Week 3 - Problem of HCI

Majority of my post come from lecturer notes.

Human + Computers

Information Processing:

-Memory, Perception, motor skills, problem solving, ...

Language, communication and interaction:

-Aspects of language, syntax, pragmatics, body language, ...

Ergonomics:

-Relationship to environment: health, furniture, lighting, designs for disabled, ...

Input and output devices:

-hardware, software, ...

Dialogue techniques:

-Basic software architecture and techniques for interacting with humans: interaction styles, ...

Dialogue genre:

-Interaction, technical ,metaphors, style, aesthetics, ...

Computer graphic:

Dialogue Architecture:

-software architechture and standards for interfaces: look and standardisation, window managers, ...

Archieving fit???

1. Expressive interfaces:: the "appearance' of an interface.

2. User frustration.

3. Persuasive technologies.

4. Anthropomorphism.

Affective Aspects of HCI

In the past, HCI was about designing efficient and effective systems

Today, more about how to design interactive systems that make people respond in certain ways.

Expressive Interfaces

Colour, Icons, sounds, graphical elements + animations to make interface appealing.

-Building a relationship between the user and machine

-Making it more natural, human-like.

These gimmicks affect the usability of an interface.

People are prepared to put with certain aspects of an interface (e.g. slow download rate) if the end result is appealing + aesthetic.

which design you prefer?

Overall? Female? Males?

Conclusions from Marcus (1992) and Teasley (1994)

-some likes / dislikes are shared.

-But remember, ONE SIZE DOES NOT ALWAYS FIT ALL! just like cloth, got XS, S, M, L, XL and even XXL...

Error messages:

"the application Word has unexpectedly quit due to a type 2 error."

why not instead: "the application has expectedly quit to poor coding in the operating system. "

Shneiderman's 5 guidelines for error messages:

-Avoid using terms like FATAL, INVALID, BAD.

-Audio warnings.

-Avoid UPPERCASE and long code numbers.

-Messages should be precise rather than vague.

-Provide context - sensitive help.

Should computers Apologise?

Reeves and Naas (1996) said that computers should be made to apologise. Agree?

-I am agree that, if computer apologise to me such as "I'm crashed. I'll try not to do it again", I probably would be not so angry and frustrated at first. Rather than I keep get "error 3215, please reload". This error message still ok for me, but if I get this error message again and again, and things doesn't solve, it will drive me mad..! And now I am frustrated with this.. :P

to be continue....