name: freepdf
The Evolution of Human-Computer Interaction
13 August, 2008
Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
is the study and the practice of usability. In this introduction to his
book, "Human-Computer Interaction in the New Millenium," John Carroll
looks at history and future of HCI.
The Emergence of Usability
Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) is the study and the practice of usability. It is about understanding and creating software and other technology that people will want to use, will be able to use, and will find effective when used. The concept of usability, and the methods and tools to encourage it, achieve it, and measure it are now touchstones in the culture of computing.
Through the past two decades, HCI emerged as a focal area of both computer science research and development and of applied social and behavioral science. Some of the reasons for its success are straightforwardly technical: HCI evoked many difficult problems and elegant solutions in the recent history of computing—for example, in work on direct manipulation interfaces, user interface management systems, task-oriented help and instruction, and computer-supported collaborative work. Other reasons are broadly cultural: The province of HCI is the view the nonspecialist public has of computer and information technology and the impact that technology has on their lives in the sense that it is the visible part of computer science and technology. The most recent reasons are commercial: As the underlying technologies of computing become commodities, inscribed on generic chips, the noncommodity value of computer products and services resides in applications and user interfaces—that is, in HCI.
The beginning of HCI is sometimes traced to the March 1982 (U.S.) National Bureau of Standards conference, "Human Factors in Computer Systems," though related conferences and workshops were conducted throughout the world at about that time. It is surely true that after the Bureau of Standards conference, HCI experienced meteoric growth. However, four—largely independent—threads of technical development from the 1960s and 1970s provided the foundation that allowed this interdisciplinary program to gel so rapidly in the early 1980s.
These four threads were prototyping and iterative development from software engineering; software psychology and human factors of computing systems; user interface software from computer graphics; and models, theories, and frameworks from cognitive science. It is interesting to remember these four roots of HCI, since the concerns that evoked them and that brought them together are still underlying forces in HCI today.
The Emergence of Usability
Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) is the study and the practice of usability. It is about understanding and creating software and other technology that people will want to use, will be able to use, and will find effective when used. The concept of usability, and the methods and tools to encourage it, achieve it, and measure it are now touchstones in the culture of computing.
Through the past two decades, HCI emerged as a focal area of both computer science research and development and of applied social and behavioral science. Some of the reasons for its success are straightforwardly technical: HCI evoked many difficult problems and elegant solutions in the recent history of computing—for example, in work on direct manipulation interfaces, user interface management systems, task-oriented help and instruction, and computer-supported collaborative work. Other reasons are broadly cultural: The province of HCI is the view the nonspecialist public has of computer and information technology and the impact that technology has on their lives in the sense that it is the visible part of computer science and technology. The most recent reasons are commercial: As the underlying technologies of computing become commodities, inscribed on generic chips, the noncommodity value of computer products and services resides in applications and user interfaces—that is, in HCI.
The beginning of HCI is sometimes traced to the March 1982 (U.S.) National Bureau of Standards conference, "Human Factors in Computer Systems," though related conferences and workshops were conducted throughout the world at about that time. It is surely true that after the Bureau of Standards conference, HCI experienced meteoric growth. However, four—largely independent—threads of technical development from the 1960s and 1970s provided the foundation that allowed this interdisciplinary program to gel so rapidly in the early 1980s.
These four threads were prototyping and iterative development from software engineering; software psychology and human factors of computing systems; user interface software from computer graphics; and models, theories, and frameworks from cognitive science. It is interesting to remember these four roots of HCI, since the concerns that evoked them and that brought them together are still underlying forces in HCI today.
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