Human Computer Interaction

Why study HCI?

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•Why is “SAVE” button always far from “Delete” Button? ( Try Cancel a cancelled operation)

•What does “User Friendly” stand for you?

•How long do you take to be able to use a new technology

•Consider your mobile phone…why is NOKIA so popular?…besides its numerous features, it does cater for user friendliness! Screen size, buttons layout and carefully labeled buttons.

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•Some User Comments:

"Why can't I view the customer's past ordering history when I am entering a new order?“

"Sometimes I don't know the code of a new product off the top of my head, is there a key I can hit to see the codes on the screen rather than to have to refer to my code printout? I tried Shift-C but it didn't work“

•Some Designer/Analysts response:

“You didn’t tell us that …”

“This was not part of the specfications…”

•HCI (Human Computer Interaction) is a field of study that identifies clearly the fact that in order to achieve certain desired operations, human will have to do so by the help of machines (computers) through what is called an interface.

•Interface:

– The point of interaction or communication between a computer and any other entity, such as a printer or human operator.

– The layout of an application's graphic or textual controls in conjunction with the way the application responds to user activity.

•Hence if we can understand that the interface is the only way to communicate with the machine, we need to ensure that the interface in question does allow for the desired tasks. At the same time taking into consideration abilities and limitations of the user.

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