Expectations and Their Forgotten Role in HCI

Abstract

Technology with its continuing developments pervades the 21st century world. Consequently, HCI is becoming an everyday activity for an increasing number of people from across the population. Interactions may involve personal computers (PCs), household and domestic appliances, public access technologies, personal digital assistants (PDAs), as well as more complex technologies found in the workplace. Given the increasing use of technology by the general public, HCI assumes an ever-growing importance. User interactions need to be taken into account by designers and engineers; if they fail to do this, the opportunities presented by the new technologies will remain unfulfilled and unrealized. Furthermore, it is likely that those interactions that take place will be marred by frustration and irritation, as users fail to achieve the smooth transactions with the technology that they expect and desire. One aspect of HCI that appears to have been recently overlooked is that of expectations. When confronted with a new device or when using a familiar one, we have expectations about how it will or does work. These expectations are part of the interaction process and are important in the sense that they will influence our immediate and later use of the technology/device. It is suggested that in recent times we have neglected expectations and failed to consider them to any great extent in the design process.