HCI as an engineering discipline: to be or not to be (original) (raw)
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HCI, natural science and design
Proceedings of the conference on Designing interactive systems processes, practices, methods, and techniques - DIS '97, 1997
Human-computer interaction is multidisciplinary, drawing paradigms and techniques from both the natural sciences and the design disciplines. HCI cannot be considered a pure natural science because it studies the interaction between people and artificially-created artifacts, rather than naturally-occurring phenomena, which violates several basic assumptions of natural science. Similarly, HCI cannot be considered a pure design discipline because it strives to independently verify design decisions and processes, and borrows many values from scientists. The purpose of this paper is to provide a simple framework that describes how the research and design models underlying HCI can be integrated. We explore the relationships among these approaches in the context of a particular research site, CENA, the Centre d' Études de la Navigation Aérienne, and illustrate how the various disciplines can contribute to a complex design problem: improving the interface to the French air traffic control system. The framework provides one perspective for understanding the various research approaches, and, more importantly, suggests new research directions. The resulting crossdisciplinary triangulation can increase the effectiveness of the individual research and design approaches.
Notes on design and science in the HCI community
2009
The human-computer interaction (HCI) community is diverse. Academics and practitioners from science, engineering, and design contribute to its lively development, but communication and cooperation between the different groups is often challenging. Designers struggle to apply the results of scientific studies to their design problems. At times, open conflicts between the different groups emerge, in particular between scientists and designers, since they have the least common ground. 1
Let's Stop Pushing the Envelope and Start Addressing It: A Reference Task Agenda for HCI
Human–Computer Interaction, 2000
We identify a problem with the process of research in the HCI community-an overemphasis on "radical invention" at the price of achieving a common research focus. Without such a focus, it is difficult to build on previous work, to compare different interaction techniques objectively, and to make progress in developing theory. These problems at the research level have implications for practice, too; as researchers we often are unable to give principled design advice to builders of new systems. We propose that the HCI community try to achieve a common focus
Crafting a place for interaction design research in HCI
2008
In recent years, a number of academic institutions around the world have worked to integrate design practice and thinking with engineering and behavioral science in support of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) education and research. While the HCI community generally has been enthusiastic about the benefits that design can bring to this developing interdisciplinary field, tension exists around the role of design in research, because no agreed upon model for a design research contribution exists.
When looking out across the intellectual landscape of HCI, how do we make sense of it? More impor- tantly, how do we evaluate what constitutes legitimate investigation? As an interdisciplinary field, HCI faces challenges in incorporating sometimes conflicting intellectual approaches. While new approaches enrich our view of interaction, they can also lead to conflicting notions of methodology and validity, whose resolution remains murky without explicit discussion of their underlying epistemological commit- ments. Informal histories of HCI commonly identify two major intellectual waves that have formed the field: the first orienting from engineering and human factors with its focus on optimizing man-machine fit, and the second stemming from cognitive science, with an increased emphasis on theory and on what is happening not only in the computer but, simultaneously, in the human mind. HCI also draws on a wide variety of apparently disparate approaches, such as participatory design, si...
HCI and design: uncomfortable bedfellows
2009
It would be rather natural to think that human-computer interaction and design (industrial design, graphic design) would have as professions and as disciplines easily form an alliance. After all, there is so much HCI design as a newcomer could have learnt from long-established design professions, and on the other hand the penetration of information technology in everyday life has greatly increased the public awareness and prestige of good design.
Human-Computer Interaction Research: a Paradigm Clash?
One of the major challenges in the emerging interdisciplinary field of human-computer interaction (HCI) is the specification of a research line that can enable the development of validated design relevant knowledge with a predictive power for the design of interactive systems. Based on the three different elements in the design of interactive systems: (1) human being(s), (2) technical artifact(s), and (3) context of use, different disciplines contribute with different research paradigms to this new field: social sciences with a strong empirical and experimental approach, and engineering disciplines with a strong technical and formal approach. This paper presents and discusses a possible way to integrate the strengths of different research and design paradigms.
Challenges of HCI design and implementation
1994
BRAD MYERS is a Senior Research Computer Scientist at Carnegie Mellon University, where he is the principal investigator for the Garnet User Intdace Development Environment and the Demonstrational Intdaces Projtzt. entail.* bam@ cr. cmu. edu etting the user interface right is becoming critical to the success of products, and everyone knows that designing and implementing human-computer interfaces is difficult and time-consuming. But why is this true?
A Human-Computer Interaction Framework for Interface Analysis and Design
Advances in Ergonomics in Design, 2019
Digital device ubiquity increased the need for HCI's analysis. The establishment of a structured body of knowledge is essential for the development of more efficient interfaces and interaction experiences. The methodical analysis of interaction's possibilities requires models fostered by robust classification systems. Its development is vital for the establishment of a common language between researchers and designers, towards praxis and innovation (clarifying the relationships between entities and interaction solutions). We propose an HCI Model, supported in agents positioning neutrality, as well as the required concepts and processes' deconstruction. HCI is constructed on a succession of goal-related communicational events, here termed Interactive Processes. We propose an analytical classification system determined by the relation that Interactive Processes establish with each other within an HCI, as well as the ones established between the Interactive Processes of different HCIs, and also by the number of Interactive Processes' Conjugated Pairs developed within an HCI.
HCI is a multidisciplinary fi eld focused on human aspects of the development of computer technology. As computer-based technology becomes increasingly pervasive -not just in developed countries, but worldwide -the need to take a human-centered approach in the design and development of this technology becomes ever more important. For roughly 30 years now, researchers and practitioners in computational and behavioral sciences have worked to identify theory and practice that infl uences the direction of these technologies, and this diverse work makes up the fi eld of human-computer interaction. Broadly speaking it includes the study of what technology might be able to do for people and how people might interact with the technology. The HCI series publishes books that advance the science and technology of developing systems which are both effective and satisfying for people in a wide variety of contexts. Titles focus on theoretical perspectives (such as formal approaches drawn from a variety of behavioral sciences), practical approaches (such as the techniques for effectively integrating user needs in system development), and social issues (such as the determinants of utility, usability and acceptability).