ERGONOMICS
Physical aspects of interfaces
Industrial interfaces
Ergonomics (or human factors)
Study of the physical characteristics of interaction
How the controls are designed
The layout and physical qualities of the screen
About the physical environment in which the interaction takes place
A primary focus is on user performance and the interface
enhances or detracts from this
Also known as human factors – but this can also be used to
mean much of HCI!
Ergonomics good at defining standards and guidelines for
constraining the way we design certain aspects of systems
Ergonomics - examples
arrangement of controls and displays
e.g. controls grouped according to functional, sequential and
frequency of use
surrounding environment
e.g. seating arrangements adaptable to cope with all sizes of user
health issues
e.g. physical position, environmental conditions (temperature,
humidity), lighting, noise,
use of colour
e.g. use of red for warning, green for okay,
awareness of colour-blindness etc.
Industrial interfaces
Office interface vs. industrial interface?
Context matters!
office industrial
type of data textual numeric
rate of change slow fast
environment clean dirty
… the oil soaked mouse!
Glass interfaces ?
industrial interface:
traditional … dials and knobs
now … screens and keypads
glass interface
+ cheaper, more flexible,
multiple representations,
Vessel B Temp
precise values
0 100 200
not physically located,
loss of context,
complex interfaces 113
may need both
multiple representations
of same information
Indirect manipulation
office– direct manipulation
user interacts
with artificial world system
industrial – indirect manipulation
user interacts
with real world
through interface
interface plant
issues ..
immediate
feedback
feedbac
delays k
instruments
INTERACTION PARADIGMS
Why study paradigms
Concerns
how can an interactive system be developed to ensure
its usability?
how can the usability of an interactive system be
demonstrated or measured?
History of interactive system design provides
paradigms for usable designs
What are Paradigms
Predominant theoretical frameworks or scientific world views
e.g., Aristotelian, Newtonian, Einsteinian (relativistic) paradigms in
physics
Understanding HCI history is largely about understanding a
series of paradigm shifts
Not all listed here are necessarily “paradigm” shifts, but are at least
candidates
History will judge which are true shifts
The initial paradigm
Batch processing
Impersonal computing
Example Paradigm Shifts
Batch processing
Time-sharing
Interactive computing
Example Paradigm Shifts
Batch processing @#$% !
Timesharing
Networking
???
Community computing
Example Paradigm Shifts
Batch processing C…P… filename Move this file here,
dot star… or was and copy this to there.
Timesharing it R…M?
Networking
Graphical displays % foo.bar
ABORT
dumby!!!
Direct manipulation
Example Paradigm Shifts
Batch processing
Timesharing
Networking
Graphical display
Microprocessor
Personal computing
Example Paradigm Shifts
Batch processing
Timesharing
Networking
Graphical display
Microprocessor
WWW
Global information
Example Paradigm Shifts
• Batch processing A symbiosis of physical and
electronic worlds in service of
• Timesharing everyday activities.
• Networking
• Graphical display
• Microprocessor
• WWW
• Ubiquitous
Computing
Time-sharing
1940s and 1950s – explosive technological growth
1960s – need to channel the power
J.C.R. Licklider at ARPA
single computer supporting multiple users
Video Display Units
more suitable medium than paper
1962 – Sutherland's Sketchpad
computers for visualizing and manipulating data
one person's contribution could drastically change the history
of computing
Programming toolkits
Engelbart at Stanford Research Institute
1963 – augmenting man's intellect
1968 NLS/Augment system demonstration
the right programming toolkit provides building blocks to
producing complex interactive systems
Personal computing
1970s – Papert's LOGO language for simple graphics
programming by children
A system is more powerful as it becomes easier to user
Future of computing in small, powerful machines dedicated to
the individual
Kay at Xerox PARC – the Dynabook as the ultimate personal
computer
Window systems and the WIMP
interface
humans can pursue more than one task at a time
windows used for dialogue partitioning, to “change the topic”
1981 – Xerox Star first commercial windowing system
windows, icons, menus and pointers now familiar interaction
mechanisms
Metaphor
relating computing to other real-world activity is effective
teaching technique
LOGO's turtle dragging its tail
file management on an office desktop
word processing as typing
financial analysis on spreadsheets
virtual reality – user inside the metaphor
Problems
some tasks do not fit into a given metaphor
cultural bias
Direct manipulation
1982 – Shneiderman describes appeal of graphically-based
interaction
visibility of objects
incremental action and rapid feedback
reversibility encourages exploration
syntactic correctness of all actions
replace language with action
1984 – Apple Macintosh
the model-world metaphor
What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG)
Language versus Action
actions do not always speak louder than words!
DM – interface replaces underlying system
language paradigm
interface as mediator
interface acts as intelligent agent
programming by example is both action and
language
Hypertext
1945 – Vannevar Bush and the memex
key to success in managing explosion of information
mid 1960s – Nelson describes hypertext as non-linear
browsing structure
hypermedia and multimedia
Nelson's Xanadu project still a dream today
Multimodality
a mode is a human communication channel
emphasis on simultaneous use of multiple channels
for input and output
Computer Supported Cooperative Work
(CSCW)
CSCW removes bias of single user / single
computer system
Can no longer neglect the social aspects
Electronic mail is most prominent success
The World Wide Web
Hypertext, as originally realized, was a closed
system
Simple, universal protocols (e.g. HTTP) and mark-
up languages (e.g. HTML) made publishing and
accessing easy
Critical mass of users lead to a complete
transformation of our information economy.
