Human-Computer Interaction - Essay Example

Human-computer Interaction (HCI) Introduction: Human-computer interaction or HCI can be generally defined as the study of interaction between people, that is, users and computers. The interaction translates the relationship between what the user wants and what the system does. The study of HCI gathers inputs from two sides - the user and the system, while the interaction occurs at the user interface including software and hardware. Where the system is concerned, it includes general-purpose computer peripherals, operating systems, programming languages and so on. On the user side, it involves relevant aspects such as communication theory, industrial design disciplines, cognitive psychology, linguistics, etc. In other words, the study of human-computer interaction is multidisciplinary in nature. One of the main aims of human-computer interaction, as pointed out and quoted by Jacko and Sears (2003) is, “…to enable men and computers to cooperate in making decisions and controlling complex situations without inflexible dependence on predetermined programs. In the anticipated symbiotic partnership, men will set the goals, formulate the hypotheses, determine the criteria, and perform the evaluations. Computing machines will do the routinizable work that must be done to prepare the way for insights and decisions in technical and scientific thinking.” (Jacko and Sears 2003) One of the primary objectives of human-computer interaction is to improve interactions between users and computers. Development of new interfaces and interaction techniques is an ongoing process while computers are being made more usable and receptive to user’s needs. Researchers engaged in the study of human-computer interaction are mainly concerned with minimising the gap between the human cognitive model of what they want to accomplish and the computer’s understanding of that task. This is why researchers are more interested in developing new design methodologies and interaction models including graphical user interfaces and web interfaces, and applying them in practical real-world situations. Technology, as explained by Bederson and Druin (Nielsen 1995) is already an indispensable part of our life. “People need to communicate with one another - they seek to express themselves in new creative ways and look for new avenues to learn, work, and play. We have come to augment our activities with technology because it enhances our human capabilities.” (Nielsen 1995) Review literature: Development of new user interface or evaluating a current user interface in HCI involves following up of a number of design principles. While designing the user interface, primary focus is always on the user(s) and the task(s). Tasks are added or restructured depending on the performance, frequency and capabilities of the users selected for the tasks. A considerable amount of empirical measurement is also important before finalising the interface for usage. Besides, such designs are iterative, which is quite helpful in developing complex designs. Above all, designing the interaction models contains serious account of, “…user’s characteristics, preferences and needs. Most of them are based on cognitive theories. They focus mainly on the individual interacting with an application, considering his/her physical (motor and perceptive) and mental processes. Their main goal is to understand how these processes take place during interaction, in order to predict and avoid possible cognitive problems.” (Jacko et al 2003) Coming to the design methodologies, a number of diverse methodologies have emerged till now mostly on the basis of how users, designers and technical systems interact. Understanding the design process involves software engineering, which also includes assessment of the interactive system for its effectiveness. The later is the process of evaluation of an interactive design that examines the usability, functionality and acceptability of an interactive system. Evaluation uses a number of methods or approaches including analytic, review, experimental, observational and model-based methods. However, David Ambaye (Jacko et al 2003) advocates for a socio-centric interactive model as he thinks the existing models, “…do not take sufficient account of the psychological and social issues surrounding the usability of such systems. This fundamental weakness means that user-interface design and evaluation are currently less holistic and effective than they ought to be.” (Jacko et al 2003) Thus, developing effective evaluation tools as well as constructing them on an empirical foundation are two important factors to be considered while designing interactive systems. Speculations are also being made for adopting somewhat universal designing systems, which can be used by anyone in any circumstance. Universal design comprises of multi-modal systems where more than one human input channel is used in interaction. As it is designed for diverse groups of people, it uses speech, non-speech sound, touch, handwriting or different types of gestures in the interactive design. Also termed as ‘accessible design’ and ‘design for all’, universal design can reach to a wide range of people as pointed out by Jacko and Sears (2003), “[Universal design] involves designing standard environments and products so that they are usable by people with as wide a range of abilities (or constraints) as is commercially possible. The objective is to make the world directly usable by as many people (both with and without disabilities) as is possible.” (Jacko and Sears 2003) The implication of a universal interactive design is the need of the present time. Another equally important trend in human-computer interfaces is the increased use of artificial intelligence, which is the next-next-generation interface for the Internet as predicted by Jacko and Sears (2003). What is coming up more specifically is an interdisciplinary theoretical approach or a mental model combining cognitive psychology and artificial intelligence together. This again is related to the issue of various interactive models in human-computer interaction - including descriptive, analytic, internalised, externalised, generic, and instantiated models. Jacko and Sears state the importance of mental models, “Knowledge and insight of the concept of mental models, which are the actual instantiations of user knowledge, is important in the design of interactive systems.” (Jacko and Sears 2003) Relevance: The issue of human-computer interaction is important in the project “Production of a visual basic tutor” as the project is going to involve its students in various learning programs with the help of human-computer interaction by means of a virtual classroom environment. The project will design and use various cognitive models in its education programs. For instance, it will develop hierarchical models to analyse users’ task and goal structure whereas a linguistic model will be designed to improve user-system grammar. Physical and device models will take into account human motor skills and development among individual students. The project will develop a visual basic tutorial program for students with the help of a multimedia program called Macromedia Director. A number of multimedia tools will be used in the program including sound, images, video and buttons that will make the navigation easier for students. It also uses clear and attractive colours so that the learners find it interesting. There is also an example provided for students how to use the visual basic tools. The program contains self-assessment by individual students as there are multiple choice question, which will give them answers after they submit. Above all, the tutorial program aims to teach students visual basic course for beginners. Conclusion: The human-computer interaction or HCI is important in order to understand the interaction between users and computer systems. The flow of information exchanged between the two includes several aspects of learning conditions such as task environment, machine environment (desktop or laptop), etc. It is necessary to study human factors in computing systems as that would lead designers to formulate what the user wants and how the machine (computer) receives the information or task. This is what makes complex systems work fine. References: Jacko, Julie A. and Sears, Andrew (eds.) 2003, The Human-computer Interaction Handbook, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, New York. Jacko, Julie A., Stephanidis, Constantine and Harris, Don 2003, Human-computer interaction: theory and practice, Vol. 1, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, New York. Nielsen, Jakob (ed.) 1995, Advances in Human-computer Interaction, Intellect Books, Bristol. Read More