Motivations for the Studies of HCI

Revision as of 00:12, 23 November 2009 by Shukrim (Talk)

Background

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.

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]

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

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