Lecture Notes for Human Factors

Richard Halstead-Nussloch

1/11/97

What is HCI? (Chapter 1)

• In the old days:
  • Computers were expensive
  • People were cheap
• Today:
  • Computers are cheap
  • People are expensive
• Need to produce computers that are straightforward to use

Today's Agenda

• Syllabus
• This Week's Exercise--What is…? etc.
• Cognitive/Physical Ergonomic Exercises
• Course Survey and Discussion
• Break
• Lecture
• Summary

What is HCI?

Definition (SIGCHI): "a discipline concerned with the design, evaluation, and implementation of interactive computing systems for human use and with the study of major phenomena surrounding them."

• Challenges
  • Keep abreast of technology
  • Designs have good HCI and harness function

Goals of HCI

Improve, in computing systems, the

• Safety
• Utility
• Effectiveness
• Efficiency
• Usability (Primary key)

Importance and Business Value of HCI

• Productivity
  • Individual
  • Organization
• Job Design
• "When things go wrong." (and avoiding these situations)

Components of HCI (Chapter 2)

• HCI is an interdisciplinary practice
• Multiple factors, as on page 31
• Disciplines that contribute to HCI (page 38)
  • Computer Science
  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Social/Organizational Psychology
  • Ergonomics & Human Factors
• Conceptual Models (page 44)

Models and Approaches of HCI

• Waterfall model (page 46)
• HCI adds:
  • User-centered design
  • Combined knowledge and expertise from multiple disciplines
  • Highly iterative
• The star life cycle (page 49)