The Fundamentals of Human-Computer Interaction

Background

HCI emerged as a distinct research discipline in the late 1970s and early 1980s when monitors and workstations became available and opened up the use of computers to non-engineers (Grudin, 1990). In the 1990s, network technology and mobile devices broadened the scope of research beyond the individual user and personal computers (Hollender, Hofmann, Deneke, & Schmitz, 2010). HCI should be designed to be effective, efficient, engaging, error tolerant, and easy to learn (Fallman, 2010). With the development of computer vision technology, researcher have studied a lot of HCI methods to replace the keyboard and mouse (Juan, 2012).

Major HCI research areas comprise theories and models of human behavior when interacting with information technology (IT), general or more specific guidelines or heuristics for the design and evaluation of IT, methods for the user-centered development of IT, and the development of new interaction paradigms (Preece, Sharp, & Rogers, 2002). Interaction models 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. Examples of effective strategies for building interactive systems provide paradigms for designing usable interactive systems. The evolution of these usability paradigms also provides a good perspective on the history of interactive computing.