week 1 post 1: NOTES
Human computer interaction
Lesson 1.1
Humans
>In human computer interaction, we have to take into consideration every element of the human, from the way they perceive and interact with the world, to their history with computers and technology
Computers
> augmented reality, HCI is everything.
Interaction
> The interaction is really between the human and the task and the computer in the middle just mediates that interaction
> interested in making the interface as invisible as possible, so the user can spend as little time focusing on
the interface and instead focus on the tasks that they're trying to accomplish
> the goal is to let the user spend as much time as possible thinking about the task, instead of thinking about our interface.
> goal as designers, is to help the human feel like they're interacting directly with that task While our interface, kind of vanishes, in the middle of that interaction.
Interacting and interfaces
> the idea of disappearing interfaces and designing with tasks in mind
The HCI space
> HCI as a subset of a broader field of human factors engineering.
> Human factors engineering is interested in a lot of the same ideas that, but they aren't just interested in computers.
> there are also sub disciplines within HCI.
just one way to represent this.
Generally, these use many of the same principles that is used in HCI, but they might apply them to a narrower domain, or they might have their own principles and methods that they use in addition to what we talk about in HCI in general.
HCI in the big picture
> one of the best parts of HCI is its ubiquity.
ubiquity: 
> We might be experts at interacting with computers, but that doesn't make us experts at designing interactions between other humans and computers.
> the field of HCI is complex and large
HCI vs Human Factors
comparing HCI to the broader field of human factors.
> Human factors are interested in designing interactions between people and products, systems or devices.
> human factors are interested in non-computing parts of this as well.
> It's interested in things like the height of the steering wheel, the size of the mirrors, or the position of the chair. It's interested in designing the entire environment, not just the electronic elements.
> human factors are interested in a lot of the same human characteristics that we care about,
like how people perceive the world and their own expectations about it.
> many of the principles come from human factors engineering but applied more narrowly to computerized systems.
> as computers become more ubiquitous, the number of application areas for HCI is growing.
> Within only the past couple years, things like shower heads and refrigerators have started to become truly computerized devices.
> As computers integrate themselves into more of our lives and devices, the gap between human-computer interaction and human factors engineering is shrinking.
> As computers become more and more ubiquitous, there's coming a time when pretty much every single thing on your car will actually be run through a computer.
> Computers are everywhere, and so HCI is everywhere
HCI vs. User Interface Design
> human-computer interaction was largely about user interface design.
many of the concepts in HCI were originally developed in the context of UI design.
> But in HCI, we're interested in things that go beyond the user's
interaction with a single screen.
* HCI is largely about understanding the interactions between humans and computers.
* User experience design is about dictating the interactions between users and computers.
- in order to design user experiences very well, you need to understand the user and their interactions with interfaces.
- their relationship is symbiotic
* The research side of HCI connects to the relationship between HCI and psychology.
* Might say that human factors engineering itself is in many ways the merger of engineering and psychology as well as other fields of design and cognitive science.
* In HCI, the engineering side takes the form of software engineering, but this connection to psychology remains, and in fact, it's symbiotic.
* We use our understanding of psychology, of human perception, of cognition to inform the way we design interfaces.
* We then use our evaluations of those interfaces to reflect on our understanding of psychology itself.
* An example of this: in 1992, psychologists working at Apple wanted to study how people organized the rapid flow of information in their workspaces. They observed that people tended to form piles of related material, kind of like a less formal filing system, and so they then designed a computer interface, that would mimic that ability. Finally, they used the results of that development to reflect on how people were managing their workspaces in the first place.
* In the end, they had a better understanding of the thought processes of their users as well as an interface that actually helped users.
HCI: Research and design
* These aren't two isolated sides.
* The results of our user research inform the designs we construct, and the results of our designs inform our ongoing research.
* On the one hand, HCI is about research.
Many of the methods we'll discuss are about researching the user, understanding their needs and evaluating their interactions with designs that we prototype for them.
* But on the other hand, HCI is about design.
After all, design is that prototyping phase, even though we're prototyping with research in mind.
* HCI is about designing interactions to help humans interact with computers, oftentimes using some known principles for good interaction, things like designing with distributed cognition in mind or making sure the user develops good mental models of the way the interface works or making sure to design with universal design in mind.
* We use what we know to design good interfaces, and then use the results of those interfaces to inform our ongoing research.
* Go to section 1 last lesson conclusion- to learn what we're going to learn about in the future*
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