HCI — Understanding it better
The day of almost all individuals begins and ends with interacting with a computer (phone, laptops, robots, assistants).With computers being a vital part of our lives it becomes important that the communication happening between the humans and computers feels natural, and that is exactly what HCI helps to achieve.
It all began in the 1980s
A very happening decade , where the idea of personal computers was on the move. Since before that only computer geeks and hobbyists were the ones fiddling and experimenting with computers the interface of that time was something which dreaded by the normal people. Thus as personal computers started to increase , there was a need to make interface which would be intuitive to the user while operating .
Now that we know what sprang its need, lets see what it is.
HCI - What is it?
HCI is the acronym for Human Computer Interaction ( or Human Computer Interface or Man Machine Interaction, MMI) , and as the name suggests it focus on three primary factors — users, computers and the interaction between them.
It is a multidisciplinary field which exists at the intersection of fields like
- Ergonomics (anthropology, physical and cognitive)
- Psychology (Cognitive and social)
- Computer Engineering (OS, languages, other relevant development information)
- Sociology (Social interactions and behavior)
- Graphic Designing
- Linguistics (study of language )
- Human factors ( like satisfaction )
The study of all these fields help HCI professionals to enhance things like accessibility, usability, easy to use and makes the entire interaction feel natural , one which avoids making the user to talk like the machine they are interacting with.
What is the goal of HCI
They work with a vision of finding a way where while using the system, user does not have to change their behavior (like having to act like a computer) when interacting with the computer system, the interaction should be seamless where the system understands the natural human behaviors and acts accordingly.
They keep the users as their priority and understand how people (target users) use technology, their mental models, what do they think and feel before and after interacting, what is the task and so on. This is done because once you understand who you are making the interaction for, then you can deliver something that will actually be effective and useful.
So, they take into consideration teachings from the disciplines aforementioned and put forth ideas that can be used to make the interaction better than it was before.
So then how is HCI different from interaction design ?
The difference is that HCI is a multi- disciplinary field which includes study and research about the interaction between the human and computer . . The study from HCI researchers is further used by an interaction designer to design the interactions. Thus interaction design is more of a hands on field.
Now that the fog is clear,
Let’s look at few real world examples of HCI
- Haptic Retargeting - The Brain Trickster
In VR we only see and can’t feel anything we interact with in VR world, this is exactly what Microsoft research aims to solve through Haptic Retargeting
There is a object in front of the user but in VR world the user sees 3 of those objects are lined up in front of them. When in the VR world the user tries to reach out his or her hand to get any of the 3 blocks, in reality they touch that 1 object each time that is actually kept in front of them. They think they are touching different blocks. The VR view skews the vision of the user and make user feel their hand is going to grab the left but actually it in real world the hand goes in the same direction towards that one block each time.
This was used to play Minecraft in VR so that stacking(yes stacking!)and rearranging can be done with multiple blocks (in VR) by just holding one block each time (in real world).
Watch people using it here- https://youtu.be/B6Ka0UnGHcA
2. Pre touch sensors - It knows what’s on your mind
Through this, the mobile device knows what option you are going to press or select before you actually do it, as it senses which part of the screen your finger is approaching. This also helps device to know how phone is gripped (landscape or portrait). Thus this opens up multiple options for UI designing which can make the interaction feel smooth.
To know more - https://youtu.be/fiZkEYLXctE
3. Skin Track - Interacting, OUT OF THE BOX!
If you have used a smart watch, you would at some point wished for the screen to be kinda bigger. So here it is, a watch that can sense touch even outside its screen. By wearing a specific ring device, your entire forearm and hand become a touchscreen for the watch. This could help to enhance the interaction in ways like you can dial a phone number on your hand instead of the tiny screen or even without having to take out your phone. This opens a a vast number of gestures that can now be used to make the interaction smooth and get the work done faster.
If you want to see how it is working- https://youtu.be/9hu8MNuvCHE
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These examples show us how the knowledge of the different disciplines play important part into making those interactions effective.
So to conclude, HCI is a field for explorers and open minded people, always trying crazy possibilities of make jaw dropping interactions just so that the users can interact with a computer, without having to think like a computer.
Thankyou for reading.
