user interface design these principles may be considered at any time during the design of a user interface in any order tolerance simplicity visibility affordance consistency structure and feedback value sensitive design vsd a method for building technology that account for the values of the people who use the technology directly as well as those who the technology affects either directly or indirectly vsd uses an iterative design process that involves three types of investigations conceptual empirical and technical conceptual investigations aim at understanding and articulating the various stakeholders of the technology as well as their values and any values conflicts that might arise for these stakeholders through the use of the technology empirical investigations are qualitative or quantitative design research studies used to inform the designers understanding of the users values needs and practices technical investigations can involve either analysis of how people use related technologies or the design of systems to support values identified in the conceptual and empirical investigations display designs displays are humanmade artifacts designed to support the perception of relevant system variables and to facilitate further processing of that information before a display is designed the task that the display is intended to support must be defined eg navigating controlling decision making learning entertaining etc a user or operator must be able to process whatever information that a system generates and displays therefore the information must be displayed according to principles in a manner that will support perception situation awareness and understanding thirteen principles of display design christopher wickens et al defined 13 principles of display design in their book an introduction to human factors engineering these principles of human perception and information processing can be utilized to create an effective display design a reduction in errors a reduction in required training time an increase in efficiency and an increase in user satisfaction are a few of the many potential benefits that can be achieved through utilization of these principles certain principles may not be applicable to different displays or situations some principles may seem to be conflicting and there is no simple solution to say that one principle is more important than another the principles may be tailored to a specific design or situation striking a functional balance among the principles is critical for an effective design perceptual principles 1make displays legible or audible a displays legibility is critical and necessary for designing a usable display if the characters or objects being displayed cannot be discernible then the operator cannot effectively make use of them 2avoid absolute judgment limits do not ask the user to determine the level of a variable on the basis of a single sensory variable eg colour size loudness these sensory variables can contain many possible levels 3topdown processing signals are likely perceived and interpreted in accordance with what is expected based on a users experience if a signal is presented contrary to the users expectation more physical evidence of that signal may need to be presented to assure that it is understood correctly 4redundancy gain if a signal is presented more than once it is more likely that it will be understood correctly this can be done by presenting the signal in alternative physical forms eg colour and shape voice and print etc as redundancy does not imply repetition a traffic light is a good example of redundancy as colour and position are redundant 5similarity causes confusion use distinguishable elements signals that appear to be similar will likely be confused the ratio of similar features to different features causes signals to be similar for example a423b9 is more similar to a423b8 than 92 is to 93 unnecessarily similar features should be removed and dissimilar features should be highlighted mental model principles 6principle of pictorial realism a display should look like the variable that it represents eg high temperature on a thermometer shown as a higher vertical level if there are multiple elements they can be configured in a manner that looks like it would in the represented environment 7principle of the moving part moving elements should move in a pattern and direction compatible with the users mental model of how it actually moves in the system for example the moving element on an altimeter should move upward with increasing altitude principles based on attention 8minimizing information access cost or interaction cost when the users attention is diverted from one location to another to access necessary information there is an associated cost in time or effort a display design should minimize this cost by allowing for frequently accessed sources to be located at the nearest possible position however adequate legibility should not be sacrificed to reduce this cost 9proximity compatibility principle divided attention between two information sources may be necessary for the completion of one task these sources must be mentally integrated and are defined to have close mental proximity information access costs should be low which can be achieved in many ways eg proximity linkage by common colours patterns shapes etc however close display proximity can be harmful by causing too much clutter 10principle of multiple resources a user can more easily process information across different resources for example visual and auditory information can be presented simultaneously rather than presenting all visual or all auditory information memory principles 11replace memory with visual information knowledge in the world a user should not need to retain important information solely in working memory or retrieve it from longterm memory a menu checklist or another display can aid the user by easing the use of their memory however the use of memory may sometimes benefit the user by eliminating the need to reference some type of knowledge in the world eg an expert computer operator would rather use direct commands from memory than refer to a manual the use of knowledge in a users head and knowledge in the world must be balanced for an effective design 12principle of predictive aiding proactive actions are usually more effective than reactive actions a display should attempt to eliminate resourcedemanding cognitive tasks and replace them with simpler perceptual tasks to reduce the use of the users mental resources this will allow the user to focus on current conditions and to consider possible future conditions an example of a predictive aid is a road sign displaying the distance to a certain destination 13principle of consistency old habits from other displays will easily transfer to support processing of new displays if they are designed consistently a users longterm memory will trigger actions that are expected to be appropriate a design must accept this fact and utilize consistency among different displays humancomputer interface user 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 to it including visual based the visual based human computer interaction is probably the most widespread area in human computer interaction hci research audio based the audio based interaction between a computer and a human is another important area of in hci systems this area deals with information acquired by different audio signals task environment the conditions and goals set upon the user machine environment the environment that the computer is connected to eg a laptop in a college students dorm room areas of the interface nonoverlapping 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 and back fit this is the match between the computer design the user and the task to optimize the human resources needed to accomplish the task current research this section does not cite any sources please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources unsourced material may be challenged and removed october 2010 learn how and when to remove this template message topics in humancomputer interaction include user customization enduser development studies how ordinary users could routinely tailor applications to their own needs and to invent new applications based on their understanding of their own domains with their deeper knowledge users could increasingly be important sources of new applications at the expense of generic programmers with systems expertise but low domain expertise embedded computation computation is passing beyond computers into every object for which uses can be found embedded systems make the environment alive with little computations and automated processes from computerized cooking appliances to lighting and plumbing fixtures to window blinds to automobile braking systems to greeting cards the expected difference in the future is the addition of networked communications that will allow many of these embedded computations to coordinate with each other and with the user human interfaces to these embedded devices will in many cases be disparate from those appropriate to workstations augmented reality augmented reality augmented reality refers to the notion of layering relevant information into our vision of the world existing projects show realtime statistics to users performing difficult tasks such as manufacturing future work might include augmenting our social interactions by providing additional information about those we converse with social computing in recent years there has been an explosion of social science research focusing on interactions as the unit of analysis much of this research draws from psychology social psychology and sociology for example one study found out that people expected a computer with a mans name to cost more than a machine with a womans name knowledgedriven humancomputer interaction in human and computer interactions a semantic gap usually exists between human and computers understandings towards mutual behaviors ontology information science as a formal representation of domainspecific knowledge can be used to address this problem through solving the semantic ambiguities between the two parties emotions and humancomputer interaction in the interaction of humans and computers research has studied how computers can detect process and react to human emotions to develop emotionally intelligent information systems researchers have suggested several affectdetection channels in these fields it has been shown that affectdetection channels have the potential to detect human emotions and that information systems can incorporate the data obtained from affectdetection channels to improve decision models braincomputer interfaces braincomputer interface factors of change traditionally computer use was modeled as a humancomputer dyad in which the two were connected by a narrow explicit communication channel such as textbased terminals much work has been done to make the interaction between a computing system and a human more reflective of the multidimensional nature of everyday communication because of potential issues humancomputer interaction shifted focus beyond the interface to respond to observations as articulated by d engelbart if ease of use was the only valid criterion people would stick to tricycles and never try bicycles the means by which humans interact with computers continues to evolve rapidly humancomputer interaction is affected by developments in computing these forces include decreasing hardware costs leading to larger memory and faster systems miniaturization of hardware leading to portability reduction in power requirements leading to portability new display technologies leading to the packaging of computational devices in new forms specialized hardware leading to new functions increased development of network communication and distributed computing increasingly widespread use of computers especially by people who are outside of the computing profession increasing innovation in input techniques eg voice gesture pen combined with lowering cost leading to rapid computerization by people formerly left out of the computer revolution wider social concerns leading to improved access to computers by currently disadvantaged groups as of 2010 to include the following characteristics ubiquitous computing and communication computers are expected to communicate through high speed local networks nationally over widearea networks and portably via infrared ultrasonic cellular and other technologies data and computational services will be portably accessible from many if not most locations to which a user travels highfunctionality systems systems can have large numbers of functions associated with them there are so many systems that most users technical or nontechnical do not have time to learn them in the traditional way eg through thick manuals mass availability of computer graphics computer graphics capabilities such as image processing graphics transformations rendering and interactive animation are becoming widespread as inexpensive chips become available for inclusion in general workstations and mobile devices mixed media commercial systems can handle images voice sounds video text formatted data these are exchangeable over communication links among users the separate fields of consumer electronics eg stereo sets vcrs televisions and computers are merging partly computer and print fields are expected to crossassimilate highbandwidth interaction the rate at which humans and machines interact is expected to increase substantially due to the changes in speed computer graphics new media and new inputoutput devices this can lead to some qualitatively different interfaces such as virtual reality or computational video large and thin displays new display technologies are maturing enabling very large displays and displays that are thin lightweight and low in power use this is having large effects on portability and will likely enable developing paperlike penbased computer interaction systems very different in feel from present desktop workstations information utilities public information utilities such as home banking and shopping and specialized industry services eg weather for pilots are expected to proliferate the rate of proliferation can accelerate with the introduction of highbandwidth interaction and the improvement in quality of interfaces scientific conferences one of the main conferences for new research in humancomputer interaction is the annually held association for computing machinerys acm conference on human factors in computing systems usually referred to by its short name chi pronounced kai or khai chi is organized by acm special interest group on computerhuman interaction sigchi chi is a large conference with thousands of attendants and is quite broad in scope it is attended by academics practitioners and industry people with company sponsors such as google microsoft and paypal there are also dozens of other smaller regional or specialized hcirelated conferences held around the world each year including assets acm international conference on computers and accessibility cscw acm conference on computer supported cooperative work cc aarhus decennial conference on critical computing dis acm conference on designing interactive systems ecscw european conference on computersupported cooperative work group acm conference on supporting group work hri acmieee international conference on humanrobot interaction hcii humancomputer interaction international icmi international conference on multimodal interfaces its acm conference on interactive tabletops and surfaces mobilehci international conference on humancomputer interaction with mobile devices and services nime international conference on new interfaces for musical expression ozchi australian conference on humancomputer interaction tei international conference on tangible embedded and embodied interaction ubicomp international conference on ubiquitous computing uist acm symposium on user interface software and technology iuser international conference on user science and engineering interact ifip tc13 conference on humancomputer interaction humancomputer interaction portal outline of humancomputer interaction information design experience design information architecture physiological interaction user experience design mindfulness and technology captcha turing test hci bibliography a webbased project to provide a bibliography of human computer interaction literature footnotes academic overviews of the field julie a jacko ed 2012 humancomputer interaction handbook 3rd edition crc press isbn1439829438 andrew sears and julie a jacko eds 2007 humancomputer interaction handbook 2nd edition crc press isbn0805858709 julie a jacko and andrew sears eds 2003 humancomputer interaction handbook mahwah lawrence erlbaum associates isbn0805844686 historically important classic stuart k card thomas p moran allen newell 1983 the psychology of humancomputer interaction erlbaum hillsdale 1983 isbn0898592437 overviews of history of the field jonathan grudin a moving target the evolution of humancomputer interaction in andrew sears and julie a jacko eds 2007 humancomputer interaction handbook 2nd edition crc press isbn0805858709 myers brad 1998 a brief history of humancomputer interaction technology interactions 5 2 4454 citeseerx1011232422 doi101145274430274436 john m carroll human computer interaction history and status encyclopedia entry at interactiondesignorg carroll john m 2010 conceptualizing a possible discipline of humancomputer interaction interacting with computers 22 1 312 doi101016jintcom200911008 sara candeias s and a veiga the dialogue between man and machine the role of language theory and technology sandra m alusio stella e o tagnin new language technologies and linguistic research a twoway road cap 11 cambridge scholars publishing isbn9781443853774 social science and hci nass clifford fogg b j moon youngme 1996 can computers be teammates international journal of humancomputer studies 45 6 669678 doi101006ijhc19960073 nass clifford moon youngme 2000 machines and mindlessness social responses to computers journal of social issues 56 1 81103 doi1011110022453700153 posard marek n 2014 status processes in humancomputer interactions does gender matter computers in human behavior 37 189195 doi101016jchb201404025 posard marek n rinderknecht r gordon 2015 do people like working with computers more than human beings computers in human behavior 51 232238 doi101016jchb201504057 academic journals acm transactions on computerhuman interaction behaviour information technology interacting with computers international journal of humancomputer interaction international journal of humancomputer studies humancomputer interaction collection of papers ronald m baecker jonathan grudin william a s buxton saul greenberg eds 1995 readings in humancomputer interaction toward the year 2000 2 ed morgan kaufmann san francisco 1995 isbn1558602461 mithun ahamed developing a message interface architecture for android operating systems 2015 treatments by one or few authors often aimed at a more general audience jakob nielsen usability engineering academic press boston 1993 isbn0125184050 donald a norman the psychology of everyday things basic books new york 1988 isbn0465067093 jef raskin the humane interface new directions for designing interactive systems addisonwesley boston 2000 isbn0201379376 bruce tognazzini tog on interface addisonwesley reading 1991 isbn0201608421 textbooks alan dix janet finlay gregory abowd and russell beale 2003 humancomputer interaction 3rd edition prentice hall 2003 httphcibookcome3 isbn0130461091 yvonne rogers helen sharp jenny preece interaction design beyond humancomputer interaction 3rd ed john wiley sons ltd 2011 isbn0470665769 helen sharp yvonne rogers jenny preece interaction design beyond humancomputer interaction 2nd ed john wiley sons ltd 2007 isbn0470018666 matt jones interaction designer and gary marsden 2006 mobile interaction design john wiley and sons ltd wikimedia commons has media related to humancomputer interaction bad human factors designs the hci wiki bibliography with over 100000 publications the hci bibliography over 100000 publications about hci humancentered computing education digital library hci webliography authority control gnd 41259099 