HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION

Human-Computer Interaction

Human-Computer Interaction

Introduction

As information technology becomes increasingly important to global economic wellbeing, accessibility and usability are critical to harnessing the potential of information systems. For users to utilize the technological advances of computers effectively, human-computer interface mechanisms must improve. Computer professionals can improve the quality of the man-machine interaction by understanding users' conceptual and learning models. This article suggests ways to improve the quality and usability of human-computer interface mechanisms, focusing on ways users learn.

Task 1: Techniques for understanding users

The introduction of new technology continues to shape dramatically the structure of business and government organizations. Aeh[ 1] predicted that, in the 1990s, technological evolution would be ten times faster than that of the 1980s. The ability to harness rapid technological growth will determine an organization's competitive position in the marketplace, its earnings potential, and its economic wellbeing.

Designers are occasionally reminded to make their products more usable. Menkus addressed an underlying assumption of some systems designers which he says is usually erroneous: “that something that seems to be selt-evident about the system's structure or use will also be self-evident to the system's user”. He continued, “It is always wise to underestimate the degree of comprehension on the part of anyone who has to use a system”. The challenge for designers is to translate what is intuitively obvious for them into users' models. To this end, this article describes the role of human-computer interface, some user problems and ways to adapt to users' learning styles. The intent is to help designers communicate their comprehension of what is logical and self-evident about a system's functions and use in terms the user understands.

With the development of very large-scale information technology, more and more resources were channelled into developing and expanding human-computer interface mechanisms, both hardware and software. As diverse users availed themselves of the sophisticated technology, users no longer needed to learn the technical details required to work at lower, machine-oriented, levels. The amount of time and energy users invested in learning how to use a computer system declined, thus changing radically the nature of human-computer interface from the early days. The concept of “novice” or “casual” user became a major issue in human-computer interface.

Computer designers, however, were ill prepared to deal with users whose background and perspectives were so radically different from their own. They understood little about users' learning and cognitive processes, or the business objectives and transaction flows which their systems were supposed to support. With the introduction of computer-aided software engineering technology in the late 1980s, considerable effort was expended to understand business objectives and transaction flows. However, users' learning and cognitive processes remained an enigma. There is a consensus that greater effort must be made to adapt computer systems to the user. The current challenge for computer professionals, is to address the communications problem. They must complement human capabilities and communicate with users in their own models.

Novice programmers and casual users often have similar difficulties in learning about ...