The Future of Human Computer Interaction (HCI)
HCI has become much more important in recent years as comput¬ers (and embedded devices) have become commonplace in almost all facets of our lives. Aside from merely making the necessary compu¬tational functionalities available, the early focus of HCI has been in how to design interaction and implement interfaces for high usability. The term high usability means that the resulting interfaces are easy to use, efficient for the task, ensure safety, and lead to a correct comple¬tion of the task. Usable and efficient interaction with the computing device in turn translates to higher productivity.
The simple aesthetic appeal of interfaces (while satisfying the need for usability) is now a critical added requirement for commercial suc¬cess as well. The family of distinctly designed Apple® products is a good example. Apple products are attractive and have created a multi¬tude of faithful followers even though their functionality may be vir¬tually equal to their competitors. In this context, the concept of user experience (UX) has lately become a buzzword, a notion that not only encompasses the functional completeness, high usability, and aesthetic appeal of the interactive artifact, but also its seamless integration into one’s lifestyle or even creating a new one around it.
A less acknowledged fact is how HCI has had a huge impact in the his¬tory of computing and changed our daily lives. It was probably the inven¬tion (or rediscovery) of the mouse that was the linchpin in the personal computer revolution, making the operation of a computer intuitive and much easier than the previous system of keyboard commands. The spread¬sheet interface made business computing a huge success. The Internet phe¬nomenon could not have happened without the web-browser interface. Smartphone, with their touch-oriented interfaces, have nearly replaced the previous generation of feature phones. Body-based and action-ori¬ented interfaces are now introducing new ways to play and enjoy computer games. HCI still continues to redefine how we view, absorb exchange, create, and manipulate information to our advantage.
Human–computer interaction (HCI) has contributed much to the advancement of computing and its spread into our everyday living. The prevalent type of interface up to the late twentieth century was the so-called WIMP (windows, icon, mouse, pointer) and graphical user interface (GUI) for the stationary desktop computing environment. This was a huge improvement over its predecessor, the keyboard-input command-oriented interface. Much innovation has been made on the two-dimensional (2-D)-oriented desktop interface since it was first introduced in the early 1980s. These include ergonomic mouse and keyboard design, hypertext and web interface, user interface tool-kits, extension of the Fitts’s law, interaction modeling, and evalua¬tion methodologies. If you look more closely, the innovation in HCI has always followed or been accompanied by an advancement of the hardware and software platforms. Even though the original concept of the mouse and graphical user interface was actually devised in the late 1960s by Doug Engelbart, it was not until the early 1980s that the hardware and software technology (not to mention the possibility of personal computing as hardware prices became much more afford¬able) was mature enough to accommodate the use of a mouse and the GUI.
In the case of the cloud computing platform, the typical user will not interact directly with the system where the application resides (some¬where in the cloud), but through the client computer or device, such as the everyday desktop computers and mobile devices. Despite the tre¬mendous growth in the computing power of desktop and even mobile units, these stand-alone machines are not usually sufficient for such high-end interactive and intelligent services as image recognition, lan¬guage understanding, context-based reasoning, and agent like behavior. Note that these so-called client devices (for the cloud) are becoming increasingly richer in their sensing, display, and network capabilities. In essence, the cloud is taking up the role of the Model and the cli¬ent View/Controller, where there can be many View/Controllers for different types of clients (e.g., desktops, pads, Smartphone). This can be viewed as a way to improve the user experience (UX) by providing high-quality services in real time and having specialized interaction cli¬ents focused on usability that are easily deployed (due to their lightness and mobility). For such an envisioned future, it will be necessary to develop middleware solutions that will manage the seamless connection between the Model and one of many possible client View/Controllers.
On the other hand, in terms of hardware, we expect that the mobile and ubiquitous platforms will accelerate and further drive the integration of embedded computers, sensors, and sensor networks into everyday objects (as is the goal of the Internet of Things*). Touch technology is the main interaction mode for mobile and embedded/ubiquitous computers and devices, and this technology will become more refined as it evolves to accommodate multi-touch, proximity touch (hovering), and touch-haptic feedback.
The interaction styles of the mobile/embedded vs. natural/realistic/immersive interfaces can be understood in terms of people’s natural dichotomous desires: one for simple and fast operations in a dynamic environment and the other for a rich and experiential interaction in a more stable, relaxed environment. These two desires are in tune with the lifestyle in the coming ages as we become more affluent and cul¬turally richer. Virtual and mixed reality, multimodal interfaces are in the forefront of the experiential interaction technologies.
In pursuit of the mystical UX, more interfaces are becoming affective, calling out to our emo¬tional side. It is difficult to define what constitutes an affective interface. It could be something as simple as an emphasis on the aesthetics. It could mean personalization and adaptation catering to the user’s unique and changing tastes and needs. However, the latter still remains a tech¬nological challenge, as it requires intelligent sensing and robust recog¬nition of contexts, user emotions, and subtle intent—a very difficult task even for humans themselves. However, the machine–intelligence technology continues to make almost unimaginable leaps, as demon¬strated by the recent IBM Watson computer that has beaten a human champion in the quiz-show contest Jeopardy [1]. In the following sec¬tions, we take a closer look at these promising HCI technologies, many of which are in an active stage of research.
The utility of software and digital content will increasingly depend on HCI capabilities and less on the core functionalities of conventional computer hardware. The HCI issue is becoming more challenging as the number of computing platforms proliferates to accommodate the evolving usage situations (e.g., home, office, mobile, sales, vehi¬cles, military, etc.). Design of the HCI interface will continue to play a significant role as the influence of the standard desktop platform declines. Better design of HCI interfaces will give everyone better access to available services, intelligence, and knowledge. We will have power at our fingertips.
Life continues to become increasingly embedded with interactive computing services that make our lives easier, human–computer interaction (HCI) has not been given the attention it deserves in the education of software developers at the undergraduate level. Most entry-level HCI textbooks are structured around high-level concepts and are not directly tied to the software development process.
Filling this need, Human–Computer Interaction: Fundamentals and Practice supplies an accessible introduction to the entire cycle of HCI de-sign and implementation—explaining the core HCI concepts behind each step. Designed around the overall development cycle for an interactive soft-ware product, it starts off by covering the fundamentals behind HCI.
The text then quickly goes into the applications of this knowledge. Including forming the HCI requirements, modeling the interaction process, designing the interface, implementing the resulting design, and evaluating the imple-mented product.
Although this analysis is suitable for steemian students of computer science and information technology, it is accessible enough to be understood by those with minimal programming knowledge. Supplying readers with a firm foundation in the main HCI principles, the book provides a working knowledge of HCI-oriented software development. The core content of this book is based on the introductory HCI course (advanced junior or senior-level undergraduate) that the author has been teaching at Korea University for the past eight years. The book includes access to figure slides as well as source code for the example applications used throughout the text.
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Source: Gerard J.K, HCI: Human Computer Device