Wednesday 17 February 2016

Human Computer Interaction (HCI)


Welcome to my HCI blog,
Here I will state some key terms of the HCI and the HCI principles.
HCI stand for the Human Computer Interaction and is a study of how we can design products that will be interactive in order to support the way people communicate and interact in their everyday and working lives (Sharp, Rogers and Preece, 2015).
The central concern of HCI is to develop interactive products that are usable which means: 
  • Easy to learn 
  • Effective to use and
  • Enjoyable user experience.

With users experience we mean how the product behaves and how it is used by people in the real world.

 There are five design principles that if the designer tries to implement the most of those principles on the product design then the product design will be more successful.

The five design principles are:
  1. Visibility - can is see it?
  2. Feedback - what is it doing now?
  3. Constraints - Why can't I do that?
  4. Consistency - I think I have seen this before
  5. Affordance -  How do I use it? (InSideShare, 2008)
If the user of a product or website answer the above questions then the user will be satisfy with the product design (Sharp, Rogers and Preece, 2015).

The following Figure Illustrates the nature of the Human Computer Interaction.


 References:

 Rogers, Y., Preece, J.,  Sharp, H. (2015).  Interaction Design:  Beyond Human-computer Interaction. 4th Edition. Wiley. 

InSideShare. (2008). Design Principles.  [Internet]. Available at: <http://www.slideshare.net/gelvan/design-principles>. [Accessed on: 18/12/2016].
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12 comments:

  1. Unknown21 February 2016 at 02:08

    Based on your post, the HCI has do with the designing of ANY product or system.
    Really?
    If this is true, then why there is the word "Computer" in the HCI term ?

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    1. Unknown22 February 2016 at 01:20

      hello George,
      HCI as I mentioned above stand for the Human Computer Interaction and is research area in computing science that emerged in 1980. In a computer, designers can design systems or websites that are types of products. HCI can be applied both on products and computer systems.

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    2. Andrie22 February 2016 at 03:31

      Very informative post! Well according to ACM IEEE (2005)"In a general way, we can define computing to mean any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computers." Therefore a computer is not just a set of hardware devices that make-up a computer system but could also take the form of an embedded system. Therefore, a laundry machine, a car, a dish washer and a fridge could perform a computing-oriented function. Therefore the design of these devices also requires the application of HCI principles (at least for those functions with which a user will have to interact with the device e.g. to set the temperature, to select the program, to set the time, etc.)Maria, can you please mention 3 more examples of interactive products for which HCI principles can be applied?

      Reference: ACM/IEEE (2006) Computing Curricula 2005, Available at: http://www.acm.org/education/curric_vols/CC2005-March06Final.pdf [Accessed 22/02/2016]

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    3. Unknown22 February 2016 at 13:22

      Three more examples of interactive products can be a smartphone, a projector and a PlayStation.

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    4. Andrie24 February 2016 at 03:22

      What about everyday home appliances?

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    5. Unknown24 February 2016 at 09:57

      Three examples of everyday home appliances that are interactive products can be an air conditioning, a microwave and a vacuum cleaner.

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  2. Unknown21 February 2016 at 06:03

    Maria I love the picture that you have use to saw us the what do we mean by interaction design.
    why it is important to create a usable products?

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    Replies
    1. Unknown22 February 2016 at 01:33

      hello xara,
      Usable product as I mentioned above is the product that is
      *Easy to learn
      *Effective to use and
      *Enjoyable user experience
      If a product has that elements then the product is more preferable and more demanded than other products.
      Business make more profit by selling more of that products.

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  3. Anna Vasiliou22 February 2016 at 06:54

    Hello maria, I would like to explain what you mean by "With users experience we mean how the product behaves and how it is used by people in the real world"

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    Replies
    1. Unknown22 February 2016 at 12:34

      Thank you for your question Anna,
      In more details with User Experience we mean the way people feel about a product, their pleasure and satisfaction when they using the product. More over their feel when they looking , holding, opening and closing the product.
      For example how comfortable a T-shirt is
      Some aspects of user experience are the usability, functionality, aesthetics, look and feel, fun and many many more.

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  4. Unknown22 February 2016 at 08:15

    Maria very good work.
    In figure 1.1 I can see design approaches. How can design approaches improve human computer interaction ?

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    Replies
    1. Unknown22 February 2016 at 13:02

      First of all I think by design approaches we mean the approach that designers use in order to design an interactive product. As Monet Spells mentioned, the traditional design approach focuses on user and design as important entities. These design approach helps designers to develop prototypes with their focus on users. So designers by having users in their minds produce more interactive products and support more effectively their every day lives. As a result design approaches improve human computer interaction.
      Reference: Spells, M. (2015). Traditional Design Approach. [Internet]. Available at: . [Accessed on: 22/2/2016]

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