Motivations for the Studies of HCI

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Contents 1 Overview 2 Motivations 2.1 Integration into Human Lifestyles 2.2 Business/Commerical Motivations 2.3 Accessibility Concerns 2.4 Quality Assurance of Software 2.5 Development of Industry Standards 3 Human Factors 3.1 Human Performance 3.2 Technology Design 3.3 Human-Computer Interaction 4 Ergonomics 5 References

Overview

As the capabilities of available technologies continue to grow, the technology itself becomes available to more types of user, each with different demands, goals, and needs. A good Human-Computer Interface (HCI) needs to address the limitations and needs of its user. In addition to meeting the needs of a growing and diverse user-base, research needs to be done in the field of HCI for computers to be accessible in mobile environments, to act as cost-saving measures, to ensure quality software development, and to address the health and safety of the user. These and other motivations elaborated below allow for engineers understand the subjective needs of the user.

Motivations

Integration into Human Lifestyles

• Users are not tolerant of poorly designed interfaces. Often users are susceptible to frustration, will not invest time in learning an unintuitive interface and will seek out a more suitable product or solution.

• Consumers require products that are easy to learn and intuitive to navigate, especially as they are integrated into their daily lives. The best example of this is the innovation of the World Wide Web, which is considered to be the direct result of HCI research.^[1] Especially in the mid 1990’s when the personal computer was not commonplace in the average North American home the way it is today, the idea of navigating over the web would be insurmountable to new users. HCI research, particularly related to direct manipulation led to the use of hyperlinks, making use of the internet accessible for new users.

• The ways in which users adopt technology into their daily lives requires businesses to come up with interaction styles fitting to the context in which the technology is being used. Jobs require users to have access to computing resources away from their static desktop computer. For this reason, PDA’s, smart phones, and pocket PC’s have recently become commonplace in the business environment. New studies in HCI are required to make mobile interaction realistic so that the user is able to work just as effectively in a mobile environment. ^[2]
• Training is expensive. Users should not have the responsibility of allocating time, money, and motivation to learning a new interaction style. A good interface as the result of HCI studies would not place this burden on the user.

Business/Commerical Motivations

• Study of Technology Insertion Techniques in HCI can be used to reduce errors. Ultimately, this means a company can avoid errors that result in the loss of time, money, morale, and other costly factors.

• The costs of training, motivating, and maintaining humans far outweigh the costs of developing hardware and software interaction systems. Effective HCIs allow workers to overcome human limitations and work more productively.

• Businesses can use HCI research as motivations for developing new business models. For example, in 2009 Microsoft announced plans for Natal, a peripheral for the Xbox 360 home gaming console that uses physical movement and gesture recognition to make the gaming controller obsolete. Furthermore, the business decision is that consumers would be able to get a cutting-edge interaction experience without having to spend upwards of $500 on a new console. By studying HCI and applying new interaction techniques, Microsoft stands to change the gaming business model in a way that reduces their marketing costs and satisfies customers. ^[3]

Accessibility Concerns

• Research in HCI must be done as a precautionary measure. A user may suffer from epilepsy or other complications arising from photosensitivity that can lead to convulsions, disorientation, and other harmful affects. Studies of refresh rates, jarring contrasts, allowable changes in brightness, and human vision concerns are necessary to avoid potentially harming the user.

• The burden of communication is on the GUI. The application must be able to effectively communicate what actions are available to avoid misuse. This involves the study of regional languages, vision loss in the elderly, colourblindness, and how to accommodate other accessibility issues. Not only do these concepts need to be researched, but HCI's need to be studied to understand how to effectively integrate those accessability concerns into the system without introducing more confusion that could disrupt the system or harm the user.

• A GUI is only as effective as the actions it is capable of performing. Studies of behavioural patterns, learning rates, and visual stimuli are needed to determine how users become more comfortable with the interface. By making an interface available to a variety of users with different levels of aptitude (novice, intermediate, expert) the interface becomes more useful in fulfilling its purpose. ^[4]

Quality Assurance of Software

Development of Industry Standards

Human Factors

Human Factors is an umbrella term for several areas of research. Motivation rises for the study of human factors that include human performance, technology design and human-computer interaction.

Human factors emerged during the industrial revolution. It became a full-fledged discipline during World War II. Human factors recognized that aircraft cockpit design needed to consider the human interface for controls and displays. Design engineers focused on technology and the industrial psychologists worked to optimize the interface. Human factors is often used interchangeably with User Interface Design or Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). There is a tremendous overlap in these disciplines. Human factors refer to hardware design and HCI is frequently used by the software engineers. Engineering psychologists work in both disciplines and the overlap is considered greater than the difference.

Human factors or HCI must consider integration of human mental abilities, i.e. short and long-term memory, visual scanning, and the development of mental cognitive models. HCI not only includes the specification, design, and development of systems, it must also include the actual training, skill levels, and organizational aspects of the end users. By considering these characteristics, data entry and understanding information technology becomes easier. HCI includes several areas that are paramount in the interaction of humans and machines. These areas include staffing, personnel, training, human factors engineering, and health risks, as well as managerial, public, and personal safety issues surrounding machines. Other issues that must be considered with HCI are the designs of language, entering methods, graphics, visual representation, and consistency of a system's look. Human factors is a comprehensive expression covering an assortment of areas speaking to the purpose of objects people use, from the scalpel to the computer within healthcare.

An example of this area of research occurs in the Human Factors Research and Technology Division at NASA Ames Research Center ^[4]. This area focuses on the need for safe, efficient and cost-effective operations, maintenance and training, both in flight aircrafts and on the ground.

See below for examples and definitions of each corresponding human factor.

Human Performance

Technology Design

Human-Computer Interaction

Ergonomics

References

1. A brief history of human-computer interaction technology. ACM Interactions. http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=274430.274436

2. Using while moving: HCI issues in fieldwork environments. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI) http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/360000/355329/p417-pascoe.pdf?key1=355329&key2=2746298521&coll=GUIDE&dl=GUIDE&CFID=64390082&CFTOKEN=12638977

3. Reuters: Microsoft unveils new Xbox technology, enlists Facebook. http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSTRE5506FO20090601

4. Poelman, S. (2009) Software Engineering 4D03/6D03/Computer Science 4HC3 Lecture Notes

5. Human Factors 101. http://human-factors.arc.nasa.gov/web/hf101/