Chapter 4

The Interaction
 Introduction
 Human-computer interaction (HCI) is a multidisciplinary field
of study focusing on the design of computer technology and, in
particular, the interaction between humans (the users) and
computers.
 While initially concerned with computers, HCI has since
expanded to cover almost all forms of information technology
design.
 The Interaction
Interaction models help us to understand what is going
on in the interaction between user and system. They
address the translations between what the user wants
and what the system does.
Ergonomics looks at the physical characteristics of the
interaction and how these influence its effectiveness.
The dialog between user and system is influenced by the
style of the interface.
The interaction takes place within a social and
organizational context that affects both user and system.
 The Interaction
A number of way in which the user can communicate
with the system.
Batch input (does not support many tasks)
Direct manipulation (highly interactive)
Virtual reality (providing instructions and receiving
feedback)
Interaction models enable us to identify and evaluate
components of the interaction, and at the physical,
social and organizational issues that provide the context
for it.
 Models of Interaction
Interaction involves at least two participants: the user
and the system. Both are complex
Interaction between the two components should be
successful. So what to do?
The use of models of interaction can help us to
understand exactly what is going on in the interaction
and identify the likely root of difficulties. They also
provide us with a framework to compare different
interaction styles and to consider interaction problems.
 Some terms of interaction
domain– the area of work under study
e.g. graphic design
goal– what you want to achieve
e.g. create a solid red triangle
task – how you go about doing it
– ultimately in terms of operations or actions
e.g. … select fill tool, click over triangle
 The term of interaction
The purpose of an interactive system is to aid a user in
accomplishing goals from some application domain. A
domain defines an area of expertise and knowledge in
some real-world activity.
Tasks are operations to manipulate the concepts of a
domain. A goal is the desired output from a performed
task.
 An intention is a specific action required to meet the goal

Task analysis involves the identification of the problem

space for the user of an interactive system in terms of the
domain, goals, intentions and tasks.
 The execution–evaluation cycle
Norman’s model of interaction is perhaps the most
influential in Human
 Human <—> Interface <—> Computer
The user formulates a plan of action, which is then
executed at the computer interface.
 When the plan, or part of the plan, has been executed, the
user observes the computer interface to evaluate the result
of the executed plan, and to determine further actions.
The interactive cycle can be divided into two major
phases: Execution and Evaluation, this can be
subdivided into seven stages.
 Donald Norman’s model
1. Establishing the goal.
2. Forming the intention.
3. Specifying the action sequence.
4. Executing the action.
5. Perceiving the system state.
6. Interpreting the system state.
7. Evaluating the system state with respect to the
goals and intentions.
Norman’s model concentrates on user’s view of
the interface
 Execution/Evaluation loop
goal

execution evaluation

system
User establishes the goal
Formulates intention
Specifies actions at interface
Executes action
Perceives system state
Interprets system state
Evaluates system state with respect to goal
Execution/Evaluation loop
goal
execution evaluation
system
user establishes the goal
formulates intention
specifies actions at interface
executes action
perceives system state
interprets system state
evaluates system state with respect to goal
Execution/Evaluation loop
goal

execution evaluation
system
user establishes the goal
formulates intention
specifies actions at interface
executes action
perceives system state
interprets system state
evaluates system state with respect to goal
 Execution/Evaluation loop
goal
execution evaluation
system
user establishes the goal
formulates intention
specifies actions at interface
executes action
perceives system state
interprets system state
evaluates system state with respect to goal
 Using Norman’s model
 The term 'Gulfs of Evaluation and Execution' were
introduced in Norman (1986)
Some systems are harder to use than others
Gulf of Execution
user’s formulation of actions
≠ actions allowed by the system

Gulf of Evaluation
user’s expectation of changed system state
≠ actual presentation of this state
 Human error – slips and mistakes

Slip- mistype or you accidentally press the mouse button

at the wrong time.
understand system and goal
correct formulation of action
incorrect action
mistake
 may not even have right goal!

Fixing things?
slip – better interface design
mistake – better understanding of system
Abowd and Beale framework
The interaction framework
Abowd and Beale's interaction framework identifies system and
user components which communicate via the input and output
components of an interface.
Uses more realistic description of interaction by including the
system explicitly, and breaks it into four main components.
 The interaction framework
The nodes represent the four major components in
an interactive system –
The System
The User
The Input and
The Output.
Each component has its own language. There are
languages for both the Input and Output
Input and Output together form the Interface.
The interaction framework
There are four main translations involved in the
interaction:
Articulation
Performance
Presentation and
Observation.

Translations between components

Assessing overall interaction
The interaction framework is presented as a means to
judge the overall usability of an entire interactive
system
FRAMEWORKS AND HCI

A framework for human–computer interaction. Adapted from ACM SIGCHI Curriculum Development
 ERGONOMICS
Traditionally the study of the physical characteristics of
the interaction:
how the controls are designed,
the physical environment in which the interaction takes
place, and
the layout and physical qualities of the screen.
A primary focus is on user performance and how the
interface enhances or detracts from this.
closely related to but distinct from HCI
 Arrangement of controls and display
Sets of controls and parts of the display should be
grouped logically to allow rapid access by the user.
This is mandatory in safety-critical applications such
as plant control, aviation and air traffic control etc...
In PC based applications, inappropriate placement of
controls and displays can lead to inefficiency and
frustration.
The system interface must be arranged appropriately in
relation to the user’s position.
 Arrangement of controls and display
The exact organization that will suggest will depend on the
domain and the application, but possible organizations
include the following:
Functional controls and displays are organized so that
those that are functionally related are placed together;
Sequential controls and displays are organized to reflect
the order of their use in a typical interaction (this may be
especially appropriate in domains where a particular task
sequence is enforced, such as aviation);
Frequency controls and displays are organized according
to how frequently they are used, with the most commonly
used controls being the most easily accessible.
Arrangement of controls and display
System interface must be arranged appropriately
in relation to the user’s position.
The user should be able to reach all controls
necessary and view all displays without excessive
body movement.
Critical displays should be at eye level. Lighting
should be arranged to avoid glare and reflection
distorting displays.
The physical environment
Ergonomics is concerned with the design of the
work environment itself.
Where will the system be used?
By whom will it be used?
Will users be sitting, standing or moving
about?
The physical environment in which the system
is used may influence how well it is accepted
and even the health and safety of its users.
 The physical environment
The first consideration here is the size of the users.
Obviously this is going to vary considerably.
However, in any system the smallest user should be
able to reach all the controls (this may include a user in
a wheelchair), and the largest user should not be
cramped in the environment.
The physical environment
All users should be comfortably able to see
critical displays.
For long periods of use, the user should be
seated for comfort and stability.
Seating should provide back support. If
required to stand, the user should have room to
move around in order to reach all the controls.
 Health issues
Physical position:- Users should not be expected to
stand for long periods and, if sitting, should be provided
with back support.
Temperature:- extremes of hot or cold will affect
performance and, in excessive cases will affect health.
Lighting:- adequate lighting should be provided to allow
users to see the computer screen without discomfort or
eyestrain.
Noise:- Excessive noise can be harmful to health
Time:- The time user spend on screen
 The use of color
Ergonomics has a close relationship to human
psychology in that it is also concerned with the
perceptual limitations of humans.
Blue should not be used to display critical information.
Red, green and yellow are colors frequently associated
with stop, go and standby respectively. Therefore,
red may be used to indicate emergency and alarms;
green, normal activity;
yellow, standby and auxiliary function. These
conventions should not be violated without very good
cause.
 Ergonomics and HCI
Ergonomics is a huge area, which is distinct from HCI but
sits alongside it.
Its contribution to HCI is in determining constraints on the
way we design systems and suggesting detailed and
specific guidelines and standards.
Ergonomic factors are in general well established and
understood and are therefore used as the basis for
standardizing hardware designs.
 Interaction Styles
Interaction is a dialog between the computer and the user. The
choice of interface style can have a profound effect on the nature
of this dialog.
The followings are the most common type interaction styles
Command line interface
Menus
Natural language
Question/answer and query dialog
Form-fills and spreadsheets
WIMP
Point and click
Three-dimensional interfaces.

WIMP interface is the most common and complex

 Command line interface
The command line interface was the first interactive dialog style
to be commonly used and, in spite of the availability of menu
driven interfaces, it is still widely used.
telnet, command the only way to communicating with the system.
 Command line interface cont..
 Way of expressing instructions to the computer directly
 function keys, single characters, short abbreviations, whole words, or a
combination

 suitable for repetitive tasks

 better for expert users than novices
 offers direct access to system functionality
 command names/abbreviations should be meaningful!

Typical example: the Unix system

 Menu
Set of options available to the user is displayed on the screen,
and selected using the mouse, or numeric or alphabetic keys.
Menu options need to be meaningful and logically grouped to
aid recognition.
 Natural language
The most attractive means of communicating with
computers
The ambiguity of natural language makes it very difficult
for a machine to understand.

The boy hit the dog with the stick

NLP , Natural language processing

 Question/answer and query dialog
A simple mechanism for providing input to an
application in a specific domain.
Example web questioners
Query language are used to construct queries to
retrieve information from a database.
 Form-fills and spreadsheets
Used primarily for data entry but can also be useful in data
retrieval applications.
Spreadsheets are a sophisticated variation of form filling.
The spreadsheet comprises a grid of cells, each of which can
contain a value or a formula.
 The WIMP interface
WIMP stands for windows, icons, menus and pointers
(sometimes windows, icons, mice and pull-down menus).
The default interface style for the majority of interactive
computer systems in use today, especially in the PC and
desktop workstation arena.
Example includes , Microsoft windows , Ubuntu , MacOS
for Macintosh ….
Mixing style = old legacy system + new modern
applications.
 ELEMENTS OF THE WIMP INTERFACE
Windows
Icons
Pointers
Menus
Buttons
Toolbars
Palettes
Dialog box
Shortcuts
Menus
 Set of options displayed on the screen
 Options visible
 less recall - easier to use
 rely on recognition so names should be meaningful
 Selection by:
 numbers, letters, arrow keys, mouse
 combination (e.g. mouse plus accelerators)
 Often options hierarchically grouped
 sensible grouping is needed
 Restricted form of full WIMP system
Natural language
 Familiar to user
 speech recognition or typed natural language
 Problems
 vague
 ambiguous
 hard to do well!
 Solutions
 try to understand a subset
 pick on key words
 Query interfaces
 Question/answer interfaces
 user led through interaction via series of questions
 suitable for novice users but restricted functionality
 often used in information systems

 Query languages (e.g. SQL)

 used to retrieve information from database
 requires understanding of database structure and language syntax, hence
requires some expertise
Form-fills
 Primarily for data entry or data retrieval
 Screen like paper form.
 Data put in relevant place
 Requires
 good design
 obvious correction
facilities
Spreadsheets
First spreadsheet VISICALC, followed by Lotus 1-2-3
MS Excel most common today
Sophisticated variation of form-filling.
grid of cells contain a value or a formula
formula can involve values of other cells
e.g. sum of all cells in this column
user can enter and alter data spreadsheet maintains
consistency
WIMP Interface
 Windows
 Icons
 Menus
 Pointers
 … or windows, icons, mice, and pull-down menus!

 Default style for majority of interactive computer systems,

especially PCs and desktop machines
Point and click interfaces
Used in ..
multimedia
web browsers
hypertext

just click something!

icons, text links or location on map

minimal typing
Three dimensional interfaces
 Virtual reality
 ‘ordinary’ window systems
 highlighting
 visual affordance
 indiscriminate use flat buttons …
just confusing!
 3D workspaces click me!
 use for extra virtual space
 light and occlusion give depth … or sculptured
 distance effects
Elements of the wimp interface

windows, icons, menus, pointers

+++
buttons, toolbars,
palettes, dialog boxes

also see supplementary material

on choosing wimp elements
 Windows
Areas of the screen that behave as if they were
independent
can contain text or graphics
can be moved or resized
can overlap and obscure each other, or can be laid out next to
one another (tiled)

Scrollbars
allow the user to move the contents of the window up and
down or from side to side
Title bars
describe the name of the window
 Icons

Small picture or image

Represents some object in the interface
often a window or action
Windows can be closed down (iconised)
small representation fi many accessible
windows
Icons can be many and various
highly stylized
realistic representations.
 Pointers
 Important component
 WIMP style relies on pointing and selecting things
 Uses mouse, trackpad, joystick, trackball, cursor keys or
keyboard shortcuts
 Wide variety of graphical images
 Menus
 Choice of operations or services offered on the screen
 Required option selected with pointer

Fi l e Edi t Opt i o ns Fo nt
Ty p e wr i t e r
Sc re e n
Times

problem – take a lot of screen space

solution – pop-up: menu appears when needed
Kinds of Menus
 Menu Bar at top of screen (normally), menu drags down
 pull-down menu - mouse hold and drag down menu
 drop-down menu - mouse click reveals menu
 fall-down menus - mouse just moves over bar!

 Contextual menu appears where you are

 pop-up menus - actions for selected object
 pie menus - arranged in a circle
 easier to select item (larger target area)
 quicker (same distance to any option)
… but not widely used!
Menus extras
 Cascading menus
 hierarchical menu structure
 menu selection opens new menu
 and so in ad infinitum

 Keyboard accelerators
 key combinations - same effect as menu item
 two kinds
 active when menu open – usually first letter
 active when menu closed – usually Ctrl + letter
 usually different !!!
Menus design issues
 which kind to use
 what to include in menus at all

 words to use (action or description)

 how to group items
 choice of keyboard accelerators
Buttons
individual and isolated regions within a display that
can be selected to invoke an action

Special kinds
radio buttons
– set of mutually exclusive choices
check boxes
– set of non-exclusive choices
Toolbars
long lines of icons …
… but what do they do?

fast access to common actions

often customizable:
choose which toolbars to see
choose what options are on it
Palettes and tear-off menus
 Problem
menu not there when you want it

 Solution
palettes – little windows of actions
 shown/hidden via menu option
e.g. available shapes in drawing package
 tear-off and pin-up menus
 menu ‘tears off’ to become palette
Dialogue boxes
Information windows that pop up to inform of an
important event or request information.

 e.g: when saving a file, a dialogue box is displayed to

allow the user to specify the filename and location. Once
the file is saved, the box disappears.
 Interactivity

easy to focus on look

what about feel?
Speech–driven interfaces
rapidly improving …
… but still inaccurate
how to have robust dialogue?
… interaction of course!

 e.g. airline reservation:

reliable “yes” and “no”
+ system reflects back its understanding
“you want a ticket from New York to Boston?”
Look and … feel
 WIMP systems have the same elements:
windows, icons., menus, pointers, buttons, etc.

 but different window systems

… behave differently
 e.g. MacOS vs Windows menus

 appearance + behaviour = look and feel

Initiative
 who has the initiative?
old question–answer – computer
WIMP interface – user

 WIMP exceptions …
pre-emptive parts of the interface

 modal dialog boxes

 come and won’t go away!
 good for errors, essential steps
 but use with care
 Error and repair

can’t always avoid errors …

… but we can put them right
make it easy to detect errors
… then the user can repair them
hello, this is the Go Faster booking system
what would you like?
(user) I want to fly from New York to London
you want a ticket from New York to Boston
(user) no
sorry, please confirm one at a time
do you want to fly from New York
(user) yes
………
 Context
Interaction affected by social and organizational context

 other people
 desire to impress, competition, fear of failure
 motivation
 fear, allegiance, ambition, self-satisfaction
 inadequate systems
 cause frustration and lack of motivation