Human Computer

Interaction
By
M Kamran Abid
BSIT (Gold Medal) BZU Multan
MSIT BZU Multan
PhD Computer science ( In Process)
Regular Faculty Member
NFC-IET Multan

1
 Course Objectives
• Human Issues of Usability
• Importance of Usability
• Implication of Human Understanding on
usability
• Guidelines for use of different media &
interface styles
• Usability design principles
• Evaluation Techniques
2
 Course Outline
• Usability paradigm and principles
• HCI in Software projects
• Design Rules
• Prototyping
• Evaluation Techniques
• Task Analysis
• Universal design and User support and
Computer Supported Cooperative Work
3
 WHAT IS HUMAN COMPUTER
INTERACTION?

• The study of how humans interact with computers, and how to

design computer systems that are easy, quick and productive for
humans to use.
• The study of how people interact with computers and to what
extent computers are or are not developed for successful interaction
with human beings
• A significant number of major corporations and academic
institutions now study HCI.

4
 What is 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.

HCI tries to provide us with all understanding of the computer and the person using it, so
as to make the interaction between them more effective and more enjoyable.
 WHY HUMAN COMPUTER
INTERACTION?
• A simple example..
• ‘Save’ and ‘Delete’ in word processor
• Click ‘Save’ to save
• Click ‘Delete’ to delete  Confirmation box appears
• What if ‘Save’ button generates the same confirmation
box?
• Any misunderstanding will cause error..
• We need to review the interface in order to correct the
usability

6
 The goals of HCI

Ensuring usability.
A usable software system is one that supports the effective and
efficient completion of tasks in a given work context.

The bottom-line benefits of more usable software system to

business users include:
• Increased productivity
• Decreased user training time and cost
• Decreased user errors
• Increased accuracy of data input and data interpretation
• Decreased need for ongoing technical support
7
 The goals of HCI

The bottom-line benefits of usability to development

organizations include:
Greater profits due to more competitive products/services
Decreased overall development and maintenance costs
Decreased customer support costs
More follow-on business due to satisfied customers

8
Humans, Computer and Interaction

Humans good at: Sensing low level stimuli, pattern

The H recognition, inductive reasoning, multiple
strategies, adapting “Hard and fuzzy things”.

Computers good at: Counting and measuring,

The C accurate storage and recall, rapid and consistent
responses, data processing/calculation, repetitive
actions, performance over time, “Simple and
sharply defined things”.
The list of skills is somewhat complementary. Let
The I humans do what humans do best and computers do
what computers do best.

9
Relationship of HCI to other disciplines

10
Topics in HCI

11
 Topics in HCI

Computer systems exist within a larger social, organizational and

work milieu (U1).

Within this context there are applications for which we wish to

employ computer systems (U2).

But the process of putting computers to work means that the

human, technical, and work aspects of the application situation
must be brought into fit with each other through human learning,
system tailorability, or other strategies (U3).

12
 Topics in HCI

In addition to the use and social context of computers, on the

human side we must also take into account:
the human information processing (H1)
communication (H2)
and physical (H3) characteristics of users

13
 Topics in HCI

On the computer side, a variety of technologies have been developed for

supporting interaction with humans:
Input and output devices connect the human and the machine (C1).
These are used in a number of techniques for organizing a dialogue (C2).
These techniques are used in turn to implement larger design elements, such
as the metaphor of the interface (C3).
Getting deeper into the machine substrata supporting the dialogue, the
dialogue may make extensive use of computer graphics techniques (C4).
Complex dialogues lead into considerations of the systems architecture
necessary to support such features as interconnectable application programs,
windowing, real-time response, network communications, multi-user and
cooperative interfaces, and multi-tasking of dialogue objects (C5).

14
 Topics in HCI

Finally, there is the process of development which incorporates design (D1) for
human-computer dialogues, techniques and tools (D2) for implementing them (D2),
techniques for evaluating (D3) them, and a number of classic designs for study
(D4).

15