The Human Computer Interface
By: Dustin Hudson
March 4, 2014
CIS 106: Prof. Howell

In today’s world, there are various types of technology that humans interact with on a day to day basis. Technology is an ever evolving industry that is constantly trying to meet the demands of its consumers. Whether you are trying to write a document in Microsoft Word, talking to your IPhone using Siri, or having your respiration rates being monitored by a machine at the doctor’s office, all of these technologies are designed to interact with humans. The science behind designing technologies to meet the needs of human interaction is known as the human-computer interface. The human-computer interface involves many different perspectives in order to be effective. Most companies assemble a team when trying to develop a software program. This team can include people from departments such as “marketing, engineering, and manufacturing to get different perspective” (G. Anderson, D. Ferro, and R. Hilton 2013). Some teams even include psychology majors in order to get perspectives on human behavior and human memory. Developing a sound software program is very important in order for it to be successful. It has to be not only technically sound and reliable, but it also must be visually appealing to the consumer and work hand in hand with that person’s memory storage. A person has three types of memory, sensory storage, short term memory and long term memory. “Sensory storage works as a buffer to store all the sensory information coming in” (G. Anderson, D. Ferro, and R. Hilton 2013). Sensory storage has the ability to take in tons of information, however it is not stored very long. “However, if you pay any attention to the information, it’s moved into the higher memory functions. This is how you process movies, for example” (G. Anderson, D. Ferro, and R. Hilton 2013). Short term memory is where your brain does a lot of its information processing. Information in short term memory is only held for a very limited amount of time, typically up to thirty seconds. When you are designing a program, you must be aware of the limitations of a person’s short term memory, this is where psychology comes into play. Having a program that tests the user’s short term memory can make the program difficult to learn and hurt its chances of it being successful. The last type of memory is long term memory. A person can store almost an infinite amount of information there. However, just because a person has stored it there does not mean that they will be able to access it. A great example of a program that does not have a user rely so heavily on their long term memory is Microsoft Word. When you open Word, you are typically reminded of the most recent documents you were working on. That helps the user not have to remember not only what they were working on last, but also they do not have to remember where it is stored because they can simply click and open the document right then and there. Haptics technology is a technology that allows the person to feel a response which is referred to as haptic feedback. The best example of haptic feedback is playing video games such as the Wii or the PlayStation Move. Whenever you are playing these games the controller vibrates during certain points in the game which gives the user a feel or feedback on what is happening in the game. Haptics has been widely used in aviation during flight simulations. The haptic feedback during aviation training had the intentions of giving the pilot a feel for the plane’s and its movements. The Apple IPhone gives this type of feedback as well by slightly vibrating which each letter you push on the keyboard while sending a text. This gives the resemblance of pushing the key on a real keyboard rather than just touching a screen. This technology is important and it is needed. It allows the user to use their sensory storage when using a device. This type of technology has also evolved and is now used with prosthetic limbs, remote operations, and on the job training (G. Anderson, D. Ferro, and R. Hilton 2013). Having inconsistency when implementing the human-computer interface can be very consequential to a program. Although some companies use a system-first approach to developing a program, the program is being designed for an individual or group of individuals. In order for a program to be successful it must address the needs and meet the standards of the person who will be using it. For example, if you are designing a website and do not spend the time and research to understand human behavior, you may not know where the consumer looks the most when looking at a web page. Therefore you may put the information that is most important for your user to see in an area which they may look the least. Or you may even put a popup window in the area that your user looks at the most making it a nuisance. You may also incorrectly communicate the organizations information by having inconsistency in a web site. Not making links obvious can make navigating the web page very difficult and annoying for the consumer. Using the same graphic in a program to have different meanings depending on which part of the program you are in is another example of an inconsistency. The user-centric design process includes four main steps. The first step is the planning phase. In this phase you will collect and analyze the information you have gathered from the user. This can include tasks such as developing user profiles or analyzing user tasks. These steps will answer the questions of who the users are, what the users do, and how they want or need to do the tasks. The second phase if designing the user interface. This process starts by “designing flow structure and navigation to support main tasks” (www.usabilitynet.org/management/b_overview.htm). The designing phase will define the programs “usefulness, effectiveness, learnability, and attitude” (G. Anderson, D. Ferro, and R. Hilton 2013). By answering these questions you are essential ensuring that you are responding to all the needs essential to the user. You are also ensuring that the program will be both effective and useful to the user as well as easy to learn. The third phase is the construction phase. In this phase you will prototype many times over and sometimes discard the prototypes in order to build the ideal program. Prototyping will help develop the software and help address the limitations and possibilities of the software. For example a software program “might be prototyped with paper and pencil” (G. Anderson, D. Ferro, and R. Hilton 2013). The last phase is validating the user interface. “This phase is where the usability goals and objectives of usefulness, effectiveness, learnability, and attitude defined in Phase 2 come into play” (G. Anderson, D. Ferro, and R. Hilton 2013). The best example of this is companies using beta versions of their software in order to get user feedback before finalizing the software and releasing it to the public. Some companies even allow users to change code or suggest the change of code on the beta versions to help make the user interface as effective as possible. Human emotion plays a huge role in product design and implementation. Having an interface that is pleasing to the user can make the user feel good about the product. This in turn may make the user more patient when dealing with bugs in the system or when learning how to use the program. You want your program or software to be pleasurable to the user. “The study of emotions in decisions about using technology [which is] part of what’s called the affect system of decision making” (G. Anderson, D. Ferro, and R. Hilton 2013) helps programmers understand how users respond emotionally to certain aspects of their design. For example if you are building a program that will be used in a certain part of the world, you will want a program that will adhere to the culture of your user. If your program is meant to be used by many different people in different parts of the world, you will want to build a program that will be accepted by many different cultural perspectives. The human-computer interface is a science like study of how the user, you, will be affected both mentally and emotionally with a program or device. The human-computer interface can also refer to the way a user will interact with a program physically with devices such as touch screen phones, motion sensors, and prosthetic limbs. The strategy of putting the user first in software design has changed the way users interact with technology. Take this into consideration when you are purchasing a new phone for example. All the emerging technology in the smart phone department is a great example of how companies are considering how the user, you, will interact with their devices. Companies like Apple, Samsung, and even Microsoft are trying to create the best possible device for you to interact with that will rival the competition.

References
G. Anderson, D. Ferro, and R. Hilton “Connection with Computer Science”, 2014, pages 378-400
www.usabilitynet.org/management/b_overview.htm