Human-Computer Interaction Introduction © Brian Whitworth.

Human-Computer Interaction Introduction

© Brian Whitworth

© Brian Whitworth 2

What is this course about? (pick one)

• How to make whizz-bang impressions

• How to make movies with your computer

• How to create artistic pictures

• How to be musical online

• How to get girls with cool computer effects

• How to transcend your mundane life

• How to make information systems fit people


What do you have to do?

• Understand how people process vs how computers process (theory lectures => exam)

• Apply simple computing techniques (HTML) in practice (practice => assignments)

• Combine theory and practice - choose examples from the world wide web and create your own design (each person does this differently)


What you do

(given) (given)

Human theory

Computertechniques

Connectingthese

(you do individuallyand uniquely)


Your goal is to avoid this …

Isn’t it great! Movies! Animation! Flash!

Its got everything!!!

Ugh! What’s that? I hate it !!!

The Web

You certainly spent a lot of time on it

All that flashes is not great


How is this course assessed?

• By your ability to – Remember key HCI facts and principles– Produce practical results on the computer– Understand principles and apply them in practice

• Answer? ALL OF THE ABOVE


Course Outline

• This is the course“rules” Read it carefully!

• Do I have to read it all?

• Gives you all the links you need.

• Do all these rules really apply?

• But do they all really apply to me?

• What if I don’t understand them?

YES

YES

THEY STILL APPLY

Read what applies to you


Your instructors goal is that?

• Everyone passes a “cakewalk” course

• We all have a good, happy, happy-good time

• To do as little work as possible (zzzzz)

• You learn something useful and get a fair grade

This is a busy course!You will have to work hard to get an A

We are disappointed only if you don’t feel you learned anything useful


Why learn about how people work?

• 1970s - computers were “number crunchers” • 1980s - the Personal Computer (PC) began to

interact with people• 1990s – It became the basis of human communication

by email• 2000s – The rise of online groups and social systems• The trend?

Computing is more and more about people and groups


Example

• You have to review a web site for its creator and recommend changes

• If you give valid reasons – your changes will be accepted

– They will work

– You will be paid

• Reasons give people confidence• The best reasons for web design are based on human

nature as the mind as an information processor


Why learn HTML?

• Why not use HTML generators? The answer is flexibility– There are things you cant do in the generator– Generators get tangled and must be fixed in the source code– Generators bloat code, direct HTML is simple, small and

hence loads much faster– You understand what is possible from the source– You end up back in the source code in the end

• Companies like IBM expect all work to be done directly in HTML for these reasons


Course Overview

1. Brain vs Computer – the whole course in one lesson

2. Attention – to see anything one must notice it

3. Perception – low level processing (e.g. color)

4. Recognition – carrying knowledge forward by patterns

5. Space & Movement – mental models of space

6. Integration – combining the senses

7. Interactivity – driving the feedback loop

8. Learning – changing how we process

Human-Computer Interaction Introduction © Brian Whitworth.

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Transcript of Human-Computer Interaction Introduction © Brian Whitworth.