History & Frameworks of HCI Key people, events and ideas in HCI Course Project introduction.

History & Frameworks of HCI

Key people, events and ideas in HCI

Course Project introduction

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Agenda

Review HCI’s history Key people and events

Frameworks Ways of thinking about systems

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History of HCI

Digital computer grounded in ideas from 1700’s & 1800’s

Technology became available in the 1940’s and 1950’s

The “user” concept is relatively new

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History of HCI Mechanical Computers http://www.thocp.net 1623 Schickard makes "Calculating Clock".

6-digit machine can add, subtract, bell indicates overflow. 1674 Leibniz designs his "Stepped Reckoner”

Can multiply, with operands of up to 5 and 12 digits.User turns a crank for each unit in each digit

1820 de Colmar makes "Arithmometer”First mass-produced calculator. Does multiplication & division. It is also the most reliable calculator yet. Continue to be sold for about 90 years.

1889 Felt invents the first printing desk calculator. 1935 IBM introduces "IBM 601", punch card machine

capable of 1 multiplication /second. 1500 are made. 1945 Mauchly & Eckert "ENIAC” for ballistics.

30 tons, 1000 ft2 of floor, 140 kilowatts of electricity, 17,468 vacuum tubes

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Batch Processing

Computer had one task,performed sequentially

No “interaction” between operator and computer after starting the run

Punch cards, tapes for inputSerial operations

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Paradigm Shifter: Vannevar Bush

“As We May Think” - 1945 Atlantic Monthly“…publication has been extended far beyond our

present ability to make real use of the record.”

Postulated Memex device Stores all records/articles/communications Items retrieved by indexing, keywords, cross

references (now called hyperlinks) (Envisioned as microfilm, not computer)

Interactive and nonlinear components are key

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Mid 1960’s

Timesharing mode of computing Computers too expensive for

individuals timesharing increased accessibility

interactive systems, not jobs text processing, editing email, shared file system

Need for HCI

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Paradigm Shifter: J.R. Licklider

1960 - Postulated “man-computer symbiosis”

Couple human brainsand computing machinestightly to revolutionizeinformation handling

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Video Display Units

More suitable medium than paperSutherland’s Sketchpad as

landmark systemComputers used for visualizing and

manipulating data

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Paradigm Shifter: Ivan Sutherland

SketchPad - ‘63 PhD thesis at MIT Hierarchy - pictures & subpictures Master picture with instances (ie,

OOP) Constraints Icons Copying Light pen for input Recursive operations

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Computers as Toolkits

Multipurpose toolkitsAbstracting out common tasks

(tools)Reusable elementsAt the disposal of humans

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Paradigm Shifter: Douglas Engelbart

Landmark system/demo: Mouse, windows Hypertext Multimedia High-res display, Shared files, CSCW, Electronic messaging,

teleconferencing, ...

Inventor of mouse

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Paradigm Shifter: Alan Kay

“Personal Computing”

Dynabook: Notebook sized computer loaded with multimedia and can store everything

Desktop interface metaphor

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Paradigm Shifter: Ted Nelson

Computers can help people, not just business

Coined term “hypertext”

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Personal Computers

1974 IBM 5100 1981 Datamaster1981 IBM XT/AT

Text and command-based Sold lots Performed lots of tasks the

general public wanted done A good basic toolkit

1978 VisiCalc

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Personal Computing

System is more powerful if it’s easier to use

Small, powerful machines dedicated to individual

Importance of networks and time-sharing

Kay’s Dynabook, IBM PCTime names “The Computer” Man of

the Year, 1982 (http://www.time.com/time/special/moy/1982.html)

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WIMP

Windows, Icons, Menus, PointersTimesharing=multiusers; now we

need multitaskingWIMP interface allows you to do

several things simultaneouslyHas become the familiar GUI

interfaceXerox Alto, Star; early Apples

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PCs with GUIs

Xerox PARC - mid 1970’sAlto

local processor, bitmap display, mouse

Precursor to modern GUI,windows, menus, scrollbars

LAN - ethernet

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Xerox Star - ‘81

First commercial PC designed for“business professionals” desktop metaphor, pointing, WYSIWYG,

consistency and simplicity

First system based on usability Paper prototyping and analysis Usability testing & iterative refinement

Commercial flop $15k cost closed architecture lacking key functionality (spreadsheet)

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Apple Lisa - ‘82

Based on ideas of Star

More personal rather than office tool Still $$$

Failure (why?)

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Apple Macintosh - ‘84

Aggressive pricing - $2500Not trailblazer, smart copierGood interface guidelines3rd party applicationsHigh quality graphics

and laser printer

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Direct Manipulation

‘82 Shneiderman describes appeal of graphically-based interaction object visibility incremental action and rapid

feedback reversibility encourages exploration replace language with action syntactic correctness of all actions

WYSIWYG, Apple Mac

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Metaphor

All use is problem-solving or learning to some extent

Relating computing to real-world activity is effective learning mechanism File management on office desktop Financial analysis as spreadsheets

The dreaded dead metaphor Examples?…

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Speech, Language?

Actions do not always speak louder than words

Interface as mediator or agentLanguage paradigmHow good does it need to be?

“Tricks”, vocabulary, domainsHow “human” do we want it to be?

(HAL, Bob, PaperClip)

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Multimodality

Mode is a human communication channel Not just the senses

e.g., speech and non-speech audio are two modes

Emphasis on simultaneous use of multiple channels for I/O

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Hypertext

Think of information not as linear flow but as interconnected nodes

Nelson’s hypertextBush’s MEMEXNon-linear browsing WWW ‘93

Hypermedia

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The Interconnected Web

The Network is the Computere.g. seti@home

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CSCW

Computer-Supported Cooperative Work

No longer single user/single system

Micro-social aspects are crucialE-mail as prominent success but

other groupware still not widely used

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Ubiquity

Person is no longer user of virtual device but occupant of virtual, computationally-rich environment

Can no longer neglect macro-social aspects

Late ‘90s - PDAs, VEs, ...Now?…

HCI Frameworks

How we can conceptualize humans who use computing systems

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Human Role

How is human viewed in HCI What is human role?

Different roles engender different

frameworks

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Human Roles

Human as…1. Sensory processor

Experimental psych, sensory psych e.g. Model-Human Processor (Card, Moran &

Newell)2. Interpreter/Predictor

Cognitive psych, AI e.g. Distributed cognition (Hutchins)

3. Actor in environment Activity theory, ethnography, ecol psych e.g. Situated action (Suchman) e.g. Activity theory (Vygotsky, Nardi)

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What Makes a System Usable

Usability results when the system…

1. Sensory processor - Fits within human limits

2. Interpreter/Predictor - Fits with knowledge

3. Actor in environment - Fits with task andsocial context

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Evaluation Methods

Evaluation methods…

1. Sensory processor - Quantitative

experiments

2. Interpreter/Predictor - Task analysis, cognitive

walkthrough

3. Actor in environment - Ethnographic field work,

participatory design

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Two Views of Interaction

Interaction with Software system is a tool or machine Interface is a usability-engineered

membrane Human-as-processor & -interpreter models

Interaction through Software is a medium used to interact with

task objects or other people Interface plays a role in social context Human-as-interpreter & -actor models

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Upcoming

Usability Principles Bad Designs, and the Design

ProcessHuman capabilities

Project teams and ideas